The promise of a great new ‘Change we can believe in’ is daily becoming the great “Division we can barely live with.’ Why has the President allowed the question of his birth place to be added to the burgeoning list of doubts America is already facing.

The President’s stand on abortion and the newly discovered provisions found in the Health Care Bill for assisted suicide for the elderly indicate that the ‘one’ who promised to heal the divisions in the nation has not only ignored that campaign promise, but has sailed his ship way outside of that empty promise to create a class of entirely disposable citizens. Can we now add the group often being referred to as the ‘birthers’ to the ever growing list of disposable citizens? No healing here.

The question raised by the title of this article can be answered with a simple, yes but to be fair we should examine the plight of the birthers. (Those who are demanding to see the long form of President Obama’s birth certificate) More importantly, why hasn’t the President put a stop to it with a simple showing of the document?

Anyone who surfs the web has by now become at least nominally aware that a rapidly growing segment of America is quite dissatisfied with the vetting of the President. The question is largely centered on Barack Obama’s refusal to release what is known as the long form of his Hawaiian birth certificate.

The birth record is only one of many documents that have raised suspicion about the President’s past. It is ridiculously un-complicated because the commonality of every document in question is the same; they are still missing, or at least unseen by anyone except those who are reported to be holding them.

Perhaps there is nothing at all to the entire matter but until the documents can be seen no one will believe that. In a nation founded on laws, evidentiary procedure and documentation for almost all grievances and complaints, applications or identification, missing documents just won’t do it.

I will not enter the fine details of all that has been done to procure the records but rather I will try to keep this perusal of the matter on a strictly philosophical basis. I know it is impossible to have a Will Rogers kind of trust in people, a Glenn Beck style of appeal to common sense, all at the same time we are saying that the laws of the constitution may have been breached by the person who holds the highest office in the land. This is a tightrope for anybody to walk.

Hawaii has just hit the news and said that they have not destroyed any paper documents just because they have gone into electronic record keeping. It would seem safe to say that the document still exists. What does not seem as safe is that anyone should ask to see it. Newsman Lou Dobbs recently underwent a scolding according to sources for his mention of the missing documents and others have had to endure ridicule and outright scorn for the mention of it.

Every day thousands more Americans are joining those who are now calling for the proof but the White House has danced around the issue, the President remains mysteriously silent and the birthers have had to endure the scoffing, belittlement and pooh-poohing of their efforts by everyone in the Obama sphere and some outside it.

Equally disconcerting is the fact that some high profile conservatives like Bill O’Reilly and Governor Mike Huckabee think Obama is perfectly OK with the COLB he displayed on Snopes.com We have to wonder why they are so sure about something they have never seen either.

We are all quick to point out that Obama supporters hang on his every word like they were hypnotized but are reticent to openly disagree with conservative big boys like O’Reilly who has often said Obama, is very smart. What is smart about creating doubt in the hearts and minds of several million Americans?

Concealing the facts about a simple document comes under the heading of ‘pinhead’ not ‘patriot.’ Shouldn’t someone be willing to tell Mr. O’Reilly that? We can all appreciate the stand O’Reilly has taken on many issues but even his word can’t substitute for the constitution and its obvious requirements for the vetting of a Presidential candidate.

Thanks for the stand and the tee shirts but the matter of vetting cannot be dismissed by the waving of your hand at the end of a ninety second segment. Grassroots movements require years to gain adherents and strength and no one can wave them off in a second. I am no more of an expert than O’Reilly on the ‘birthers’ but I would bet the farm that they are in this for the long haul and will not be easily dismissed.

Struggling to find the truth must never be confused with mere partisanship or labeled as a conservative or liberal cause. It is several levels above simple politics and can never be settled in the endless debates of pundits and news figures. If we could refer the question to the founding fathers I’m sure they would concur that this is the reason they gave us the constitution to begin with. Calling the birthers some less than flattering names shows that we have missed the point entirely. It is the constitution that is primarily calling for the truth not the birthers.

Here is the rub. Those who say the document has been seen are wholly unwilling to admit that it not only has been alleged to be a fraud but it is by any standard, totally unusable as an instrument of identification and or verification. The reason it has been rendered useless has more to do with the means by which it was presented rather than the assertion that it is fraudulent.

