JAMES SIMPSON: As the battle of the budget wages on, and the March 4^th D-Day moves inexorably closer, and with the Continuing Resolution passed in the House of Representatives early this morning, including two amendments by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to defund Obamacare, the media is increasingly raising the specter of a possible government shutdown. What every Republican, every patriot, every person conceivably affected needs to understand is how this will impact average Americans.

Will airports shut down because air traffic controllers have gone on leave? Will those mean Republicans throw granny out in the street when Social Security stops sending payments? Will everyone who receives checks in the mail see their income dry up because the Post Office shuts down?

Will welfare mothers have to feed their children cat food?

The Democrats will tell you that and more. A Google search of “government shutdown” brings up pages describing dire consequences. But if you follow the links you will see that this is more a reflection of leftist web domination than anything else.

The greatest consequence of a government shutdown will be the Democrat-generated media hysteria we will have to put up with unless/until they get their way. They will demagogue at every opportunity, describing fantastic scenes of nationwide anarchy. They will do what they always do, about the only thing they do well, and in fact have already begun doing:

They will lie.

President Obama almost immediately threatened that Social Security checks would stop coming.

He lied. Read more…

WASHINGTON: To the dismay of the Brady Campaign and other gun ban groups, President Barack Obama didn’t address gun control during his State of the Union address on January 25^th. Paul Helmke speaking for the Brady Campaign put it this way:

How can President Obama tell us in his State of the Union speech tonight that “the dreams of a little girl in Tucson are not so different than those of our own children, and that all deserve the chance to be fulfilled,” without talking about the gun violence that destroyed those dreams?

We need the president to push for laws to reduce the gun violence that shattered Tucson, and Christina’s family, and that shatters the lives of more than 100,000 Americans every year.

President Obama tonight failed to ‘challenge old assumptions’ on the need for, and political possibilities of, reducing the gun violence – which he suggested should be done two weeks ago in Tucson. He failed to recognize the power of our laws to set us on a course to reduce gun violence. We are disappointed, but we’re also determined to continue our efforts to help make our nation safer by pushing to strengthen our gun laws.

We need the president’s support now for changes in our laws to ban large capacity ammunition magazines, to tighten restrictions on who can legally purchase a gun, and to require effective background checks before these guns can be purchased.

Newsweek reports that “in the next two weeks, the White House will unveil a new gun-control effort,” and that the White House confirms, “Obama will address the gun issue in a separate speech, likely early next month.” According to Newsweek, Obama believes that gun laws have been “too loose for much longer than just the past few weeks” following the murders in Tucson, Arizona.

The Brady Campaign and other anti-gun lobbyists want to tighten restrictions on all “who can legally purchase a gun.” No wonder the President feels that our Constitution is “an imperfect document.” Its pesky 2nd amendment stands in the way of those who would take away our right to bear arms. With the rioting you see in the world, some of it finding its way into our own state capitols, is this really the time you want to lay down your own firearms?

JAMES SIMPSON: It is almost impossible to believe that a mere month into the new Congress, old guard Republicans led by House Speaker John Boehner are stampeding to violate key campaign pledges. We have seen the “resolute” House Republican leadership quail over the prospect of actually making a paltry $100 billion in promised spending cuts. We have seen tough talking Darrell Issa backing off desperately needed investigations of blatant Obama administration corruption and abuse of power. Now the leadership is putting up roadblocks to the only chance we may ever get to stop Obamacare.

The House is currently considering a Continuing Resolution to fund government programs for the rest of the year. A temporary CR was passed in the waning days of the 111th Congress that expires March 4th. Without a new CR the government will then shut down.

Representative Steve King (R-IA) offered an amendment to the CR that would entirely defund Obamacare. What better way to force Democrats to abide by the crystal clear will of the American people than to offer them the stark choice of passing the CR and defunding Obamacare in the process, or having the government shut down due to their arrogant stubbornness? And do most Americans care if the government shuts down for a while?

NO! We’d be relieved! Shut it down and keep it shut until the Democrats squeal “Uncle!”

So, Republicans should be all for King’s amendment, right?

Wrong.

