The Obama Note

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Theft and the Mob

Those of you who value freedom, and want to support the idea of private property should visit http://openinternet.gov which was set up by the FCC to "discuss" upcoming rule-making to ensure "Net Neutrality".

"Net Neutrality" boils down to "government control", but the shocking thing is the comments on the web site.

Those who barely know what the internet is, much less know how it works are claiming a "right" to broadband access, and the necessity of FCC regulation of the internet. This is the same internet that has provided unprecedented freedom and openness throughout the world precisely because it has been beyond the reach of governments. There is a good write-up here on the implications of government control of the net.

Please visit the site and post comments in support of freedom and defending the property rights of the network owners. Defend one of the last few truly free areas of our economy by defending the right of network owners to operate in freedom.

Net Neutrality is Theft

Imagine that you built a company like FedEx, and once you became successful, the federal government decided that it needed to adopt rules to ensure that you were not going to favor one type of customer over another. All your pricing policies, your marketing strategy to increase efficiency by establishing special relationships to big firms would be out the window. Your relationships with airlines and trucking companies would be scrutinized. Your customers would probably like this, if it favored them, and those it did not favor would go somewhere else. Suddenly, your pricing policies, customer service and operations would be the subject of political debates. You would be forced to bow down to politicians to stay in business. Your business would never be the same.

This is what the FCC is proposing with "Net neutrality". You can read about it here.

This is a Big Deal. Mr. Genachowski has it right in one respect, he says: "there is no question that the openness of the Internet is the secret sauce to its success". These rules will end that openness because once the FCC runs the networks, the impartial efficiency of the market will be replaced with the micromanagement of politics.

The easiest way to understand the new rules, and what drives them is that the FCC will try to prohibit the carriers (Comcast, Verizon, etc) from charging extra for better service. It would be like trying to prohibit FedEx from charging extra if your package is too heavy, but this is what they want to do.

The internet is one of the few places on earth that is still free. It is a vehicle for protest and political speech throughout the world. The growth of the internet is owed to investors who innovate and make money selling service. Put the FCC - the US Federal Government - in charge of the operations of these networks in the name of "fairness" and kiss these investors and this freedom goodbye.

We must fight this. Keep those cards and letters coming.

Make Mine Freedom (1948)

A Moment of Candor

It is rare in the Obama age to hear much candor from government officials pointing out the damage caused by government bailouts. This article at http://cnn.com is one of these rare instances.

If you feed the neighborhood cats, they will hang around your house. If you bail out imprudent financiers, they will remain imprudent, and expect further bailouts.

Bailouts are more damaging for what they do to our character than what they do to our wallets.

Copenhagen Capitulation

On October 14, Lord Christopher Monckton, a noted climate change skeptic,

gave a presentation at Bethel University in St. Paul, MN.

The last few minutes of his speech can be seen at GlobalClimateScam.com

President Obama is going to Copenhagen in a few weeks to sign a "Climate Change" treaty that will arguably surrender our sovereignty. Even the idea of doing this should be frightening, but the current administration sees it as virtuous.

It is important to weigh in on this and stop it. Check it out. Then keep those cards and letters to Congress coming.....

Basic Economics - Thomas Sowell

One of the giants in the world of economics is Thomas Sowell. He is a brilliant economist and brings a marvelous clarity to writing and to its relationship to political issues.

Mr. Sowell hits it out of the park again with two more articles, summarized and referenced here.

Mr. Sowell is also author of a wonderful economic primer called Basic Economics. (available from Amazon, too. Here.)

My Nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize

I just finished reading the book, "The Password is Courage." The accomplishments of this man, Charles Joseph Coward, outweigh anything Barack Hussein Obama could imagine in his wildest dreams.

I nominate Charlie Coward for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Here is his biography, taken from Wikipedia.org.

Charles Joseph Coward (1905—1976), known as the "Count of Auschwitz", was a British soldier captured during World War II who rescued Jews from Auschwitz.

Coward joined the Army in June 1937. He was captured in May 1940 near Calais while serving with the 8th Reserve Regimental Royal Artillery as Quartermaster Battery Sergeant Major. He managed to make two escape attempts before even reaching a prisoner-of-war camp, and then made seven further escapes, on one memorable occasion managing to be awarded the Iron Cross while posing as a wounded soldier in a German army field hospital. When in captivity he was equally troublesome, organizing numerous acts of sabotage while out on work details.

