The High Price of Freedom

Memorial Day is an occasion of special importance to all Americans, because it is a day sacred to the memory of all those Americans who made the supreme sacrifice for the liberties we enjoy. We will never forget or fail to honor these heroes to whom we owe so much.

We honor them best when we resolve to cherish and defend the liberties for which they gave their lives. Let us resolve to do all in our power to assure the survival and the success of liberty so that our children and their children for generations to come can live in an America in which freedom’s light continues to shine.

The Congress, in establishing Memorial Day, called for it to be a day of tribute to America’s fallen, and also a day of national prayer for lasting peace. This Nation has always sought true peace. We seek it still.

Our goal is peace in which the highest aspirations of our people, and people everywhere, are secure: peace with freedom, with justice, and with opportunity for human development. This is the permanent peace for which we pray, not only for ourselves but for all generations.

The defense of peace, like the defense of liberty, requires more than lip service. It requires vigilance, military strength, and the willingness to take risks and to make sacrifices. The surest guarantor of both peace and liberty is our unflinching resolve to defend that which has been purchased for us by our fallen heroes.

On Memorial Day, let us pray for peace — not only for ourselves, but for all those who seek freedom and justice.

Ronald Reagan

This Should Scare You

Government always grows at the expense of the private sector. Government is growing, and that should scare you.

"As for the private sector, thanks to Democrat spendthrifts, it's shrinking while the public sector grows.

"Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year," according to USA Today.

"At the same time, government-provided benefits -- from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs -- rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010."

Patriot Post

And "The Dino" Is In

After months of uselessly wasting other people's energy, time and money NOW "the Dino" decided he wants to be Senator.

Oh how very "politician-y".

A Repulsive Spectacle

Unprecedented: Calderon Slams US From House Floor. Receives Standing Ovation

by Lori Ziganto

Unprecedented, indeed. But, not surprising, given that our own President has done nothing but the same. I’m wondering if Calderon at least read the Arizona bill first, before demonizing an American state. That would actually be unprecedented, amongst our alleged leaders, at least.

President Obama, for once, forewent bowing. Not to worry, though! The Democrats in Congress picked up his slack and went one further. Standing ovations!

For a foreign leader bashing an American state. From our own House floor.

Not only do the Democrats fail to figuratively stand up for America, but they literally stand up for and applaud those who seek to condemn it. Worse, it is condemnation from the foreign leader whose own country is a primary source of our illegal immigration issues. All compounded by the fact that Arizona was forced to try to deal with their immense problem on their own, since the weak-willed and spineless folks in attendance at the Joint Meeting of Congress refused to do so.

You know, the very same ones who are breathlessly applauding and jumping to their feet in sycophantic grand-standing, including two, Janet Napolitano and Eric Holder, who have admitted to not reading the 16 page law. Which I’ve read and can comprehend. Granted, I’m no community organizer or an (alleged) lawyer, but still.

Allahpundit at Hot Air notes:

It’s a repulsive spectacle. And as bad as it is, it’s not even the most audacious bit of meddling that Calderon did today. Brace yourself for this.

On the gun question, Mr. Calderón said: “We have seized 75,000 guns and assault weapons in Mexico in the past three years, and more than 80 percent of those we have been able to trace came from the United States.”

He said it did not seem coincidental that violence in Mexico had begun to grow in 2006, not long after the weapons ban expired in the United States.

That’s right. WE are the source of Mexico’s problems, according to Calderon. If only we had weapons bans, Mexico would be free of crime and violence!

On the plus side, at least we can save some tax-payer cash. There is no longer a need for Obama to travel to commence apology tours. Now, he just invites the foreign leaders here where he apologizes and they bash.

From our House floor.

To cheers and ovations. Remember that, in November. Remember who cheered the bashing of an American state and the denigration of American citizens. For passing a law necessitated by the fact that the federal government themselves refused to act.

Arizona is just doing the job the federal government doesn’t want to do.

A(nother) Great Big Tax

Democrat Cap And Tax Scheme

Wednesday, John Kerry (D-MA) unveiled the Democrats’ cap and trade bill in the Senate. It is 1,000 pages of new regulations, tax hikes and income redistribution. Many conservatives refer to cap and trade as “cap and tax,” but you don’t have to take our word for it.

John Dingell (D-MI) is the longest-serving Democrat in the House of Representatives. He referred to cap and trade as “a great big tax.” Warren Buffett has called it “a huge tax…and a fairly regressive one.”

The liberal New York Times inadvertently admits it even as it acknowledges that cap and trade is a massive redistribution of wealth scheme. Here’s how the Times described Kerry’s bill in a May 13th column: “Two-thirds of allowance revenues raised by the program, outside the 25 percent that goes toward paying down the deficit, will go to households through their utility bills. Low-income residents will receive additional rebates.”

If Congress wants to reduce the deficit, don’t come up with great big, huge new taxes. Just cut spending! And why bother imposing a tax when you know from the outset that 66% of it will be given back? Where’s the logic in that? It’s socialist redistribution of wealth plain and simple. It couldn’t be more obvious.

And why are those rebates necessary? Because cap and trade is a massive tax on energy intended to cause utility rates to skyrocket. Don’t believe me? Barack Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2008, “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

Unfortunately, it’s more than just your utility bill. Cap and trade will cause food prices to skyrocket, it will cost families $1,800 a year, and lead to $7.00 a gallon gasoline.

Gary Bauer

Democrat Debt Crisis - U.S. Deificit 4X Higher in One Year!

From Reuters today:

The United States posted an $82.69 billion deficit in April, nearly four times the $20.91 billion shortfall registered in April 2009 and the largest on record for that month, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

It was more than twice the $40-billion deficit that Wall Street economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast and was striking since April marks the filing deadline for individual income taxes that are the main source of government revenue.

Department officials said that in prior years, there was a surplus during April in 43 out of the past 56 years.

The government has now posted 19 consecutive monthly budget deficits, the longest string of shortfalls on record.

The U.S. full-year deficit this year is projected at $1.5 trillion on top of a $1.4 trillion shortfall last year.

White House budget director Peter Orszag told Reuters Insider in an interview on Wednesday that the United States must tackle its deficits quickly to avoid the kind of debt crisis that hit Greece.

Democrats obviously enjoy spending with astounding reckless abandon, even to the point of placing our nation in the same peril as Greece.