It could not be used to get a passport, a job, a security clearance, a travel visa, a credit card, a bank account, or a tryout for the little league. What it can be used for is to get a direct and unhindered passage to the White House. Should we really be surprised by the doubt it has raised in the minds of millions of Americans? Please don’t insult your own intelligence with a glib answer of yes.

The more important question is why is the birth certificate posted on the internet useless? Here is where vetting 101 helps us along with the basics. No document posted online can be used to vet anything or anyone; think about it!

When you go to help your child get their first drivers license or when you go to the interview for the much coveted job you trained for all too many years, or when you make your next application at the bank for a loan try this. Just tell them they can look up all the pertinent information on you on your website, on your Facebook or Twitter page or wherever it is posted on the World Wide Web. If you are not laughed at you will at least be shown the door.

The internet is still the one media that gets laughed at as it pertains to accuracy and reliability. Here is the media that is home to a billion pages of filth, porn and general gobbledygook. The web is a long way from fully establishing its credulity as a news source but there is where our President chose to show the nation his papers. Yes, most reasonable people would tend to doubt this, how dare we label them ‘birthers’ and assign them to the fringe. Going from Snopes to a posted COLB and directly to the White House without passing go; that is what’s fringy.

Most of us won’t order a twenty dollar music CD from an internet website unless it has a major outlet like Amazon or EBay behind it with some kind of triple strength encryption on the check out page. But hey, want to be the President of the United States just post your birth certificate online and start spending the $600,000,000 in your campaign coffers to gain the White House. I am not trying to make it sound absurd, it doesn’t need my help to sound that way.

The Presidents silence continues to drive a wedge between the rapidly growing number of Americans who want to see the certificate and those who just don’t give a hoot. His credulity is suffering but no one seems to be advising him that if he continues to lose their trust it will undoubtedly show up hard against him in the 2012 election results. The million or two votes and growing cast against him for his indifference will be well earned and could be the difference between a second term and early retirement.

So what is the bottom line? Is it a court order to produce the document; is it a Senate or Congressional hearing to demand the papers? Can you snuff your nose at millions of Americans for four years and think it will all just go away like the fading of the morning glory at the rising of the sun? No one can say what series of complicated legal maneuvers will actually work to produce the big secret document but one thing is a foregone.

Before they were called ‘birthers’ they were called citizens. Until the constitution is completely discarded it is the citizens who have to choose and work with their President and it is the President who has to deal with the citizens. So deal with them Mr. Transparency!

President Obama has shown us that he has never met a minority that he doesn’t like. He comes from the black minority and has shown special care to Latinos, immigrants and gays. Are the ‘birthers’ the one exception to the rule. Oddly they are the one with the simplest problem and it can be solved in a New York minute. What part of the simple request to see the document does the President not understand?

If he wants the whole matter to just go away he could obtain the document submit it to a few reliable news sources and put the entire matter to bed. Adding to his promise to become Mr. Transparency, Barack Obama has also earned the title of Mr. News Conference.

Why not shut the mouths of the naysayers with a single stroke, a single news conference and thereby perhaps pick up a few votes in the process. Holding up the highly disputed document for all to see and perhaps with a smile and a ‘hey boys, look at this’ would nip the entire matter in the bud. Birthers would go home silenced but happy and the confidence of several million Americans would be restored. All that remains after that is to see if the President invites people like Philip Berg, Mario Puzzo and Orly Taitz along with some of the most vociferous birthers to the White House for a beer.

But even if it takes until someone finally locates the documents for the inauguration of the new Obama Library the truth will one day be known. What will that legacy be?

I said that I will keep the approach here on a purely philosophical level but I cannot leave the room without at least one small item lifted up from the theological level. If nothing should happen on the Obama birth certificate question until the very end of time there is one who will demand a look see; and he will get it.

Christ said, “For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.” (Mt 4:22)

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and has over two million readers and counting.

The recent news swirl encompasses the inflammatory statements of President Barack Obama in the wake of the arrest of African-American scholar, Henry Louis Gates Jr. Gates, a black Harvard Professor, was arrested by Cambridge police after a verbal altercation, which occurred while police responded to a report of a possible break-in at the Professor’s home. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, the Washington Post reported that President Obama stated that, without having the facts of the case before him, the police had acted ”stupidly” in arresting his Harvard friend. At nearly the same time, reports in the media would surface that Gates was demanding an official apology from the Cambridge police for their transgressions against him and, quickly and very efficiently, another case of police abuse against a minority had been logged. Unfortunately, for those that wish to foment continued race conflict, using the Cambridge arrest as another example of “white racism in America,” there was one little problem: the police were right and the Professor was wrong.

