"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever."

--Thomas Jefferson--

Warnings From Insiders

By Robert Ringer

I had a long talk yesterday with an old friend, an ex-Congressman who served eighteen years before retiring in disgust. Back in the late eighties, he invited me to give a talk to a group of likeminded conservative colleagues in his office. (A couple of young Congressmen who were at that meeting are now very high-profile politicos, but, to protect their privacy, I will refrain from giving their names.)

Afterward, my friend told me how impressed they had been with what I had to say. But I didn't buy it, because one of the things I remember most vividly about that meeting was their blank stares. Clearly, those supposedly conservative Congressmen were not prepared to hear my analyses of government, the economy, or the future.

Now, fast-forward twenty years to our private talk yesterday. A few minutes into the conversation, my friend told me that he was in a quandary and wanted my advice. He said he had always kept most of his net worth in cash, because he never trusted the stock market, and he now believes that hyperinflation and the destruction of the U.S. dollar are inevitable. In other words, he sees his cash becoming worthless as a result of government running its printing presses overtime.

I will not share with you what I told him, because I'm not a financial advisor. But, like me, he said he is even more worried about the political consequences of hyperinflation. He said he has been warning his children for years that unless there is a radical backlash from the public, they will live out their lives under a dictatorship.

Please Click Here to read the rest of today's A Voice of Sanity article.

Judicial Overreach

By Hugh Hewitt

As disappointed supporters of same-sex marriage in California continue on their unprecedented campaign to intimidate the majority of voters who favored retaining the traditional definition of marriage, attention is shifting to the California Supreme Court's decision to hear a challenge to the successful amendment.

Even if--as is expected--the Court upholds the voters' decision to amend the California Constitution, the California Supreme Court should use the opportunity to revisit the vast overreach it engaged in last May when it declared sexual orientation to be a "suspect classification" just like race and religious beliefs. The 4-3 majority's radical intervention into law-making unleashed a bitter and deeply divisive tumult that had not previously marked the state's gradual evolution of its laws to reflect public opinion's measured and nuanced views towards its gay and lesbian citizens.

The court should humbly admit its error and restore the constitutional standards it trampled last year.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

"It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors."

–George Washington, Thanksgiving Proclamation, 3 October 1789

THE FREE MARKET CONSENSUS 1989-2008: RIP

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

The subprime mortgage crisis is only the Sarajevo which caused the financial collapse. The real reason is the massive explosion of debt at all levels and in all forms that has engulfed the world. Since 1992, the total of debt in the world has gone from a level equal to global GDP to a level that is now 3.7 times as much as global GDP. This debt explosion, explained in Charles Morris' book (no relation) The Trillion Dollar Meltdown, consists not only of mortgages, but bonds for... more

55% Oppose Taxpayer-Backed Loans to Big Three Automakers
Rasmussen Reports

Struggling Banks Paid President Clinton $2.1 million for ‘Speeches’
CNSNews.com

Don’t Bail Out the Big Three
The American

Fairness Doctrine 2.0
The Heritage Foundation

Media Fail to Connect Dots on Bailouts

Journalists blind to how government is chief cause of many industry problems.
By Dan Kennedy
Business & Media Institute

Have you noticed that the media largely fail to connect the dots between related events?

In all the reporting on the auto industry’s ills, little is said about the government as the chief cause.

Automakers, Unions Play ‘Defense’ to Get Bailout
Failing manufacturers claim taxpayer rescue is necessary on national security grounds.

Networks Gloss Over Geithner’s Past, Ignore Criticism
Reports on ABC, CBS and NBC have promoted incoming Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner as “highly regarded” and “much-admired,” but have ignored blemishes on his record.

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition."

—Thomas Jefferson

Road to Socialism

"I was always taught when growing up that when you reward bad behavior all you get is more bad behavior. From the mortgage meltdown to the automaker debacle to cities and states going under, it's all bad behavior. It should not be rewarded. The problem here is that our culture of debt -- both personal and corporate -- has created a culture of dependency. Everyone is calling out to our central government to give them money. And horrors of horrors, many are willing to let the federal government take ownership stakes in these entities and have a hand in their management. That is the road to socialism. The first step to ending the culture of dependency is to tell these corporations, cities and states they need to start taking responsibility for their actions by dealing with the consequences they have created for themselves. If not, then we could accumulate a national debt that even our grandchildren will never pay off."

--columnist and former Mayor of Cincinnati Ken Blackwell

"Every time that we try to lift a problem from our own shoulders, and shift that problem to the hands of the government, to the same extent we are sacrificing the liberties of our people."

--John F. Kennedy--

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."

--Thomas Jefferson --

Automakers Forced to Pay Up to 95-Percent of Wages to Union Members Who Are Not Working
(CNSNews.com) – Industry analysts say union labor agreements that obligate the Big Three to pay millions of dollars to workers who are no longer working are a major reason why the automakers are in trouble – a problem that no short-term bailout can fix. During hearings last week where the chief executives of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors appeared before the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) raised the issue.

'Narcissistic Sovereignty’ Has Kept U.S. from Ratifying U.N. Treaty on Children’s Rights
(CNSNews.com) – Advocates for a United Nations treaty on children’s rights blamed American arrogance for the U.S. failure to ratify the treaty, but critics charged that signing onto the Convention on the Rights of the Child could mean international law trumping U.S. state and federal laws and the rights of parents to make decisions about raising and educating their children. Critics say that national self-determination is at the heart of why the treaty should not be ratified.

In Alaska, The Drill Is Gone

Investor's Business Daily --

Energy: Remember those 68 million acres House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the oil companies had to use or lose? According to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, they can't drill there either. [Read more]

Trickle Down

Investor's Business Daily

Taxation: Barack Obama's apparent turnaround on repealing the Bush rate cuts is not just a pleasant surprise indicative of the president-elect's good judgment. It is a ringing vindication of Reaganomics. [Read more]

Plot Thins In The War On Terror

Investor's Business Daily --

The War: The killing of al-Qaida's 2006 airline bomb plot planner by an American Predator drone is only the latest terror-war victory. From Anbar to Waziristan, they're dropping like flies. [Read more]

Stocks Pleased With Obama's Econ Advisers

By Lawrence Kudlow
IBDeditorials.com

When President-elect Obama had a chance to squash the tax-hike threat once and for all at his Monday news conference, he took a pass and let the question linger for another day. But his new economic cabinet appointments strongly suggest there will be no tax hikes next year.

Stocks, for one, like what they're seeing from Obama's cabinet selections. On Friday, Obama announced Tim Geithner will be his Treasury man, and on Monday he made Larry Summers his White House economics tsar and named Christine Romer to the top spot in the Council of Economic Advisers. Stocks rallied 900 points across this stretch.

That's not the end of the stock story. Markets also like the new super-TARP government plan to bail out Citigroup, which effectively guarantees the banking system with a massive insurancelike policy. But markets may also sense a little pro-growth good news in the Obama policy mix.

When asked about tax hikes on Monday, Obama said the debate is......