Hopefully this is allowed

[Apoc]

I'm tired. You win. You know who was hot as shit.

[Evan]

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Election '08: Before friendly audiences, Barack Obama speaks passionately about something called "economic justice." He uses the term obliquely, though, speaking in code ÔÇö socialist code.


During his NAACP speech earlier this month, Sen. Obama repeated the term at least four times. "I've been working my entire adult life to help build an America where economic justice is being served," he said at the group's 99th annual convention in Cincinnati.

Democrat Barack Obama arrives in Washington on Monday. On the campaign trail, Obama has styled himself a centrist. But a look at those who've served as his advisers and mentors over the years shows a far more left-leaning tilt to his background ÔÇö and to his politics.
And as president, "we'll ensure that economic justice is served," he asserted. "That's what this election is about." Obama never spelled out the meaning of the term, but he didn't have to. His audience knew what he meant, judging from its thumping approval.

It's the rest of the public that remains in the dark, which is why we're launching this special educational series.

"Economic justice" simply means punishing the successful and redistributing their wealth by government fiat. It's a euphemism for socialism.

In the past, such rhetoric was just that ÔÇö rhetoric. But Obama's positioning himself with alarming stealth to put that rhetoric into action on a scale not seen since the birth of the welfare state.

In his latest memoir he shares that he'd like to "recast" the welfare net that FDR and LBJ cast while rolling back what he derisively calls the "winner-take-all" market economy that Ronald Reagan reignited (with record gains in living standards for all).

Obama also talks about "restoring fairness to the economy," code for soaking the "rich" ÔÇö a segment of society he fails to understand that includes mom-and-pop businesses filing individual tax returns.

It's clear from a close reading of his two books that he's a firm believer in class envy. He assumes the economy is a fixed pie, whereby the successful only get rich at the expense of the poor.

Following this discredited Marxist model, he believes government must step in and redistribute pieces of the pie. That requires massive transfers of wealth through government taxing and spending, a return to the entitlement days of old.

Of course, Obama is too smart to try to smuggle such hoary collectivist garbage through the front door. He's disguising the wealth transfers as "investments" ÔÇö "to make America more competitive," he says, or "that give us a fighting chance," whatever that means.

Among his proposed "investments":

ÔÇó "Universal," "guaranteed" health care.

ÔÇó "Free" college tuition.

ÔÇó "Universal national service" (a la Havana).

ÔÇó "Universal 401(k)s" (in which the government would match contributions made by "low- and moderate-income families").

ÔÇó "Free" job training (even for criminals).

ÔÇó "Wage insurance" (to supplement dislocated union workers' old income levels).

ÔÇó "Free" child care and "universal" preschool.

ÔÇó More subsidized public housing.

ÔÇó A fatter earned income tax credit for "working poor."

ÔÇó And even a Global Poverty Act that amounts to a Marshall Plan for the Third World, first and foremost Africa.

His new New Deal also guarantees a "living wage," with a $10 minimum wage indexed to inflation; and "fair trade" and "fair labor practices," with breaks for "patriot employers" who cow-tow to unions, and sticks for "nonpatriot" companies that don't.

That's just for starters ÔÇö first-term stuff.

Obama doesn't stop with socialized health care. He wants to socialize your entire human resources department ÔÇö from payrolls to pensions. His social-microengineering even extends to mandating all employers provide seven paid sick days per year to salary and hourly workers alike.

You can see why Obama was ranked, hands-down, the most liberal member of the Senate by the National Journal. Some, including colleague and presidential challenger John McCain, think he's the most liberal member in Congress.

But could he really be "more left," as McCain recently remarked, than self-described socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (for whom Obama has openly campaigned, even making a special trip to Vermont to rally voters)?

Obama's voting record, going back to his days in the Illinois statehouse, says yes. His career path ÔÇö and those who guided it ÔÇö leads to the same unsettling conclusion.