Finally, in December 1943, he was transferred to Auschwitz III (Monowitz) labour camp only five miles from the better-known extermination camp of Auschwitz II (Birkenau). Monowitz was under the direction of the industrial company IG Farben, who were building a Buna (synthetic rubber) and liquid fuel plant there. It housed over 10,000 Jewish slave labourers, as well as POWs and forced labourers from all over occupied Europe.

Thanks to his command of the German language, Coward was appointed Red Cross liaison officer for the 1,200-1,400 British prisoners. In this trusted role he was allowed to move fairly freely throughout the camp and often to surrounding towns. He witnessed the arrival of trainloads of Jews to the extermination camp, followed by their 'selection' for either slave labour or the gas chambers. Coward and the other British prisoners smuggled food and other items to the Jewish inmates, even supplying dynamite to the Sonderkommando in a partially successful attempt to blow up the gas chambers and crematoria. He also exchanged coded messages with the British authorities via letters to a fictitious Mr. William Orange, giving military information, notes on the conditions of POWs and prisoners in the camps, as well as dates and numbers of the arrival of trainloads of Jews to the extermination camp.

On one occasion a note was smuggled to him from a Jewish-British naval doctor who was being held in Monowitz. Coward determined to contact him directly and managed to swap clothes with an inmate on a work detail and spent the night in the Jewish camp, seeing at first hand the horrific conditions in which they were held.

Determined to do something about it, he used Red Cross supplies, particularly chocolate, to "buy" corpses of dead prisoners, including Belgian and French civilian forced labourers, from the SS guards. Coward then directed healthy Jewish prisoners to join the nightly marches of Jews considered unfit for further work from Monowitz to the Birkenau gas chambers. During the course of the march the healthy men dropped out of procession to hide in ditches; Coward scattered the corpses he had purchased on the road to give the impression that they were members of the column who had died on the march. He then gave the documents and clothes taken from the non-Jewish corpses to the Jewish escapees, who adopted these new identities and were then smuggled out of the camp altogether. Coward carried out this scheme on numerous occasions and is estimated to have saved at least 400 Jewish slave labourers.

After the war Coward testified at the IG Farben Trial in Nuremberg. In 1954 John Castle published a book, The Password is Courage, describing Coward's wartime activities; this was adapted into a 1962 film of the same name starring Dirk Bogarde. The film was lighthearted compared to the book and made only passing reference to Coward's time at Auschwitz; it concentrated instead on his numerous escapes and added a fictitious romantic liaison.

In 1963 Coward was named among the Righteous Among the Nations and had a tree planted in his honour in the Avenue of Righteous Gentiles in Yad Vashem. In 2003 Coward was further commemorated with the mounting of a blue plaque at his home at 133 Chichester Road, Edmonton, London, where he lived from 1945 until his death.

Under RPM Pressure, Chris Coleman Drops Out Of Governor's Race

From the GOP Newsline...

Yesterday St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman announced that he will not be running for governor, stating he will focus on getting reelected in St. Paul instead. This announcement came after weeks of hammering by the Republican Party of Minnesota and Eva Ng. Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman Tony Sutton gave the following statement regarding Coleman's announcement.

“Now that he’s dropped out of the governor’s race he wanted desperately to win, Chris Coleman needs to stop hiding and start debating the future of the city with his opponent, Eva Ng. Coleman’s failed leadership and record of endless tax increases deserves a full airing before voters go to the polls in November.”

Deputy Chair Michael Brodkorb met the press after Coleman's announcement to answer questions about the Campaign Finance Board complaint that the Republican Party of Minnesota has filed against Coleman and Mayor R.T. Rybak.

From the Pioneer Press:

Republicans, who have alleged Coleman was illegally running for governor by not filing state disclosure forms, claimed victory. "Any decisions he made are borne out of problems with campaign financing," said Michael Broadkorb, deputy chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota.

Click Here To Continue Reading

WTF? President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

‘Humbled’ Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

Committee says president gives world’s people ‘hope for a better future’

OSLO, Norway - President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism. Read the rest of the story here...

As far as I am concerned, the Nobel Peace Prize lost its credibility when Jimmy Carter was awarded it. What has Obama done to deserve what was once upon a time such a prestigious award? In my opinion: Nothing! It may be worth investigating the makeup of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. No big surprises here, the majority is made up of socialists.

