From The Top...

"Recession means that people's incomes, at the employer level, are going down, basically, relative to costs, people are getting off."

George W. Bush
the MBA President

Resistance Is Futile

The Reagan Revolution:

Started With A Trickle...Ended With A Bust


“In the age of Reagan, conservatism had cachet, thus many of us drifted into it easily, without really having to think our way there. The leaders of our generation had been drawn to Washington, rather than New York, where politics, not ideas, are central. Yet we were different as well from past generations who had come to the capital to make their mark. High-minded ideals of public service and journalism were little in evidence, nor was there much concern or compassion for those less fortunate than us. For all our ferocious intensity, our hatred of big government, and big media, our ideology was in a way empty, more an attitude, a kind of playground politics, than a philosophy of government (p.32)…Though the conservative movement operated outside the Republican Party, while seeking influence within it, in the Reagan era, the movement’s agenda – and therefore that of the (Washington) Times – was pretty much Reagan’s militant anti-Communism, tax cuts to benefit corporations and the rich, dismantlement of affirmative action and social welfare programs, deregulation, and union-busting.” (p. 24)

David Brock
Blinded By The Right

Obama Packs House in Eau Claire

Packed House in Wisconsin
by Sarah RameySaturday, February 16, 2008 at 08:35 PM

Barack Obama absolutely packed the house at the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire today:

Getting ready for their February 19th primary coming up this Tuesday, Wisconsinites have been coming from all over the state to see Senator Obama speak, even on a chilly Saturday afternoon like today. In fact, so many people showed up to the rally that the crowd spilled over by the hundreds outside...

Here's Barack coming to speak to the overflow crowd:

Earlier in the day, Barack had a chance to visit the Northcentral Technical College in Wausau where he held a community meeting and got to talk with with students from the college about his plan to strengthen America’s community colleges and prepare students for 21st century jobs.

He met with two students in particular: Andrew Staub, a 21-year-old Electronics student who earned a degree in Electromechanical Technology, and returned to NTC to continue his education because of the valuable training opportunities the school provides; and Kimberly Whitewater, a human services student who grew up in a family without the resources to pursue a higher education, and is attending NTC to gain new opportunities in the workforce.
Here's a quick video of Andrew and Kimberly giving Senator Obama a tour of NTC:





All in all, a great day for Barack Obama in Wisconsin!

To get involved in Wisconsin, please visit WI.BarackObama.com.

And tomorrow, we'll need your help making calls to Wisconsin voters to make sure we get out the vote!

See you then...

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of Wisconsin has endorsed Barack Obama

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of Wisconsin has endorsed Barack Obama...read the full endorsement here:

"Obama: Change for the Good"

"Both candidates would serve their party well as nominee, but in the Illinois senator, there is a potential for change that can only help this country move on and progress."

There is only the tiniest sliver of daylight separating Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the issues, with the notable exception of health care reform.

Even on Iraq, they end up in much the same place: Steady U.S. troop withdrawal, leaving themselves enough wiggle room in case the situation on the ground becomes so dire that more flexibility becomes necessary.

The similarity of views is, in truth, why the candidates return so much to the themes of change and experience.

Our recommendation in Wisconsin's primary on Tuesday for the Democratic nomination is Barack Obama. That's our recommendation because change and experience are crucial to moving this country forward after what will be eight years of an administration careening from mistake to catastrophe to disaster and back again.

The Illinois senator is best-equipped to deliver that change, and his relatively shorter time in Washington is more asset than handicap.

The Obama campaign has been derisively and incorrectly described as more rock tour than political campaign and his supporters as more starry-eyed groupies than thoughtful voters.

If detractors in either party want to continue characterizing the Obama campaign this way, they will have seriously underestimated both the electorate's hunger for meaningful change in how the nation is governed and the candidate himself.

In an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial Board on Wednesday, the first-term senator proved himself adept at detail and vision. They are not mutually exclusive.

On poverty, he eschewed the phrase "war on poverty," preferring instead to describe the task as a long-haul effort. No one should launch a program, fight a battle and declare mission accomplished, he seemed to say.

Instead, it will require continuous and unflagging efforts along several fronts - taxation, education, economic development and, yes, personal responsibility - to make progress. He speaks of strengthening the middle class, helping with child care, early childhood education and ensuring access to affordable health care.

In other words, a broad, nuanced approach that recognizes that problems are linked to others.

Similarly nuanced answers came from questions on manufacturing, trade, school choice, the Great Lakes and energy.

He spoke of turning to alternative energy, not just to wean addiction from oil but to spur more technologies that in turn spur more manufacturing possibilities. We can find "competitive advantages at higher value products," he said, adding that rebuilding much needed infrastructure also can create jobs.

He was a realist, recognizing that no one could likely turn the clock back to Milwaukee's manufacturing heyday. "The percentage of manufacturing jobs to service jobs is not going to be the same as it was in the 1950s," he said. "We're not going to get those jobs back."

Yet he insisted that manufacturing still could become more competitive and the service industry better-paying for its employees.

Which is not to say that we are in lockstep. On school choice, Obama does not see as clearly as we do the intrinsic value in and of itself of low-income parents having a choice.

