From AmericanThinker.com
By Steve McCann
July 4, 2010
On this 4th of July, 2010, when the future of the United States appears to be in serious jeopardy, it should be noted that sometimes in the history of a nation, what appears to be an event that could lead to long-term disaster may, in fact, be its long-term salvation. A case in point: the election of Barack Obama as president and the Democrats in full control of the Congress. To be sure, the far-left domination of government is not a situation to be wished for, but in a perverse way, it was necessary.
Over the past fifty years, regardless of who was in the White House or in charge of Congress, no one has been able to halt the incessant spread of Progressivism in our institutions and the concurrent uncontrolled spending and growth of government. When a president as accomplished as Ronald Reagan was unable to do so, no future Republican president or Congress, short of a major national catastrophe, could ever fully turn back this tide, as they could not overcome the apathy of the people and the hostility of the media, academia, the entertainment establishment, and federal bureaucracies.
[...]
Today, thanks to a confluence of two factors, the opportunity exists to reverse the course the United States has been on and change the political power structure in the country.
The first: the emergence of alternative news sources that has broken the stranglehold on the dissemination of news by the traditional outlets dominated by the left.
The second: The election of a president steeped in socialist/Marxist ideology and a Congress controlled by the Progressive element of the Democratic Party.
A trait common to those on the far left is an inability to have any humility; there is an intense conviction of superiority, both intellectually and in their capability to rule the masses. The true believers are incapable of hiding their philosophy and, once elected, are convinced that nearly everyone does or should share their dedication to the power of a central government. Those who do not conform will be demonized. These extremists will move heaven and earth to achieve their ends, regardless of any long-term consequences, and they cannot avoid shouting from the rooftops what they are doing as tribute to themselves.
The general public has now been exposed to the following:
1) The current regime’s uncontrolled spending policies and willingness to triple the national debt within nine years have laid bare the actual and unvarnished state of the country’s debt and its potential financial future (further revealed by the pending bankruptcy of nations such as Greece).
2) The once-mainstream media’s willingness to lose all credibility with the vast majority of the public with its not-so-subtle cheerleading for their preferred politicians.
3) The Democratic Party, at one time the self-declared defender of the little guy and now captive to Progressive ideology, has openly declared war on small business and capitalism.
4) The current majority of the members of Congress has been unmasked as politicians incapable of reading bills, indifferent to voters, and fully in the pockets of liberal special interest groups.
5) President Obama and Congress intentionally used lies and deception to pass an unwanted health care reform bill in a not-so-subtle attempt to control the day-to-day lives of the American people. The use of bribery and intimidation to pass legislation or regulations was on stage for all to see.
6) To the current ruling class, slavish adherence to ideology trumps the needs and best interest of the people of the United States.
Not only are the readers of conservative websites, viewers of Fox News, and the listeners to talk radio aware of these factors, but with the backdrop of unfettered spending, the high jobless rates, and the potential for national bankruptcy, more and more of the general public has become aware of the radical nature of the present government, despite the efforts of them once-mainstream media.
Continue reading here………
=======================================
A List of Progressive Caucus Members Currently in the US Congress:
**Note: Although a majority of Progressives are in the House; there are THREE Senators listed too.***
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?ContentID=166&ParentID=0&SectionID=4&SectionTree=4&lnk=b&ItemID=164
=================================
About the Congressional Progressive Caucus:
The Progressive Caucus is an organization of Members of Congress founded in 1991 by newly-elected House Representative Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont), who is a self-described socialist.
In order “to bring new life to the progressive voice in U.S. politics,” the Progressive Caucus has worked closely with Progressive Challenge, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies. Progressive Challenge is a coalition through which the activities and talking points of leftist groups are synchronized and harmonized with one another, producing coordinated, mutually-reinforcing propaganda from some 200 seemingly-unconnected groups.
Until 1999, the Progressive Caucus website was hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America. After the press reported on this link, the connections suddenly vanished from both organizations’ websites.