The seeds of his far-left ideology were planted in his formative years as a teenager in Hawaii ÔÇö and they were far more radical than any biography or profile in the media has portrayed.

A careful reading of Obama's first memoir, "Dreams From My Father," reveals that his childhood mentor up to age 18 ÔÇö a man he cryptically refers to as "Frank" ÔÇö was none other than the late communist Frank Marshall Davis, who fled Chicago after the FBI and Congress opened investigations into his "subversive," "un-American activities."

As Obama was preparing to head off to college, he sat at Davis' feet in his Waikiki bungalow for nightly bull sessions. Davis plied his impressionable guest with liberal doses of whiskey and advice, including: Never trust the white establishment.

"They'll train you so good," he said, "you'll start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that sh**."

After college, where he palled around with Marxist professors and took in socialist conferences "for inspiration," Obama followed in Davis' footsteps, becoming a "community organizer" in Chicago.

His boss there was Gerald Kellman, whose identity Obama also tries to hide in his book. Turns out Kellman's a disciple of the late Saul "The Red" Alinsky, a hard-boiled Chicago socialist who wrote the "Rules for Radicals" and agitated for social revolution in America.

The Chicago-based Woods Fund provided Kellman with his original $25,000 to hire Obama. In turn, Obama would later serve on the Woods board with terrorist Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground. Ayers was one of Obama's early political supporters.

After three years agitating with marginal success for more welfare programs in South Side Chicago, Obama decided he would need to study law to "bring about real change" ÔÇö on a large scale.

While at Harvard Law School, he still found time to hone his organizing skills. For example, he spent eight days in Los Angeles taking a national training course taught by Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation. With his newly minted law degree, he returned to Chicago to reapply ÔÇö as well as teach ÔÇö Alinsky's "agitation" tactics.

(A video-streamed bio on Obama's Web site includes a photo of him teaching in a University of Chicago classroom. If you freeze the frame and look closely at the blackboard Obama is writing on, you can make out the words "Power Analysis" and "Relationships Built on Self Interest" ÔÇö terms right out of Alinsky's rule book.)

Amid all this, Obama reunited with his late father's communist tribe in Kenya, the Luo, during trips to Africa.

As a Nairobi bureaucrat, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., a Harvard-educated economist, grew to challenge the ruling pro-Western government for not being socialist enough. In an eight-page scholarly paper published in 1965, he argued for eliminating private farming and nationalizing businesses "owned by Asians and Europeans."

His ideas for communist-style expropriation didn't stop there. He also proposed massive taxes on the rich to "redistribute our economic gains to the benefit of all."

"Theoretically, there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed," Obama Sr. wrote. "I do not see why the government cannot tax those who have more and syphon some of these revenues into savings which can be utilized in investment for future development."

Taxes and "investment" . . . the fruit truly does not fall far from the vine.

(Voters might also be interested to know that Obama, the supposed straight shooter, does not once mention his father's communist leanings in an entire book dedicated to his memory.)

In Kenya's recent civil unrest, Obama privately phoned the leader of the opposition Luo tribe, Raila Odinga, to voice his support. Odinga is so committed to communism he named his oldest son after Fidel Castro.

With his African identity sewn up, Obama returned to Chicago and fell under the spell of an Afrocentric pastor. It was a natural attraction. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright preaches a Marxist version of Christianity called "black liberation theology" and has supported the communists in Cuba, Nicaragua and elsewhere.

Obama joined Wright's militant church, pledging allegiance to a system of "black values" that demonizes white "middle classness" and other mainstream pursuits.

(Obama in his first book, published in 1995, calls such values "sensible." There's no mention of them in his new book.)

With the large church behind him, Obama decided to run for political office, where he could organize for "change" more effectively. "As an elected official," he said, "I could bring church and community leaders together easier than I could as a community organizer or lawyer."

He could also exercise real, top-down power, the kind that grass-roots activists lack. Alinsky would be proud.