On health care, we prefer Clinton's insurance mandate, though we recognize that more details are needed. Obama would mandate insurance for children only, a worthy goal, but we're skeptical of his claim that it will get to the same number of people insured as Clinton's plan.

But, again, not a lot separates Obama's views from Clinton's. So why Obama?

It is precisely the excitement that we see in the candidate and his supporters in their demands for change. This promises to alter the political landscape and dynamics for the better, energizing youth for service and involvement as we haven't seen in a very long time.

In Clinton, there is the potential for déjà vu all over again. Right or wrong, she is a polarizing figure who excites all the wrong kinds of political passions.

And even if she didn't, her vote on the Iraq war cannot be explained away as not realizing that the president would take that ball (and blank check) and run with it.

Yes, she has been tried. And much of the antagonism she engenders in the right is simply irrational.

But even without this Clinton baggage and on their individual merits, Obama still has the edge. His experience as community organizer, state legislator, U.S. senator and campaigner who took a dream and became a credible contender measures up well against Clinton's experience as poverty lawyer, first lady and U.S. senator.

The party would be well-served with either candidate, and the historical implications are huge with each.

But in Obama, there is a potential for meaningful change that does not exist with any other candidate.

The Republican Response: NO YOU CAN'T

Barack Obama's response to Bush's final State of the Union

Obama Ad We Won't See in Hudson

Obama's Blue Collar Appeal

Hear Ohio Radio Ad:

Bill Clinton Campaign Chair Goes for Obama

New York Times

Bill Clinton Campaign Chair Goes for Obama

By Katharine Q. Seelye

David Wilhelm, who was Bill Clinton’s campaign chairman in 1992, has endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president.

Mr. Wilhelm lives and works in Ohio, which will be a major battleground for the Democratic candidates come March 4.

After Mr. Wilhelm helped him win the election, Mr. Clinton made Mr. Wilhelm the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Now a venture capitalist who focuses on neglected regions of the country, Mr. Wilhelm is also a superdelegate and said he expected the Obama campaign would want him to get on the phone to lobby other superdelegates.

He said in a conference call today that Mr. Obama was more electable than Senator Hillary Clinton. Mr. Obama’s campaign is evidence of his leadership, he said, calling it “masterful.”

“He has out-worked her, out-organized her and out-raised her,” Mr. Wilhelm said. “I know organizational excellence when I see it, and the Obama campaign, win or lose, will serve as a model” of execution of strategy, message discipline, application of new technology and small-donor fund raising.

Bushwackoed

Found the following on a recent post at OTBL...

President George W. Cumbayah: “Absolutely,” “I know him well, I know his convictions, I know the principles that drive him. No doubt in my mind he is a true conservative. But I want to make sure you don’t rope me into this primary before it ends because we have another true conservative in Mike Huckabee still running.” **NO MENTION OF RON PAUL**. . . “Look, he’s (McCain) very strong on national defense. He’s tough fiscally. He believes that tax cuts ought to be permanent. He’s pro-life. I mean…his principles are sound and solid as far as I’m concerned.”

Maybe if it wasn't for the slimeball politics that got Bush elected in the first place, Chris Matthews wouldn't have had to interview Bush about McCain...

Ron Suskind on Karl Rove and the 2000 South Carolina primary:

...As for the Waterloo of South Carolina, most of the facts are well-known, and among this group of Republicans, what happened has taken on the air of an unsolved crime, a cold case, with Karl Rove being the prime suspect. Bush loyalists, maybe working for the campaign, maybe just representing its interests, claimed in parking-lot handouts and telephone "push polls" and whisper campaigns that McCain’s wife, Cindy, was a drug addict, that McCain might be mentally unstable from his captivity in Vietnam, and that the senator had fathered a black child with a prostitute. Callers push-polled members of a South Carolina right-to-life organization and other groups, asking if the black baby might influence their vote. Now here’s the twist, the part that drives McCain admirers insane to this very day: That last rumor took seed because the McCains had done an especially admirable thing. Years back they’d adopted a baby from a Mother Teresa orphanage in Bangladesh. Bridget, now eleven years old, waved along with the rest of the McCain brood from stages across the state, a dark-skinned child inadvertently providing a photo op for slander. The attacks were of a level and vitriol that even McCain, who was regularly beaten in captivity, could not ignore. He began to answer the slights, strayed off message about how he would lead the nation if he got the chance, and lost the war for South Carolina. Bush emerged from the showdown upright and victorious . . . and onward he marched...

Did I mention the Ann Clouter is a lesbian and Rush Limbaugh is a transvestite?

Obama wins big in Wash., Nebraska, La.

The Kumbaya Candidate continues to rack up Delegates.
YES WE CAN!!!!!!















Illinois Senator sweeps Democratic Contests


WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama swept the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska and Washington state Saturday, boosting his slim delegate lead over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in their historic race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The Illinois senator also won caucuses in the Virgin Islands, completing his best night of the campaign.