The knee-jerk reaction is, “how can that be?” I mean, think about it, a black professor arrested for trying to get into his own home – his own home for goodness sake. The clincher in this story, for many people with no other facts to draw from (the President included), is that the black professor was arrested by a white police officer. Well, there you go. It’s the mentality of that last statement which is the dangerous component of this story and it is here where both Barack Obama and Professor Gates should be taken to task as pre-meditated race conflict builders.

For those who wish to deny the social advances this country has made over the decades, my personal law enforcement background will no doubt be a disqualifier of my right to speak on this issue. But before you condemn me, let me defend Barack Obama. You can decide for yourself if the President of the United States should be more restrained when talking about events without the facts, or about giving input on the arrests of personal friends. However, I can tell you from professional experience that immediate statements made about the “rightness and wrongness” of police arrests by family and friends are often tainted by the emotional bonds people have with those who find themselves in the evening lockup. So, while many rail on this part of the Cambridge incident, my experience leads me to extend a certain amount of compassion for those (the President) who find themselves gagging on their foot when speaking out of turn on friends and family who have just been arrested.

The problem that should be observed in the Cambridge (Gates) arrest situation is not that of simple “stupid statements” but that of race conflict building. As events of the arrest of Professor Gates became more clear, we see that the Harvard scholar not only ‘talked himself’ into getting arrested, but that he did so by initiating race into his verbal attack that continued throughout the police investigation to the point of being placed into custody. President Obama, like Gates, needlessly and without provocation raced to “the race card.” For Obama, this can be seen in his initial media statement, where he made sure to reinforce the notion that minorities do not get a fair shake from the police in America. This is where Obama did his greatest disservice to not only law enforcement but also the nation.

The final sadness of this event is how both Barack Obama and Professor Gates, when faced with the reality of Gates’ racial statements at the scene and an arresting officer (who not only was not a member of the KKK but was an instructor on racial profiling) with a sterling record, could not bring themselves to apologize. Instead, they did what liberals always do when obviously in the wrong – they attempted to create a new reality. President Obama started his bizarre procedure of ‘re-calibrating’ his statements, as if you can turn a dial and make racial conflict building into a ‘nice thing.’ Professor Gates, not to be outdone, decided to attempt to remove himself from the entire incident and went from demanding police apologies to saying that the issue was not really about him at all and that he just wanted to move on.

In reality, the largest injustice will neither be that a black professor got mad at the police, got arrested, used the race card, and got caught in the process, nor that the first black President of the United States was only too happy to jump on the bandwagon of racial conflict building. As bad as both of those two events are, the largest injustice here is that a police officer, who did his job and did the right thing, was put through the racial grinder (although he survived), and the entire issue will drop with a framing of ‘no harm, no foul’ as the race conflict builders will simply wait for the next opportunity to strike.

Paul A. Ibbetson is a former Chief of Police of Cherryvale, Kansas, and member of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force. Paul received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Criminal Justice at Wichita State University, and is currently completing his PhD. in sociology at Kansas State University. Paul is the author of the books Living Under The Patriot Act: Educating A Society and Feeding Lions: Sharing The Conservative Philosophy In A Politically Hostile World. Paul is also the radio host of the Kansas Broadcasting Association’s 2008 and 2009 Entertainment Program of the Year, Conscience of Kansas airing on KSDB Manhattan 91.9 FM. For interviews or questions, please contact Ibbetson91.9@gmail.com or go to www.IbbetsonUSA.com.

Although America is a fledgling young nation among older countries and civilizations she probably could use the adage “I’ve forgotten more about freedom and opportunity than you will ever know” to the rest of the world without looking the slightest bit pompous.

When we misplace our keys or our glasses the first question we ask is ‘where did I have them last.’ The comedy of such a question is that if we knew where we had them last they wouldn’t be lost. There is little comedy attached to the misplacement of lost love, lost youth or lost fortunes. Herein is proof that what is forgotten has far more weight than the common proclivity to forget.