• Thorbjørn Jagland (chair, born 1950), member of Parliament, President of the Storting and former cabinet minister for the Labour Party. Member and chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee since 2009.
• Kaci Kullmann Five (deputy chair, born 1951), former member of Parliament and cabinet minister for the Conservative Party. Member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee since 2003, deputy chair since 2009.
• Sissel Rønbeck (born 1950), deputy director, Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage (Riksantikvaren), former member of parliament and cabinet minister for the Labour Party. Member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee since 1994.
• Inger-Marie Ytterhorn (born 1941), former member of Parliament for the Progress Party. Member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee since 2000.
• Ågot Valle (born 1945), member of parliament for the Socialist Left Party. Member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee since 2009.

Two members are associated with the Labour Party which is officially a social democratic party committed to social democratic ideals. It has a history of association with Communist International and the Communist Party of Norway.

The Socialist Left Party was created through an alliance of the Socialist People's Party, Communist Party of Norway, Democratic Socialists and independent socialists. Their ideology consists of socialism and eco-socialism.

For those of you who are as shocked as I am, you can vote on whether or not you think he deserves it. Click this link to vote, Is President Obama deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize?

The last time I checked, it was 61.5% "NO" after 410,972 votes were cast.

As one commented, "What an insult to the likes of the Dali Lama and TRUE peace advocates! Its a political decision, period."

Just for fun!!

A U.S. Marine squad was marching north of Fallujah when they came upon an Iraqi terrorist, badly injured and unconscious. On the opposite side of the road was an American Marine in a similar but less serious state. The Marine was conscious and alert and as first aid was given to both men, the squad leader asked the injured Marine what had happened.

The Marine reported, "I was heavily armed and moving north
along the highway here, and coming south was a heavily armed insurgent.

We saw each other and both took cover in the ditches along the road. I yelled to him that Saddam Hussein was a miserable,
lowlife scum bag who got what he deserved, and he yelled back that Ted Kennedy is a fat, good-for-nothing, left wing liberal drunk who doesn't know how to drive, and Obama is an idiot .

So I said that Osama Bin Laden dresses and acts like a frigid, mean-spirited lesbian.

He retaliated by yelling, "Oh yeah? Well, so does Nancy Pelosi!"

"And, there we were, in the middle of the road, shaking hands, when a truck hit us."

Results of the 2009 MNGOP State Convention Gubernatorial Straw Poll

First Choice

1. Marty Seifert, 454 votes
2. Tom Emmer, 283 votes
3. Pat Anderson, 174 votes
4. Hann, 146 votes
5. No Votes, 59 votes
6. Kohls, 58 votes
7. Other, 16 votes
8. Herwig, 14 votes
9. Jungbauer, 10 votes
10. Haas, 10 votes
11. Davis, 10 votes

Second Choice

1. Hann, 216 votes
2. Emmer, 207 votes
3. Anderson, 182 votes
4. No Vote, 172 votes
5. Seifert, 171 votes
6. Kohls, 128 votes
7. Haas, 46 votes
8. Jungbauer, 37 votes
9. Davis, 29 votes
10. Other, 25 votes
11. Herwig, 20 votes

Minnesotans for Limited Government Endorses Pat Anderson for Governor of Minnesota (2010)

Dear members and friends of Minnesotans for Limited Government,

Minnesotans for Limited Government is a political action committee formed at the grass roots level. A group of liberty minded Minnesotans created MNLG from the strong principles that brought us together. As shown on our website at www.mnlg.org our mission statement declares “Minnesotans for Limited Government is dedicated to promoting the idea that individual and economic freedom be the first consideration of any government action.”

This week, MNLG members voted to officially endorse Pat Anderson for Governor. Pat has shown that she not only believes in liberty and limited government, but also consistently uses these values as part of her decision making process in public office. She strongly believes in the ideals of MNLG and is the only state commissioner who has ever used her position to eliminate her department and put herself out of a job. Pat adheres to, and has an incredible understanding of, the Constitution as intended which is to protect the individual from state interests. Pat is also the only GOP candidate to have experience with a state-wide campaign. Please take a look at her website at http://anderson4governor.com/, as it is one of the most engaging sites in the current campaign. Pat lists her arguments, thoughts, and principles on several issues in a very transparent manner on her website and encourages individuals to ask for her opinion on the issues. We encourage your support for Pat Anderson.

In Liberty,

Rick Karschnia – Chairman

Minnesotans for Limited Government

mnlg.org

Sign of the Day!

Dakota County freezing non-union wages

The commissioners of Dakota County in my opinion are gutless for not freezing everyone's wages including that of the counties union workers. I hope that the non-union workers sue or join the union in protest.

Read the rest of the story here...