"Today, voters from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast to the heart of America stood up to say 'yes we can'" Obama told a cheering audience of Democrats at a party dinner in Richmond, Va
He jabbed simultaneously at Clinton and Arizona Sen. John McCain, saying the election was a choice between debating the Republican nominee-in-waiting "about who has the most experience in Washington, or debating him about who's most likely to change Washington. Because that's a debate we can win."

Clinton preceded Obama to the podium. She did not refer to the night's voting, instead turning against McCain. "We have tried it President Bush's way," she said, "and now the Republicans have chosen more of the same."

She left quickly after her speech, departing before Obama's arrival. But his supporters made their presence known, sending up chants of "Obama" from the audience as she made her way offstage.

Obama's winning margins ranged from substantial to crushing.

He won roughly two-thirds of the vote in Washington state and Nebraska, and almost 90 percent in the Virgin Islands.

With returns counted from nearly two-thirds of the Louisiana precincts, he was gaining 53 percent of the vote, to 39 percent for the former first lady. As in his earlier Southern triumphs in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, Obama, a black man, rode a wave of African-American support to victory in Louisiana.

In all, the Democrats scrapped for 161 delegates in the night's contests. In initial allocations, Obama had won 31, Clinton nine.

Hillary's Comic Debut

Clinton Turns Tables, Calls Obama the "Establishment" Candidate

From CBS News' Fernando Suarez:

ORONO, MAINE -- For months, Hillary Clinton has battled the image that she is the "status quo" candidate - an image that has been strongly pushed by Barack Obama and former rival John Edwards.

But today, Clinton is trying to turn the tables on Obama saying that he has "increasingly run an establishment race and he has increasingly relied on big endorsements and celebrities to sort of attach himself to to get the kind of validation that comes from that sort of endorsement."

At a news conference at the University of Maine, Clinton added that Obama's positions have shifted with outside pressures.

"And he has increasingly, in my view, really tailored his positions so that they are more establishment-oriented like giving up on universal health care, so I think there is an argument to be made there. If we want a Democrat to be the Democratic standard bearer, who stands for the positive, progressive agenda of the Democratic party as opposed to more of the same or a little less than more of the same, then I think I’m the best candidate to carry that message."

In the past few days Clinton has sharpened her rhetoric toward Obama. Last night at a rally in Spokane, Washington, Clinton likened Obama to President Bush.

And the laughs keep coming........

Skinheads & KKK'ers Aren't The Only Ron Paul Supporters

"Indeed, it is shocking to consider the uniformity of opinion among blacks in this country. Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5% of blacks have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market, individual liberty, and the end of welfare and affirmative action.... Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. laughingly calls the "criminal justice system," I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.

If similar in-depth studies were conducted in other major cities, who doubts that similar results would be produced? We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, but it is hardly irrational. Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings, and burglaries all out of proportion to their numbers."

Excerpt from 1992 article in the "Ron Paul Political Report"

The Audacity Of Historical Perspective...

“Sometimes I suspect that even the Republican leaders who immediately followed Reagan weren’t entirely comfortable with the direction politics had taken. In the mouths of men like George H. W. Bush and Bob Dole, the polarizing rhetoric and the politics of resentment always seemed forced, a way of peeling off voters from the Democratic base and not necessarily a recipe of governing...

...But for a younger generation of conservative operatives who would soon rise to power, for Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove and Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, the fiery rhetoric was more than a matter of campaign strategy. They were true believers who meant what they said, whether it was “No new taxes” or “We are a Christian nation.” In fact, with their rigid doctrines, slash-and-burn style, and exaggerated sense of having been aggrieved, this new conservative leadership was eerily reminiscent of some of the New Left’s leaders during the sixties. As with their left-wing counterparts, the new vanguard of the right viewed politics as a contest not just between competing policy visions, but between good and evil. Activists in both parties began developing litmus tests, checklists of orthodoxy, leaving a Democrat who questioned abortion increasingly lonely, any Republican who championed gun control effectively marooned. In this Manichean struggle, compromise came to look like weakness, to be punished or purged. You were with us or against us. You had to choose sides.”

Barack Obama
The Audacity of Hope (pp. 33-34)

Obama Speaks in New Orleans

Garrison Keillor Endorses Barack Obama

"I think it would be amazing just to have a president who can speak the English language."

Listen Here

Candidates Tackle Heavy Issue

As Obese Population Rises, More Candidates Courting The Fat Vote

More Government Less Freedom

In The Know: New Iraqi Law Requires Waiting Period For Suicide Vest Purchases

Borderline Prison Break Stopped...

It wasn't exactly "The Shawshank Redemption" or even "Prison Break," but authorities said a serious escape attempt at the Stillwater prison was thwarted when a staff member discovered the beginnings of a "well-hidden sophisticated underground tunnel" in the basement of one of the prison's industry buildings.

There are no surveillance cameras in the area where the tunnel was found Wednesday morning, officials said Thursday. Four inmates work in that area under the supervision of one corrections officer. The area is used for inventory and storage of raw materials for other prison industries.

Warden Lynn Dingle said those four inmates are being questioned, but she would not say they were suspects in the escape attempt or identify them or the crimes that put them in prison.

Read more at the Star-n-Sycle and look here for more digs.