Although I was born a Yankee I was drawn to the culture of the Deep South at an early age. Amidst the beauty of moss covered oaks and antebellum homes there exists something not so attractive about the southland’s historic involvement with slavery. In time anyone’s worst behavior becomes almost subjective in nature and perhaps that is how we learn from our mistakes. We can hold our behavior at a distance and examine it in the clear light of reason.

It is clear to many of us that with the help of the clear reasoning, appeals to our better nature and with the help of iconic figures like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. that our history with slavery is now seen as a period of our worst behavior.

In normal personal relationships when we have recognized that we have wronged somebody we give it the old one, two, three. First is acknowledgment that a wrong has been done. Second we stop what we are doing and change course which may include apologies and reparations where possible. Thirdly we must begin a course toward forgetfulness.

This kind of forgetfulness is not associated with denial but it is directly akin to growth. No person and no nation can move through the present or the future very swiftly or efficiently while dragging the baggage of the past along behind.

In America we may have well reached the juncture where our effort to forget for the sake of gaining the future is beginning to pay off; but not for all. It is easy to say that it is incumbent upon the black man in America to forget the past and move on, but we are the offenders and they are the offendees. Have we rushed the matter?

The almost 100 years between the Emancipation Proclamation and the civil rights laws of the sixties does make it look as if we were dragging our heals. But now almost a half century after the visitation of Martin Luther King it is the black man that seems to be dragging his heals.

When an old wrong is constantly referred to in a domestic argument between spouses it is called nagging. When the infractions of the common criminal are filed and categorized for law enforcement to refer to it is called record keeping. But when the sins of the fathers are held over the heads of many future generations it is called excuse making. Thus is born something known in the modern vernacular as ‘the race card.’

When the race card is pulled out for every purpose great or small in a last ditch effort to define both crime and motive it does more than get old, it begins to look like what it is. It is a device to shift blame, to confuse an issue or worse to ignore the truth of a matter entirely. The race card in America is beginning to lose its punch. It is fast becoming the card the cheating gambler has hidden up his sleeve and pulls out by sleight of hand when he knows he’s holding a losing hand.

When special acknowledgements or events occur year by year in America to honor the blacks we in the white majority show our willingness to help the black man remember. We do not take offense and we don’t counter with a ‘white history month’ or worse. We want to remember along with African Americans the great contributions and achievements that blacks have added to the American dream. That inclusion is what makes it America to start with. Not only must the past be forgiven but it must now be used as the springboard to the future; that too is uniquely American.

In my high school there were only two black families in the entire town with high school aged children. One of them was my best friend. I surely would not claim to understand the black culture or the horrors of slavery because of this brief friendship. I could not see the difference between my black friend and any other student. I had not yet learned of the history of slavery or the trials of the black man; all I knew was that my buddy was cool.

In perhaps one of the only mildly violent incidents in my life I once clobbered my dear friend in an argument. Although he was not seriously hurt, later that night I could not sleep. I lied in my bed with a powerful sorrow gripping my heart for hurting my friend. Not once did I ever consider the pain that I caused him to be worse because he was black. I apologized to him the next day and we went on as friends until time finally sent us in diverging directions in life.

My humanity had offended his humanity, my selfishness and callousness had offended our friendship and only my own one, two, and three could restore it. Isn’t it time for the black man in America to respond to our collective one, two, and three?

Learning tolerance and diversity may speak of maturity in relationships but it is not what makes a friendship. Friendship is born out of recognition of every man’s humanity and an attraction to each mans specific expression of that humanity often known as a personality. It is what made me think my young black friend was cool.

Perhaps cool is a weak starting point but it led to friendship and retrospectively I can say it led to love. Enduring friendships are often used to define love.

In our Bibles the word love is broken into three distinct categories by use of the Greek language. The first is Eros love which is obviously pure physical love. Second is Philos love which is brotherly love or general friendship. The last is Agape love, the unconditional love that is like God’s love.

While friendship falls into the category of Philos love it does not define it. In the English language there is one word for love. In the far more expressive language of the Greeks there are over forty words used to express the powerful nature of what we call love. Even at that, a finer definition can be found only when expressing the use of or, the actions of love.

