What would the analysts at “Lie to Me” (tagline: “The truth is written all over our faces”) say about this photo:
The woman on the left is France’s First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. The woman on the right is First Lady Michelle Obama.
The picture was taken at the ceremony to mark the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy at Colleville-sur-Mer cemetery, June 6, 2009
This:
or this:
This was created by a teen-ager in Alabama and posted on Youtube about a month ago.
It is outstanding. Take four minutes and watch it. You will not regret it.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkFFwyyjZC8
Making an appearance:
I may have missed a few…
The end of the Roman Republic was signaled by the transformation of political disputes into criminal prosecutions.
The Romans had always dabbled with a dangerous brew of political trials and private prosecutors. There were no public prosecutors, so even criminal charges had to be brought by a citizen. From time to time, Senators and prominent Roman figures would launch an attack via a criminal charge – but though the motives might have been political, the substance of the charges usually rested on a ciminal act which violated the Roman legal standards.
Ominous things began happening in the 2nd century BC. The great wealth acquired by the Republic during its expansion around the Mediterranean aroused great passions, rivalries, and jealousy. Triumphant generals became wealthy men. Wealthy men became generals commanding great armies. The armies of the Senate and People of Rome became the army of Marius or the army of Sulla. And, in the next generation, the army of Pompey or the army of Julius Caesar.
At the same time, political rivals sought not just to achieve political victory over their rivals, they began to seek their rivals destruction. When they began to seek the criminal conviction of their political rivals over policy differences the end of the Republic was at hand.
Case in point. Julius Caesar had immunity from criminal prosecution so long as he was the commander of the army of the Roman Republic in Gaul. But once he surrendered that command, he could be charged and tried as a criminal in the Roman courts. This is what his political rivals threatened to do.
Facing the threat of criminal prosecution, there was little to deter Caesar from leading his army south from Gaul and using it to seize power in Rome. His rivals demanded that he surrender his command. He knew that if he did, he would likely be destroyed. He justified his march on Rome as an act of self-defense.
If the leaders of one political party threaten to prosecute the leaders of a rival political party as criminals, once they acquire control of the government, they create a powerful incentive for the other party to fight, by fair means or foul, to retain power.
This is not a happy development in our political life.
The budget deficits incurred by President Bush were excessive, and wrong.
The budget deficits enacted in the budgets adopted by the Republican-led Congress from 2000-2006 were excessive, and wrong.
President George Bush has completed his two terms of office and will not run for office again.
The Republican congressmen who voted for the budgets of 2000-2006 should be primary-challenged and replaced with fiscal conservatives. The Republican members of congress who voted for the Wall Street bailouts should be primary-challenged and replaced with fiscal conservatives.
The budget deficits already begun and planned for the future by President Barack Obama are outrageous, and unjustifiable.
The Democrats who voted for the budgets of 2006 and onwards should be opposed and defeated by fiscal conservatives. The Democrat members of congress who voted for the Wall Street bailouts should be challenged and replaced with fiscal conservatives.
The federal government of the United States is too large, and has become too oppressive. It violates the rights of citizens and strangles the productivity and creativity of the American workers and the American businessmen.
The ONLY way to increase the prosperity of the people of the United States is for American workers and American businessmen to be set free to use their ingenuity and creativity to produce more value. The biggest obstacle to this is the nanny state – the oppressively large and bewilderingly complicated regulations of the federal government.
We need less government, not more.
We need less government spending, not more.
We need less government taxation, not more.
The American people are finding their voice. We are crying out for relief. We are looking for leadership.
We do not need speeches about hope and change.
We need leaders with common sense. We need leaders who will reverse the growth of government over the past ten years… the past twenty years… the past thirty years.
Ronald Reagan was right. Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.
Where is the Ronald Reagan of 2010?