B.S. Key Issue in Nov. Election

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

Smoking is bad for bunnies, risky for humans

We Want Change!

We Want Change!
Not the hollow sloganeering change of a Mitt Romney,
We want REAL change, Change we can believe in!

Now Is The Time for Something Different

A Message From Barack Obama, Feb. 6th 2008

The votes will be counted into the night and into tomorrow, but today we won states and we won delegates in every part of the country.

As of right now, we have won more states and delegates than Senator Clinton. It's a remarkable achievement we can all be proud of.

Tonight, we know one thing for sure -- our time has come, our movement is real, and change is coming to America.

At this moment in history, the stakes are too high and the challenges too great to play the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expect a different result.

This time must be different.

There will be those who say it cannot be done. But we know what we have seen and what we believe -- that when ordinary people come together we can still do extraordinary things.

Yes, we can.

Thank you so much,

Barack

About this Song:

The Yes We Can Song
by will.i.am

I was sitting in my recording studio watching the debates...
Torn between the candidates

I was never really big on politics...
and actually I’m still not big on politics...
but 4 years ago, me and the black eyed peas supported Kerry...
And we supported Kerry with all our might...
We performed and performed and performed for the DNC...
doing all we could do to get the youth involved...

The outcome of the last 2 elections has saddened me...
on how unfair, backwards, upside down, unbalanced, untruthful,
corrupt, and just simply, how wrong the world and "politics" are...

So this year i wanted to get involved and do all i could early...

And i found myself torn...
because this time it’s not that simple...
our choices aren’t as clear as the last elections ...
last time it was so obvious...
Bush and war
vs
no Bush and no war...

But this time it’s not that simple...
and there are a lot of people that are torn just like i am...

So for awhile I put it off and i was going to wait until it was decided for me...

And then came New Hampshire...

And i was captivated...

Inspired...

I reflected on my life...
and the blessings I have...
and the people who fought for me to have these rights and blessings...

and I’m not talking about a "black thing"
I’m talking about a "human thing" me as a "person"
an American...

That speech made me think of Martin Luther King...
Kennedy...
and Lincoln...
and all the others that have fought for what we have today...

what America is "supposed" to be...

freedom...
equality...
and truth...

and thats not what we have today...
we think we are free...
but in reality terror and fear controls our decisions...

this is not the America that our pioneers and leaders fought and
died for...

and then there was New Hampshire

it was that speech...
like many great speeches...
that one moved me...
because words and ideas are powerful...

It made me think...
and realize that today we have "very few" leaders...
maybe none...

but that speech...

it inspired me...
it inspired me to look inside myself and outwards towards the world...
it inspired me to want to change myself to better the world...
and take a "leap" towards change...
and hope that others become inspired to do the same...
change themselves..
change their greed...
change their fears...
and if we "change that"
"then hey"..
we got something right...???...

1 week later after the speech settled in me...
I began making this song...
I came up with the idea to turn his speech into a song...
because that speech effected and touched my inner core like nothing in a very long time...

it spoke to me...

because words and ideas are powerful...

I just wanted to add a melody to those words...
I wanted the inspiration that was bubbling inside me to take over...

so i let it..

I wasn't afraid to stand for something...
to stand for "change"...
I wasn't afraid of "fear"...
it was pure inspiration...

so I called my friends...
and they called their friends...
in a matter of 2 days...
We made the song and video...

Usually this process would take months...
a bunch of record company people figuring out strategies and release dates...
interviews...
all that stuff...
but this time i took it in my own hands...
so i called my friends sarah pantera, mike jurkovac, fred goldring, and jesse dylan to help make it happen...
and they called their friends..
and we did it together in 48 hours...
and instead of putting it in the hands of profit we put it in the hands of inspiration...

then we put it on the net for the world to feel...

When you are truly inspired..
magic happens...
incredible things happen...
love happens..
(and with that combination)

"love, and inspiration"

change happens...

"change for the better"
Inspiration breeds change...

"Positive change"...

no one on this planet is truly experienced to handle the obstacles we face today...
Terror, fear, lies, agendas, politics, money, all the above...
It’s all scary...

Martin Luther King didn't have experience to lead...
Kennedy didn't have experience to lead...
Susan B. Anthony...
Nelson Mandella...
Rosa Parks...
Gandhi...
Anne Frank...
and everyone else who has had a hand in molding the freedoms we have and take for granted today...

no one truly has experience to deal with the world today...

they just need "desire, strength, courage ability, and passion" to change...
and to stand for something even when people say it's not possible...

America would not be here "today" if we didn’t stand and fight for
change "yesterday"...
Everything we have as a "people" is because of the "people" who fought for
change...
and whoever is the President has to realize we have a lot of changing to do

I'm not trying to convince people to see things how i do...
I produced this song to share my new found inspiration and how I've been moved...
I hope this song will make you feel...
love...
and think...
and be inspired just like the speech inspired me...

that’s all...



Let's all come together like America is supposed to...
Like Japan did after Hiroshima...

that was less than 65 years ago...
and look at Japan now...

they did it together...
they did it...

"We can't?...