=============================
An Article “outing” the Progressive Caucus from 1998:
Congress’ Red Army caucus
July 28, 1998
By Joseph Farah
There are many explanations for the failures of the 104th and 105th Congress, which came to power with promises of revolutionary change and a reversal of 40 years of bigger and more centralized government. The new leadership bears the brunt of the responsibility. After all, they were the ones who promised things would be different on their watch. They either fooled us about their intentions in the first place, or they failed miserably.
Yet, it is impossible to ignore one other important contributing factor seldom addressed by the press and pundit class.
I’m talking about the seemingly permanent cadre of hard-core leftists in Congress — people who know what they believe, know what they want and fight for it relentlessly, unlike most of the mushy-headed, unprincipled, compromise-at-any-cost, middle-of-the-road “Demorats” and “Republicons.”
Let’s call this caucus what it is — Congress’ very own Red Army. They are card-carrying members of the so-called “Progressive Caucus,’ marching the nation inevitably toward its self-proclaimed socialist ideal.
The names and faces change occasionally, but you can see a pretty current roster on the Web site of the Democratic Socialists of America. The caucus is led by avowed Socialist Rep. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, Rep. Maurice Hinchey of New York, Rep. Major Owens of New York, Rep. Nydia Velazquez of New York, Rep. Lane Evans of Illinois and Rep. Maxine Waters of California. Retired Rep. Ron Dellums was a long-time member of the executive committee and a leading DSA member. His replacement and political protege, Rep. Barbara Lee of California, proudly joins the club in his footsteps.
Unlike most members of Congress, the Progressive Caucus has a purpose, an objective, a goal. It is “organized around the principles of social and economic justice, a non-discriminatory society and national priorities which represent the interests of all people, not just the wealthy and the powerful.”
“Our purpose is to present thoughtful, practical solutions to the economic and social problems facing America,” says its statement of purpose. “Our people-based agenda extends from job creation to job training, to economic conversion, to single payer health-care reform, to adequate funding for the AIDS crisis, to environmental reform and to women’s rights. “Now that the Cold War is over, this nation’s budget and overall priorities must reflect that reality. We support further cuts in outdated and unnecessary military spending, a more progressive tax system in which wealthy taxpayers and corporations contribute their fair share, and a substantial increase in social programs designed to meet the needs of low-and-middle-income American families. We believe that these goals fit within an overall commitment to deficit reduction.”
To the untrained ear, that may not sound very radical. In fact, I suggest the majority of members of Congress would have little objection to such a mission statement — which is how and why the Progressive Caucus is able to accomplish so much of its agenda. A politician with no principles is hardly a match for one who does — even if those principles are bad ones that lead, history shows, to loss of freedom.
Read entire article HERE…..
===================================
Obama’s Communists
By Alan Caruba
September 4, 2009
“Tailgunner” Joe McCarthy, a 1950s U.S. senator who lent his name to any effort to expose America’s enemies, was right. At the height of his fame, he said the U.S. government was shot through with communists, many of whom were participating in a vast espionage effort orchestrated by the Soviets.
Though McCarthy was singularly unsuccessful in uncovering communists within the government during Eisenhower’s first term, the “Army-McCarthy” hearings, April 22 to June 17, 1954, were televised for all to see and he became one of the best known anti-communists of his day. Were there Communists and spies for the Soviet Union? Yes, but we would not learn more until a young senator from California, Richard M. Nixon identified Alger Hiss, a high-ranking State Department official as one.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the records that became available to historians and other scholars confirmed McCarthy’s worst fears.
During the 1930s and 1940s, communism appealed to many Americans. Some had soured on capitalism because of the Great Depression. Others saw communism at work in the Soviet Union and, believing the propaganda, concluded it was a viable alternative to capitalism. It would take a speech by Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev to draw back the curtain and reveal the horrors of living under Stalin.
Then, as now, communists found a home in the American labor movement and among the liberal elites of the Democrat Party who saw in the New Deal the way to transform America into a socialist nation, as well as among America’s intellectuals on its college campuses. Not much has changed.