Christ asked his disciples, who was a friend to the battered man found on the side of the road beaten and bleeding? The disciples concluded it was not those who passed by and ignored him but the one who stopped to help him. The example of the Good Samaritan shows us that action is always the best example and the best definition of love or friendship.

Refining this definition took the deeply spiritual insights of another man we know as the Apostle Paul. He declared that love was not only shown by what we do but also by what we don’t do. In what has long been referred to as the ‘Love Chapter’ Paul lists the attributes of genuine love. Among them is this one. Paul said love, “keeps no record of wrongs.” (1 Cor 13:5 NIV)

Is it time for black America to give up its record keeping and get on with something else? Maybe we can’t jump, dance or look hip in the hood but there’s got to be something about the white man you can find cool, start with that and maybe friendship will follow. Does it sound like I’m saying ‘let’s just be friends?’ Don’t you think its time?

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and has over two million readers and counting.

Homeschooling is a growing trend in the United States today. Many thousands of parents wary of government indoctrination of their children, not to mention tired of the plummeting level of actual education threatening our kid’s futures, are taking their children’s education into their own hands and setting up homeschools. The trend is also starting to alarm the bureaucrats in government that count on using our children as a device to bring in state and federal tax money as well as teachers unions that relish the power of controlling our progeny. Consequently, state governments are increasingly looking at regulations meant to hamper homeschooling efforts.

But it isn’t just American bureaucrats and unions looking to justify their jobs that homeschoolers should worry about. From outside the U.S. there is a looming threat to homeschooling. Not only education sits in the crosshairs but the very the rights of parents to decide what is best for their own children could be threatened. This threat will likely manifest itself if the U.S. ratifies the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Currently the U.S. is not a signatory to this treaty and it would be better for parents if that remains the case because the UNCRC, if ratified, could set the stage for a complete government takeover of all education regardless of the desires or religious convictions of parents throughout the United States. And as mentioned this treaty also has the potential to eliminate parent’s rights altogether and, not just with education. Current events in Great Britain, a signatory to the treaty, are being closely watched by American homeschoolers and evidence seems to be mounting that worries about the UNCRC are well founded.

Last week, British homeschoolers were alarmed to find that the British Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families accept a report on British education created by Graham Badman, a former Managing Director of Children, Families and Education in the County of Kent.

The report recommended that the national government forcibly register all children that are not attending class in state schools and also suggested a mandate that homeschools be further regulated. Additionally, it was recommended that the state assume the power to enter the private homes of homeschooled children in order to make sure that government strictures are being observed.

The underlying source by which Badman claims legitimacy for his report is the UNCRC. According to the Home School Legal Defense Association here in the states, the treaty “will be used to significantly restrict the freedom to homeschool in England.” And if it happens in England, a nation that has ratified the UNCRC, it will happen here if we do the same. It should be noted that President Obama has been a strong proponent of the UNCRC.

One of the most frightening aspects of the UNCRC is that it decouples the traditional relationship between parent and child and replaces it with a relationship between government and child. Worse, the treaty gives the child autonomy from his parent and bestows upon him the right to decide for himself what sort of education or even religion he shall pursue. The government is then charged to enforce the will of the child over that of the parent.

Naturally, this outrageous excision of parents from children will preclude the traditional right of the parent to make educational and religious choices for their minor children.

For his part, Badman asserted that children might be open for “abuse” in homsechool situations and insisted that the UNCRC gives him the standing to ascertain what the kids want and enforce that upon parents.

I am not persuaded that under the current regulatory regime that there is a correct balance between the rights of parents and the rights of the child either to an appropriate education or to be safe from harm.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) gives children and young people over forty substantive rights which include the right to express their views freely, the right to be heard in any legal or administrative matters that affect them and the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas. Article 12 makes clear the responsibility of signatories to give children a voice:

“Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.”

Yet under the current legislation and guidance, local authorities have no right of access to the child to determine or ascertain such views.

So, according to the British government, homeschools are dens of abuse and children have the “right” to decide for themselves what sort of education they should pursue. And parents? Well they simply must bow to the rule of the state.

It seems clear that British homeschoolers are on the verge of being made illegal. If the United States is foolish enough to join Great Britain as a signatory member of the UNCRC, it cannot be long before our homsechools are in the same position.

(Originally posted at RightWingNews.com.)

Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Conservatism Can conservative + grassroots + Christian = edgy and insightful political commentary? Tune in and find out!

Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Conservatism strikes again! Every Thursday at 6:00 pm PT hosts Babe Huggett and Warner Todd Huston discuss and examine current political events, put them in historical context and follow trends to their logical conclusions through a conservative, Christian viewpoint. Scheduled guests will enjoy their own featured segment. Phone in comments from listeners always welcome! On tonight’s show:Hosts Babe Huggett & Warner Todd Huston dig deep & analyze the news with their usual insightful and historical approach all the while being as politically irreverent as possible! Better sit down and try to remember we are free men and women and not numbers as tonight privacy expert and anti-tagging crusader, Dr. Katherine Albrecht, gives an update on how our ruling elites plan on tagging us all like deer on their private hunting preserves. Program info Date / Time: 7/30/2009 at 6:00 PM Pacific/ 8:00 PM Central/9:00 PM Eastern Tonight’s Topic: How VeriChips, tagging, RFID Chips and the Mark of the Beast are on the elites’ agenda for us. Call-in Number: (347) 237-4040 Visit & listen! Listen to Huggett & Huston on Blog Talk Radio More from Huggett & Huston: OutLoudOpinion.com Publius’ Forum Free Britannia.org

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MOSCOW WISHES CHAVEZ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SENDS ARMS:
ARE THESE ROCKETS YOURS, HUGO?

International News Analysis Today
July 30, 2009
By Toby Westerman

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently sent warm birthday wishes to the neo-Communist president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, with tighter military cooperation as one of Moscow’s presents. A formal Russian-Venezuelan commission on military-technical cooperation will coordinate future Russian arms sales to Chavez.

Medvedev’s sentiments were conveyed by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who was presentin the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, to conclude a series of cooperation agreements with the Chavez regime.

Sechin also worked with Chavez to set up in Russia an up-coming mid-August meeting of what is referred to as the Russian-Venezuelan High Level Intergovernmental Commission.

The agenda will center on a closer working relationship between Moscow and Caracas. Venezuela will be represented by Vice President Ramon Carrizalez, who holds the rank of general. Carrizalez also functions as Venezuela’s Defense Minister, indicating the importance of Russian-Venezuelan military cooperation — including “intelligence equipment” — within the activities of the Intergovernmental Commission.

The Chavez regime has already purchased $4.4 billion in arms from Russia, and has made no secret about its readiness to buy more. Moscow is open about its willingness to sell Chavez as much as he can purchase.

Chavez is in a buying mood for a number of reasons, one of which involves an expanded U.S. military presence in Colombia, after the American military was asked to leave its base in now pro-Chavez Ecuador. The Chavez regime is further militarizing its border with Colombia.

Another reason for the armament buying spree is his expansionist tendencies. In public comments following the final meeting with Sechin, Chavez reiterated his vision for Latin America, which involves the appearance of what he calls a “new regional pole of forces.”

This is a reference to Chavez’s “Bolivarian Revolution,” the destruction of democratic capitalism replaced by neo-Communist tyranny. Chavez acknowledged that this “new regional pole of forces” was possible “thanks to the cooperation with Russia.”

After Sechin left the 55-year-old Chavez, he flew to Nicaragua to ensure that Moscow has the closest of ties with the Marxist-dominated regime of Daniel Ortega.

Chavez, however, remained in Caracas to fend off accusations that he is sending rockets to a Communist narco-guerrilla army operating from Colombia.

While Moscow was sending expression of unreserved support, Chavez was becoming embroiled in what is now a major scandal in Latin America. The government of Colombia had been able to trace shoulder-carried rockets it captured from the FARC guerrilla army to their origin in Venezuela.

The FARC is the Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed forces of Colombia, a Marxist narco-terror army which has been attempting to overthrow the government of Colombia for 40 years. The FARC has operatives active throughout the Western Hemisphere and in Europe.

The rockets captured were the AT-4 type, manufactured in Sweden and sold in the 1980s to Venezuela. The Swedish government has joined Colombia in investigating how the rockets came into the hands of FARC guerrillas. Sweden no longer sells weapons to Venezuela, observing a U.S. ban on arms sales to Chavez, a ban which Moscow does not observe.