Are you serious..?..

WE CAN!!!

Yes we can...
A United "America"
Democrats, Republicans and Independents together...
Building a new America

We can do it...
"TOGETHER"

Please visit www.yeswecansong.com

Thank you for reading and listening...
will.i.am

McCain Crushes The Right Wing Nuts

Our favorite nut job at ontheborderline.net CARNAC has another one of his "enlightened" post asking the following question about John McCain:

Q: How should the communist John McCain feel about using a picture of Ronald Reagan in his T.V. commercial?

A: He should be ABSOLUTELY ASHAMED OF HIMSELF.

---
Just when you though the OTBL'ers had reached the bottom of their septic system of slander, they find a vein of invective that allows them to go even deeper. Below is my impression of how the right wing idiots see John McCain:




The chickens are coming home to roost in the Republican Party. The coalition of lazy-unfair business men, hyper-selfish libertarians, the Christian Right hatemongers, the one-issue rednecks and the My-Country-Right-Or-Wrong sheeple is coming apart at the seams. The cowboy conservatism of Barry Goldwater that was tarred and feathered in 1964 but eventually escaped its straight jack with Reagan’s ride to victory in 1980 is running its course. The "free market" has been broken and the paternal, East Cost conservatism of George Bush Sr. is going to be working its way back into the mainstream of our political arena.

Look who’s still in the Republican race -- McCain, Huckabee and Romney. Huckabee beat Romney in Iowa because Romney is an Eastern conservative who is to the left of a moderate Iowan liberal. McCain’s a moderate who will win the Republican nomination and will give the Democrats a very hard race. It’s going to be hard for Democrats to hate McCain in 2008 the same way they hated W in 2004. In 2000, the Democrats were once again asleep at the wheel and let the Bush debacle escaped from the straight jacket.

Why do you think Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Glen Beck and the rest of right wing idiocracy are trashing McCain so badly? It will put him into retirement, once common sense conservatism returns. Ditto for those wacko far Lefties. Despite what Hannity, Beck and the rest of the right-stream-media mouths spew, Clinton is more towards the corporate center and Obama is hanging towards the center of the blue-collar voters.

It looks like the wackos on the left and the right end of the political spectrum a driving the common sense majority into the middle. What a breath of fresh air it would be to have moderates and pragmatists back in charge. Who knows, there’s a chance that democracy in the United States might start working again and our nation might regain some respect in the world community.

Below is how Americans with common sense and respect see John McCain:

The Science Opposing Wisconsin's Smoking Ban

"It's hogwash, I'm still alive."

Sen. Roger Breske, D-Eland
A former bar owner and president of the Wisconsin Tavern League, the 69-year-old Breske recalled working in a bar that was heavy with smoke when he was a child.

Breske also refuted the main argument made by supporters of the ban, that secondhand smoke was harmful to employees and patrons in bars and restaurants who have to breathe it.

Hey Man, I Got A 1960s Hangover Dude...

In The Beginning...

I think, I think I am, therefore I am, I think.

Pretty files of your forefather's fruit and now to suit...our great computer,

You're magnetic ink. I'm more than that, I know I am, at least, I think I must be.

There you go man, keep as cool as you can...Face piles...And piles Of trials With smiles...It riles them to believe that you perceive the web they weave...

And keep on thinking free...

The Moody Blues





“The intellectual, political and social ferment associated with the 1960s were already underway, though there was not yet the galvanizing issue of the Vietnam war. People were beginning to praise a new drug called L.S.D. for its ‘mind-expanding’ qualities, though the only evidence that their minds had expanded was their own belief that it had – a belief that some ordinary drunks have also had, at least until they sobered up and realized that they had just been making damn fools of themselves.”

Thomas Sowell
A Personal Odyssey
(p. 152)

Not Your Ordinary Nut...

Borderline Nuts Exposed

Shelia Harsdorf A "Health Nazi"?

Leave to our local anti-community bloggers at www.ontheborderline.net to keep throwing open their trench coat and exposing their flaccid stupidity. "Citizen Joe" has a current post at OTBL titled: Our local health Nazi, Harsdofr…

Here's what Joe has to say...

State Senator Sheila Harsdorf (R -River Falls) and grassroots supporters of the American Cancer Society will join together in support of a statewide smoke free workplace law.

Yes Jack, she is a RINO!

Comments to the post include these by "spiritofpublicus" (aka Dr. Bill Damuson):

"Harsdorf, like all other socialists, does not believe in the sanctity of private property. She is clueless when it comes to the connection between private property, economic freedom, and personal liberties. This fall I will be voting for anyone but Shelia!"

This second comments is by "choosing life:"

"It’s time to clean house of those who claim to be Republican but who are actually fronts for the Democrats. Every time a Republican betrays their constituents, I think of the scene in Animal House where the the guy is getting whacked by a someone who likes to inflict pain. After receiving a painful whack on the backside, he says, Thank you, sir, may I have another? I’m finished with getting whacked on the backside by the traitorous Republicans."

It's interesting to see how tolerant the great debaters are at OTBL. Lots of room for intellectual discussion of the options available to those of us living in the "public square" called the United States.