Throughout his career, Obama has worked closely with a network of stone-cold socialists and full-blown communists striving for "economic justice."

He's been traveling in an orbit of collectivism that runs from Nairobi to Honolulu, and on through Chicago to Washington.

Yet a recent AP poll found that only 6% of Americans would describe Obama as "liberal," let alone socialist.

Public opinion polls usually reflect media opinion, and the media by and large have portrayed Obama as a moderate "outsider" (the No. 1 term survey respondents associate him with) who will bring a "breath of fresh air" to Washington.

The few who have drilled down on his radical roots have tended to downplay or pooh-pooh them. Even skeptics have failed to connect the dots for fear of being called the dreaded "r" word.

But too much is at stake in this election to continue mincing words.

Both a historic banking crisis and 1970s-style stagflation loom over the economy. Democrats, who already control Congress, now threaten to filibuster-proof the Senate in what could be a watershed election for them ÔÇö at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

A perfect storm of statism is forming, and our economic freedoms are at serious risk.

Those who care less about looking politically correct than preserving the free-market individualism that's made this country great have to start calling things by their proper name to avert long-term disaster.

[ViPER1313]

So Obama is a Marxist?? I bet I could piece together an article with enough "facts" that shows McCain was brainwashed by the North Vietnamese and plans to secretly turn the country into China #2.

:roll:

[JackoliciousLegs]

Among his proposed "investments":
ÔÇó "Universal," "guaranteed" health care.
ÔÇó "Free" college tuition.
ÔÇó "Universal 401(k)s" (in which the government would match contributions made by "low- and moderate-income families").
ÔÇó "Free" job training (even for criminals).
ÔÇó "Free" child care and "universal" preschool.
His new New Deal also guarantees a "living wage," with a $10 minimum wage indexed to inflation; and "fair trade" and "fair labor practices," with breaks for "patriot employers" who cow-tow to unions, and sticks for "nonpatriot" companies that don't.

-Universal Healthcare... Yes, for fuck's sake. How are people working as baristas supposed to live if they break a fucking hand? In this day and age to refuse someone primary care in an industrialized country is the fucking zenith of selfishness. Just because you have a technical job with full benefits doesn't make you any more deserving tha my friend who's a teacher with a master's that MUST work a teaching job to keep her insurance.
-Not quite free college education
-401k being universal? The rest of the fucking world does this. Some call it a superannuation. It's privatizing social security. It works.
-Free job training ... *gasp* even for criminals?!?! How are we supposed to rehabilitate them if we take them out of society for so long, and then toss them back in? They learn more about the underbelly of society from being in prison than they learn about being a productive member of society. I'm starting to get upset when people talk about "criminals." Getting busted for pot makes someone a criminal and it's just not right. Ugh...
-Free childcare/universal preschool? God forbid. You know Evan, you might just want to dismantle our whole public education system. Start with JMU and work your way down :roll:
-Minimum wage being a living wage? In CA it's already $9+ and it's economy is down the tubes... unlike this place

[CaptainHenreh]

-Universal Healthcare... Yes, for fuck's sake. How are people working as baristas supposed to live if they break a fucking hand? In this day and age to refuse someone primary care in an industrialized country is the fucking zenith of selfishness. Just because you have a technical job with full benefits doesn't make you any more deserving tha my friend who's a teacher with a master's that MUST work a teaching job to keep her insurance.
-Not quite free college education
-401k being universal? The rest of the fucking world does this. Some call it a superannuation. It's privatizing social security. It works.
-Free job training ... *gasp* even for criminals?!?! How are we supposed to rehabilitate them if we take them out of society for so long, and then toss them back in? They learn more about the underbelly of society from being in prison than they learn about being a productive member of society. I'm starting to get upset when people talk about "criminals." Getting busted for pot makes someone a criminal and it's just not right. Ugh...
-Free childcare/universal preschool? God forbid. You know Evan, you might just want to dismantle our whole public education system. Start with JMU and work your way down :roll:
-Minimum wage being a living wage? In CA it's already $9+ and it's economy is down the tubes... unlike this place

Who the fuck is going to pay for all this, Jack?