Although the AT-4 is not the most sophisticated of shoulder fired rockets, their presence is an increased threat to Colombian military personnel and their U.S. advisors. Regular American military troops in the region are also at risk, since they are active in anti-drug smuggling operations, which is a top income producer for the FARC.

The rocket scandal is a major embarrassment to Chavez, who has said that he does not aid the FARC, and has made public statements urging the FARC to lay down its weapons.

Chavez, in reality, is no peace maker, but sits atop a network dedicated to the destruction of the United States and the imposition of Marxist rule in the Western hemisphere – including the United States.

He is not merely “leftist” as he is described by the Centralized Media.

The Chavez network includes guerrilla fighters, both FARC and the old Sandinista organization from Nicaragua, drug cartel paramilitary organizations, above ground political organizations, and a cooperative media within the United States.

Although the Chavez network is extensive, both he and his allies would be only a minor annoyance, except for the avid support of Moscow.

FIND OUT WHAT THE CENTRALIZED MEDIA IS NOT REPORTING — READ: Lies, Terror, and the Rise of the Neo-Communist Empire: Origins and Direction. Or, go to your favorite online book seller.

Mr. Westerman is the author of LIES, TERROR, AND THE RISE OF THE NEO-COMMUNIST EMPIRE: ORIGINS AND DIRECTION, available at this site, as well as Amazon.com and other online booksellers. Westerman is the editor and publisher of International News Analysis Today (www.inatoday.com).

Franklin Roosevelt thought controlling prices of things would right the depressed economy. Today, more economists every day are admitting that his efforts caused The Great Depression to last at least five years longer than it needed to. In the 70s Richard Nixon thought that his program of price controls would save the economy. Instead, it wrecked it further. And now, in 2009, as the Obama administration contemplates a massive government takeover of the nation’s healthcare system — nearly 20% of our national economy — at the top of the list of things to do is to set up effective price controls on services.

In fact, Medicare already does this and it has been the sort of mandates and government meddling that has helped lead to the downfall of our medical system as it is. Right now, Medicare pays only some 40% of the actual costs of medical care forcing one of several situations. Doctors that end up not getting paid, patients on the hook for what is left, or hospitals that never get reimbursed for services causing them to try and charge higher prices to everyone else to make up the difference. And, of course, the low reimbursement rates that Medicare pays out has an effect on the high cost of insurance, as well.

But what will come once Obamacare is passed will far exceed the mess that the price fixing via Medicare has wrought. Worse, there will be no effective way for the people to have a say in what sort of prices that government forces on the industry because Obama plans to create another one of his ubiquitous “committees” with a mandate to set these price controls, fees and schedules.

There are many voices standing against this unelected body of mysterious government perfunctories setting price controls on the medical community. For instance, the American Medical Association and the American College of Surgeons are both voicing their concerns over this White House appointed committee.

White House Budget Director Peter Orszag is proposing that once the president approves of the controls set by this committee then they automatically go into effect. The only way to stop them is for Congress to raise an effort to block implementation. In essence, what we have is an unelected board of political appointees being handed massive power all the while they are completely unaccountable to the voters.

There is one way, however, that this unelected committee will be affected: lobbyists. But it won’t be lobbyists directly influencing the committee members as much as it will be money “donated” to the people who appoint the committee members. In this case, it will be the president.

We can see a recent example of what I am talking about in California. It has been discovered that State Attorney General Jerry Brown has benefitted from over $10 million in “gift contributions” to his pet charities from special interests that he is charged to oversee in the state. So, all the interests that Jerry Brown is responsible to regulate have, out of the goodness of their hearts, suddenly decided it was a great idea to donate to all of Jerry Brown’s favored organizations.

Gee. Whattaya think that will get them if not favored decisions from Brown’s office?

So, let us extrapolate what happened in California to this healthcare price control committee controlled by and appointed by one man, the president. We will see an influx of lobbyist money in donations to Obama’s (or any president that controls this committee) favorite causes as well as his campaign. And why would these lobbyists do this if not to find the favor of the man responsible for controlling the committee that will set the price controls under which the lobbyists will suffer?

One thing should be noticed here. There are no doctors in the mix. It is politicians, unelected appointees, and lobbyists that will be setting these policies. Not doctors, not patients, not hospitals or families.

(Cross posted at HealthcareHorseRace.com.)