Last night, the House Rules Committee headed by David Dreier of California, blocked the amendment, claiming that it violated House rules. This is absolutely false. As King stated in a Washington Times editorial today:

One of the tactics is to argue that my proposal violates the rules by legislating on an appropriations bill. It wasn’t a violation when Congress defunded the Vietnam War, and it’s not a violation now. The CR, the very bill that I seek to amend, has language in it that blocks the use of any funds to move detainees out of GuantanamoBay. By their definition, they’ve set a precedent and all I ask is to use the same tool to debate and vote on blocking the use of any funds to implement or enforce Obamacare.

Defunding Obamacare also would avoid $105.5 billion in Obamacare seed money slated for spending in 2011 that Nancy Pelosi slipped into the bill last year. So not only could Republicans keep their pledge to stop Obamacare, they would actually be doubling the budget cuts offered in the CR. Read more…

WASHINGTON: Obama released his budget yesterday as a Valentine’s Day present to the US. His $3.7 trillion budget includes a deficit of $1.1 trillion. Obama’s proposal includes “tough choices and sacrifices,” which he asserts will bring about a reduction of the budget deficit in years to come. Such nonsense is all too readily trumpeted by the news media and too easily swallowed by the American public.

The reality is quite different. Budgets decisions are made from year to year, and no Congress or President today can dictate the actions of a Congress or President in the future. The only thing we can count on is that this year’s budget will increase our national debt by at least $1.1 trillion.

Such reckless spending may be in itself the precursor to the economic collapse of the US, according to Niall Ferguson, the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University, resident faculty member of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University, and Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University:

Throughout history the rise and fall of empires isn’t slow or cyclical, as we like to think, but arrhythmic…it mostly happens very, very suddenly. America is a superpower on the edge of chaos. U.S. debt levels and its unwillingness to address the problem, has put it in the same category as other great empires which have collapsed throughout the ages.

Chevy Volt Subsidized by US Taxpayers

WASHINGTON: Obama’s budget proposal this week includes a $7500 tax credit for all electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf or the Chevy Volt. Such proposals have popular support and seem on first glance a benefit to consumers and taxpayers alike. Upon further examination this particular initiative neither improves the environment nor helps the economy, but instead amounts to a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Let’s look at it.

The assumption that electric vehicles are cleaner for the environment is not one without challenges. Electric vehicles get their fuel from the coal-driven power grid. They also introduce a new pollutant to the environment, substantial quantities of lead. When compared to the clean cars already on the market the new EVs do not present a substantial improvement to the environment:

What’s going on here? ”We’ve known for quite some time that zero-emissions cars wouldn’t make much difference if they substituted for very clean ones,” Robert Hahn, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, said.

And new cars are very clean: the gasoline-powered cars mandated for California remove 95 to 98 percent of the pollutants detrimental to health. Note, too, that most plants in California generating electricity for the electric cars burn natural gas, emitting pollutants that offset part of the already modest gains made at the tailpipe. Peter Passell, New York Times

How popular are these vehicles and what kind of impact they will have in the environment is still being discovered. Last year is the first year the Leaf and the Volt were offered for sale. If you add January 2011 sales to the total of 2010 sales you get 650 Volts and 106 Leafs were sold in the entire US. The most hopeful 2011 sales forecast is 20,000. 20,000 vehicles will make no difference to our environment. Is the $220 million price tag worth it? Read more…

This video shows clearly the mountain of trouble this administration is getting us into. Folks can’t visualize large numbers, so it is easy for politicians to pull the wool over our eyes.

JAMES SIMPSON: A series of in depth studies by Cliff Kincaid at America’s Survival provide detailed confirmation of the assertions presented in last week’s article, We are witnessing the collapse of the Middle East. As usual, Cliff has really done his homework. This series is not to be missed:

U.S. Based Marxists Subvert Friendly Regimes and Support Foreign Terrorist Organizations: Updated with Information About Al-Jazeera (PDF)

Revolutionary Socialists of Egypt Join with Muslim Brotherhood Against the Mubarak Government, the United States and Israel

EXPOSED!!! Al-Jazeera is the Muslim Brotherhood Channel

Let’s help spread this critical information.