I've just finished reading an interesting autobiography by Thomas Sowell titled "A Personal Odyssey." Sowell is an economist and social thinker who happens to be a black man. The OTBL bloggers quote him regularly and mention him in only glowing terms on their blog. I found at least 13 posts on OTBL the pay homage to the thoughts of Sowell.

I wonder what Sowell -- one of the foremost Marxist scholars writing today -- would think of the cheap shot, character assassinations that mark the commentary at www.ontheborderline.net. I'm sure he would be sadden to be linked to the single-mind, anti-intellectual lynch mobster with the trench coat exposing all that is wrong with today's political discourse.

What follows is an interesting quote from Sowell's book from a letter to his radical friend Al:

"Obviously you and I have differing visions of the way the economic and social system functions. This in turn means that when we want to accomplish the same objective, we often advocate opposite means. This is not very surprising, and I think the same general principle applies to the differences between the liberals and the radicals, on one side, and Kristol, Banfield,et. al., on the other. Adolescence self-righteousness has become so fashionable in the past decade that common sense and common decency have suffered a kind of environmental pollution that hurts everybody and makes all social problems more difficult to understand and deal with rationally. As an historian of ideas, I am especially struck by how far we have gone down the road to mindless labelling and almost bogey-man talk. In the 19th century, for example, in Karl Marx's numerous references to Adam Smith there was not the slightest suggestion that Smith had done anything other than call them as he aw them, just as Marx was calling them as he saw them. Smith's arguments were answered by other arguments, not by calling him "anti-worker," which would simply have been a lie...One thing I like about Marx was his utter condemnation to this kind of parlor revolutionism, for just these kinds of reasons."

Thomas Sowell
"A Personal Adessy"
(pp. 254-255)

My guess is that losing the five or six votes from the OTBL bloggers isn't going to have any noticeably impact on Harsdorf's chances for re-election. My guess is that 2006 was the start of it and 2008 will open the flood gates to the exodus of the cowboy conservatives that road into Washington with Ronald Reagan. They will shrink back to the size of the fruitcake conservatism that Barry Goldwater represented in the 1964 presidential election.

Freedom Of Screech!!!!

Slumlord defender v. Wal-Mart board of director


"I do think that for example the 1980 election was different. I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think people, he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing."

Barack Obama


"Hillary and I will always remember President Ronald Reagan for the way he personified the indomitable optimism of the American people, and for keeping America at the forefront of the fight for freedom for people everywhere...We will always remember his tremendous capacity to inspire and comfort us in times of tragedy, ...and we can rest assured that, as joyous a place as Heaven is, his wit and sunny disposition are making it an even brighter place to be."

President Bill Clinton

"I think it's fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10-15 years in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom."

Barack Obama

“When he (Reagan) had those big tax cuts and they went too far, he oversaw the largest tax increase. He could call the Soviet Union the Evil Empire and then negotiate arms-control agreements. He played the balance and the music beautifully.”

Hillary Clinton

“What I said was is that Ronald Reagan was a transformative political figure because he was able to get Democrats to vote against their economic interests to form a majority to push through their agenda, an agenda that I objected to.”

Barack Obama

Gee Yogi, It's Deja Vu All Over...

"The conditions which surround us best justify our cooperation; we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling places to prevent universal intimidation and bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land concentrating in the hands of capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right to organize for self-protection, imported pauperized labor beats down their wages, a hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into European conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind and the possessors of these, in turn, despise the Republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes-tramps and millionaires. . ."

Populist Party Platform, 1892
Read more...

The RINO & I Know: Thompson Bails

PREDICTION: Giuliani will be the next to go...

Former senator Fred Thompson (Tenn.) dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination today, following months of lackluster campaigning and chaos within his campaign organization.

"Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States," Thompson said in a terse statement. "I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people."

Go take your nap Fred...

Booker T. Washington: Slavery v. Freedom

Rereading Booker T. Washington's autobiography, Up From Slavery, I found an interesting passage the compares slavery and freedom. Up From Slavery is one of the more powerful biographies I've ever read.



"For some minutes there was great rejoicing, and thanksgiving, and wild scenes of ecstasy. But there was no feeling of bitterness. In fact, there was pity among the slaves for our former owners. The wild rejoicing on the part of the emancipated coloured people lasted but for a brief period, for I noticed that by the time they returned to their cabins there was a change in their feelings. The great responsibility of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children, seemed to take possession of them. It was very much like suddenly turning a youth of ten or twelve years out into the world to provide for himself. In a few hours the great questions with which the Anglo-Saxon race had been grappling for centuries had been thrown upon these people to be solved. These were the questions of a home, a living, the rearing of children, education, citizenship, and the establishment and support of churches. Was it any wonder that within a few hours the wild rejoicing ceased and a feeling of deep gloom seemed to pervade the slave quarters? To some it seemed that, now that they were in actual possession of it, freedom was a more serious thing than they had expected to find it. Some of the slaves were seventy or eighty years old; their best days were gone. They had no strength with which to earn a living in a strange place and among strange people, even if they had been sure where to find a new place of abode. To this class the problem seemed especially hard. Besides, deep down in their hearts there was a strange and peculiar attachment to "old Marster" and "old Missus," and to their children, which they found it hard to think of breaking off. With these they had spent in some cases nearly a half-century, and it was no light thing to think of parting. Gradually, one by one, stealthily at first, the older slaves began to wander from the slave quarters back to the "big house" to have a whispered conversation with their former owners as to the future."