[JackoliciousLegs]

Healthcare.. we do via taxes. Education, all public. Taxes. If you don't like it.. well, then I guess you'll be one of the few that supported the dwindling funds going to JMU. 401k being universal? Same deal as our SS, only our money is in our hands... it's what our GOP lawmakers wanted. I agree with them mostly.

[HAULN-SS]

So where's the incentive for the individual to 1) better themselves when they'll still retire "comfortably" and be healthy, or start their own business, where they'll have the shit taxed out of them if the business succeeds?

[CaptainHenreh]

Healthcare.. we do via taxes. Education, all public. Taxes. If you don't like it.. well, then I guess you'll be one of the few that supported the dwindling funds going to JMU. 401k being universal? Same deal as our SS, only our money is in our hands... it's what our GOP lawmakers wanted. I agree with them mostly.

Awww... c'mon.

JMU has too much money as it is, if they can afford to buy a freakin' hospital to bulldoze it for the fuck of it.

And your 401k plan is...missing something. See, you say "only our money is in our hands" speaking about superannuation, except that according to the "op" that's not what Big O is talking about: He's talking about a socialistic handout. (If it's true, anyway). A superannuation is a decent idea, and much better idea than Social Security, except it doesn't *fix" social security, it's just a really good idea. You'd need to phase out SS over the next 2 or 3 generations. Do you see that happening?

I mean, c'mon. Show me a socialized healthcare system that actually works *as good* as the system we have, and maybe I'll be willing to pay for it.

[Apoc]

Michael Moore says Canada has it. I believe everything he says.

[JackoliciousLegs]

JMU has too much money as it is, if they can afford to buy a freakin' hospital to bulldoze it for the fuck of it.

I don't think so. I really believe that to survive as a world superpower, we need to give every kid an equal shot and spend a lot of money of education. A lot. That means no gov't handouts for private schools (vouchers). Spend that money on public schools, level the playing field, and "let the market work itself out."

Michael Moore says Canada has it. I believe everything he says.

We had the health care talk and the Michael "Bullshit" Moore talk already. I've had a personal experience with the healthcare in Canada I'm a strong advocate of universal healthcare.

[CaptainHenreh]

You missed my point entirely, Jack.

Throwing money at schools (especially universities) only serves to line pockets, rarely to improve educational experience.

The entire way we do the public education system in this country needs a dramatic overhaul, (same as SS, healthcare, etc) and nobody has the power to do it. The dems are a bunch of self-righteous ineffectual weenies and the republicans like money. Alot.

This is the same pie in the sky crap we've heard for ages and it's not going to happen, so instead we should concentrate on things that will really help people, instead of having everyone get their healthcare from the government.

Newsflash: There's already a group of Americans that get free healthcare, only whups! It totally sucks, so all of them that can avoid using it do so. Would you really want the equivalent of the VA running *all* of the nation's health care?

[CaptainHenreh]

[G.Irish]

You missed my point entirely, Jack.

Throwing money at schools (especially universities) only serves to line pockets, rarely to improve educational experience.

I think at the heart of what you're trying say is simply, "The devil is in the details." The ideas of Universal Healthcare or better education are noble ones but when you get down to how are we actually going to do it and not make a mess of thinks, it gets murky. I think that is the fundamental flaw of the Democratic party. The intent behind some of their major party ideas may be good, but implementation is where it falls flat.

It takes a lot of work, oversight, insight, intelligence, and political will to make a big government program work. As your Veterans Administration example proves, a lot of times that just doesn't happen. Now granted the military is a bit different because the chain of command makes dissent very difficult but you'd still have similar problems with universal healthcare. Would that be better than what we have now? I don't know. Would it be better if we just tried to fix what we have now? Possibly. But that's not as politically sexy methinks.