One of the founders of the “Weathermen” group that conducted a number of bombings in the 1960s is now a “distinguished professor” at the University of Illinois–Chicago. Bill Ayers is also a longtime, close friend of Barack Obama.
Sen. McCarthy was quite possibly the worst person of his era to lead the investigation of communist infiltration and Soviet espionage. He was bombastic and a boozer. In August 1954, a Senate committee released a report censoring him for having abused his power as a committee chairman. He would remain in the Senate, but his days of glory were over. His drinking increased and in May 1957 he died from acute hepatitis.
The sad irony of McCarthy’s story is that the government was, indeed, filled with communist sympathizers, known as “fellow travelers,” and with Soviet-run spies. The story can be found in “The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America’s Traitors” by Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel. “Venona” was the U.S. code word given to secret Soviet spy communications.
Venona revealed the full extent of the spying that was occurring. Venona documented that Harry Hopkins, a close friend and advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt was also a spy. Both the FDR and Truman administrations were chockablock with communists. The Venona program of interception and analysis ran from February 1943 to 1980.
In the post-war years, the U.S. created the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency to discover and monitor not just the Soviets, but many other enemies of the nation.
A significant example is the way the Soviets were able to build their own atomic bomb long before their own scientists ever could, thanks to their espionage program. There were many others who were known in spy craft as “agents of influence.” One of them was I. F. Stone who wrote a widely read newsletter that provided cover for the actual spies and their activities. Stone continues to be hailed in journalism circles as an outstanding investigative reporter.
Among the Soviet spies were the Rosenbergs who were found guilty of passing atomic bomb secrets to the Soviets. The most famous spy of that era was Alger Hiss who at one point served as the director of the Office of Special Political Affairs in the State Department. He would go on to serve as the secretary general of the founding conference of the United Nations and later become president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
In “The Venona Secrets,” the authors note that a classic Stalinist tactic was “demonizing an opponent and then using his vilified name in a broad-brush smear against anyone who challenged Communist views or activities.” This is why the term “McCarthyism” has entered our political vocabulary. This is also what is occurring right now as former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Governor Sarah Palin, get the treatment.
How can you spot a communist sympathizer in the U.S. Congress? You can visit the website of the “Progressive Caucus” where, as of February 2009, more than 80 members of the House, including two from the Senate, self-identify themselves as progressives. “Progressive” was the term communists used after the McCarthy era. It is still in use today.
Some of the progressive caucus members are Ed Markey and Henry Waxman, co-authors of the “Cap-and-Trade bill that would impose a huge tax on all energy use in America. You will find Charles Rangel, currently under ethics investigation for having hidden hundreds of thousands of dollars from authorities. Barney Frank, the “brains” behind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s purchase of millions in worthless mortgage loans, is a member. He is the godfather of a meltdown on Wall Street that remains a threat to our capitalist economy.
Among President Obama’s ever-expanding circle of “czars” is Carol Browner, the former Clinton-era director of the Environmental Protection Agency (1993-2000) whose latest appointment also revealed that she served on the Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which is part of Socialist International. Her association with the group has since been scrubbed from their website.
Most obvious and notorious is Van Jones who has never made a secret of his political preference for communism and who is Obama’s new “Green Jobs” czar. The links between the environmental movement and communist goals are numerous, nor should it surprise anyone that the “global warming” hoax was birthed in the bowels of the United Nations.
Today, thanks to the way history is taught in America’s government schools, the threat to freedom that communism posed then and still does pose, is barely a subject for discussion. When he was still an adolescent in Hawaii, President Obama came under the influence of Frank Marshall Davis, a widely known communist in the 1950s.
Read full article HERE……
==================================
America!
“Had Enough” of the Obama/Progressive Agenda?
The ONLY thing the Progressives FEAR is the BALLOT BOX.
November 2010 and 2012 are coming…….Choose wisely.
===============================
NOT RACIST.
NOT VIOLENT.
JUST NO LONGER SILENT.