Booker T. Washington
Up From Slavery

Smokin' With Clarence, Bill & Ron Paul

"When I was in England, I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale and never tried it again."
Bill Clinton

"Watkins asked whether I'd ever used illegal drugs, the same question that had ostensibly short-circuited Doug Ginsburg's confirmation in 1987. I said that I didn't recall ever having done so. It was an uncharacteristically cautious reply, but I'd been a heavy drinker in college and had often been around people smoked marijuana and hashish. I was telling the truth: I didn't remember using such drugs. I'd been afraid of them. For me illegal drugs were yet another problem I didn't need to add to my already long list. On the other hand, it occurred to me that I might possibly have tried them once or twice while I was drunk, and I knew that a flat denial might put me at risk of being contradicted, so in the end, in order to put the issue to rest, I said that I had experimented with marijuana."
Clarence Thomas
My Grandfather's Son (pp 220-221)

"It depends on what the meaning of the words 'is' is."
Bill Clinton

"And marijuana - I think it's tragic what's happening today in the drug war. Since the early '70s we've spent maybe $200 to $300 billion on the drug war. That's not been any good. This whole effort on the drug war doesn't make any sense at all to me."
Ron Paul

Red Alert: Beware

From The Office of Liberty Dr. Bill- POS Author

Red Alert.

Agents from the secret death squads of ontheborerline.net have been made aware of that a sinister Socialist plot has been concocted by the Hudson branch of the Communist Party to infiltrate GOP headquarters. You may be approached by a seemingly innoquouse question like.."Are you a real Republican or are you a RINO?"
If you see this man, do not approach him. Do not be deceived. Flee immediately. He is armed
with altruism and considered extremely dangerous. Contact the ontheborderline.net authorities
immediately in order to bring this heinous criminal to justice.

We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging.

The Supreme Courting Of Ayn Rand

"It was around this time that I read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Rand preached a philosophy of radical individualism that she called Objectivism. While I didn't fully accept its tenets, her vision of the world made more sense to me than that of my left-wing friends. "Do your own thing" was their motto, but now I saw that the individualism implicit in that phrase was both was going too far for a black man to do his thing by breaking with radical politics, which was what I now longed to do. I never went along with the militant separatism of the Black Muslims, but I their discipline and dignity. That was Daddy's way. He knew that to be truly free and participate fully in American life, poor blacks had to have the tools to do for themselves. This was the direction in which my political thinking was moving as my time at Holy Cross drew to an end. I went without saying that I was an individual: we are all individuals. The question was how much courage for everyone -- the government, the racists, the activists, the students, even Daddy -- to leave me alone so that I could finally start thinking for myself..."

Clarence Thomas (around 1968)


"...For lighter fare I treated myself to the western novels of Louis L'Amour, and I also reread The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, whose scathing criticisms of the dangers of centralized government impressed me even more after working in Washington."

Clarence Thomas (around 1982)
My Grandfather's Son

Mark of the Beast Exposed Ontheborderline

Ontheborderline.net blogger Dr. Bil has been discovered as the true source of the "mark of the beast." The discover was made by Pinko Floyd, the official barber of the borderline brown stars, while Dr. Bil was in for his regualr haricut...

Why will those who take the mark be damned?

I think it's because God made Silver and Gold as honest weights and measures to be used as money! Money is NOT paper (which is a promise), not electronic credits, not chips, not a mark, nor a number!

Revelation 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

Revelation 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Revelation 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. (666)

"With the exception only of the period of the gold standard, practically all governments of history have used their exclusive power to issue money to defraud and plunder the people."

Friedrich A. Hayek

"The governments alone are responsible for the spread of the superstitious awe with which the common man looks upon every bit of paper upon which the treasury or agencies which it controls have printed the magical words legal tender."

Ludwig von Mises

More money quotes...

Those Damn 60s Radicals!!!!

"In the spring of 1970, I was one of several BSU (Black Student Union) members who went to Boston to take part in an antiwar rally. Holy Cross had previously loaned the BSU a station wagon, since few black students owned cars and thus were unable to travel to other schools to participate in academic or social events, but they never imagined that we would use it to attend an out-of-town demonstration. Nor did any of us suppose that there would be more to this one than the usual inflammatory speeches -- but we were wrong. Once the organizers of the rally had gotten the crowd sufficiently worked up, they urged us to march to Harvard Square to protest the treatment of America's domestic political prisoners. Off we went, chanting "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh" and demanding freedom for Angela Davis, Erica Huggins, and anyone else we could think of. When we came to a liquor store, the owner, fearing we would smash it up, gave some of us wine we wanted for free. From there we drank our way to Harvard Square, where our disorderly parade deteriorated into a full-scale riot. The police fired rounds of tear gas into the crowd, but that didn't deter us, and we kept on rioting well into the night."

Clarence Thomas
My Grandfather's Son (p. 59)

How's Your Lot?

"On the other hand, I didn't think it was a good idea to make poor blacks, or anyone else, more dependent on government. That would amount to a new kind of enslavement, one which ultimately relied on the generosity -- and the ever-changing self-interests -- of politicians and activists. It seemed to me that the dependency it fostered might ultimately prove as diabolical as segregation, permanently condemning poor people to the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder by cannibalizing the values without which they had no long-term hope of improving their lot. At the time, these ideas seemed to me a logical extension of my distrust of "the man," though in fact they were rooted in the lessons Daddy had taught me. I didn't yet know how heterodox they were, much less that they were about to lead me away from the radical politics in which I thought I believed."

Clarence Thomas
My Grandfather's Son

Soulful Moans

"Now I knew how he felt. Now I understood why he needed a drink when he came home from the humiliating task of getting his business license, when he received a traffic ticket for the fabricated violation of driving with too many clothes on, or when a white woman called him boy in front of Myers and me. Every southern black had known such moments, and felt the rage that threatened to burn through the masks of meekness and submission behind which we hid our true feelings. It was like a beast that lay in wait to devour us. Some fought it with drink, others with prayer. You can hear the struggle in the soulful wails of gospel and the passionate moans of blues singers."

Clarence Thomas
My Grandfather's Son

The Price Of Sticking To Your Beliefs

"Nowadays everyone seems to recognize and to be shocked at the insult and injury perpetrated against the IWW, the Socialist, and the conscientious objectors early in the century (1900). It was different to know it then. Our family was not only isolated for our stand against the war, but we were shot at, our books were rifled and burned in our front yard on Dayton Avenue in St. Paul, rocks with obscene messages were thrown through our windows. Organizers for the Non-Partisan League were beaten and tarred and feathered. Tar is very hard to get off. I spent days with victims of beatings trying to get the tar off the skin without taking the skin as well. Minnesota had a vigilante committee, a stat fascist organization with unlimited powers and headed by Governor Burnquist; it was called the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety."

Meridel Le Sueur
The Ancient People

What's Behind Your "Free Market?"

Child Labor Slip$ Through The GAP

This story did not make for pleasant reading: children as young as ten, the UK’s Observer newspaper reported, were toiling in filth 16 hours a day for little or no pay, smocking and beading children’s clothing destined for Gap Kids stores in the west.



Gap is working hard to win back public trust after shocking child labour revelations tarnished its brand

Gap ended 2007 having to answer claims of child labour atrocities at supplier factories in India. This was territory the company must have thought it had left far behind. Despite recent lacklustre sales, Gap had done well to keep its reputation as an ethical sourcing leader until the bad news broke last October.

Read more at Ethical Corporation.

Who's Knocking On Fear's Door

coalition of the willing and the judgmental
patricians, politicians, and the fundamentalists
you never have to tell them how the money's spent
you never have to tell them where their freedom went
homophobes in the high command
waitin' for the rapture like it's disneyland
hide all the bodies from out of view
channel all the treasure to the chosen few

Eliza Gilkyson
Man of God



"It's telling that a number of politicians have lately cited as their model on terrorism issues Jack Bauer, the counterterrorism agent on the TV hit "24," who routinely tortures the truth out of bad guys as the clock ticks toward catastrophe. It's not hard to understand the appeal. There's a certain atavistic attraction to the Jack Bauer method, an attraction that bypasses the head en route to the gut.

Too bad, because had the head been asked, it might have pointed out that Jack Bauer is a fictional character on a TV show not noted for its realism. Using him as a guide to terrorism makes about as much sense as using Barney Fife as a guide to law enforcement.

And the very fact that Jack Bauer is invoked in the most crucial policy debate of our time tells you something about the state of the union going on seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks. In a word: scared.

There is nothing new about being scared. Nor about abridging civil liberties in response. It happened in the civil rights movement, in the Red scare, happened when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, when the nation plunged into World War I, when the French offended John Adams.

But it's worth noting that, for all the illegal wiretapping, arrests, detention, blacklisting, censorship and loss of life this country has seen in the name of fear, only one major abridgement of civil liberties in time of national emergency - Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War - stands justified by hindsight.

The rest, we regard with a shamefaced fascination. We wonder what we were thinking, how we wandered so far afield from the principles that should make us great."

Leonard Pitts, Jr.
Read more...

A Piece of Freedom's Pie

"Going West" by artist Therese Desjardin.

"The man and woman moving behind the westering sun wanted room to think fast and big, invent, speak, plant land and children with freedom's plow. They wanted new ways of being together. They hankered after something beside death and taxes. They wanted to see straight and live on earth. Like the growth of scientific thought, the twin of democracy, they wanted to examine the humus, look at decay, the minutiae of soil and society, honor the lowest labor and growth. Hard-headed, they wanted their pie in the "here and now," every man under his tree, no man a servant. Horse sense or common sense was "commin doin's": they all had it together because without it they should not survive."

Meridel Le Sueur
The North Star