Yes, the winds of change are blowing.  To the pleasure of many and to the dismay of some, they are predominately leftward in nature.  In the religious world, we live in a post-modern society where moral relativism is the flavor of the day.  Without moral absolutes, society is free to act in whatever manner can be rationalized as good.  In our political world, trans-nationalism is the new threat to national sovereignty for our country and every other.  As if it wasn't bad enough to have the Supreme Court justices move from determining constitutionality of laws, to interpreting the Constitution as they see fit, to legislating from the bench, we now see them considering international law in their determinations.  There is a familiar pattern that has emerged for those seeking societal change.  If legislative efforts fail, go to court to have change dictated.  If the courts offer no help, make it an international issue to pressure change.  The Constitution has been on its deathbed for quite a few decades now.  It is to be referred to by politicians when necessary for their ends and it is to be ignored when it is in their way.  This includes all three branches and all political parties.

Such it is with global this and global that, crisis this and crisis that.  Remember the bailouts that couldn't wait until Monday without catastrophic consequences?  The weekend came and went without complete collapse of society as we knew it.  The crisis to pass bailout and stimulus packages caused our legislators to vote on bills they admittedly didn't read.  Now we are trapped with burdens we didn't want.  Spending now and billing future generations is not moral, it is generational theft.  It is our version of the federal Poncy scheme known as Social Security.

• One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

• But probably the BIGGEST KEY benefit to developers cloaked in this "Stimulus Bill" is the ability to carry back losses for 5 years instead of 2. They tried to push this in the Housing stimulus in September but got so much blow back from citizens that they took it out. Now its back, hidden under the guise of helping ALL businesses.

  "The legislation also would allow businesses to carry back net operating losses for five years, instead of the current limit of two years. This provision would generate cash through tax refunds for companies that now are losing money but previously were profitable." (Note the use of the words "cash tax refunds". This is cold hard cash in the billions coming to these guys from us)

• Sen. Daniel Inouye says $198 million for Filipino war veterans was included in the $787 billion “stimulus” bill to preserve the “honor” of the United States. What’s the logic?

  Don’t those 18,000 Filipinos, who fought alongside America GIs in World War II, deserve a vote by U.S. Congress on their own merits? I think they do. Why hide the cash in a bill 4,000 times bigger than the $198 million?

• What else? Are there 3,999 similar items in the “stimulus” bill? Is it a stimulus bill, or is it just an excuse to pay everyone that Congress has ever dreamed of paying?

How about the international transfer of wealth known as Climate Change.  In the 1970's the news magazines had the dramatic cover stories of Global Cooling and the impending ice age.  In the 1990's the same magazines, and grant recipients that promote such issues to keep the cash flowing, were declaring Global Warming and the certainty of melted ice caps and flooded coast lines.  Waking up to the fact that it can't be both, the situation was created for both to be working together in Global Chaos for the early 2000's.  School children have now been indoctrinated from early years through "higher" education as to the "fact" that it exists and that we are indeed the guilty party.  This farce will succeed in transferring our wealth to developing countries as a guilt complex continues to be placed upon our citizenry.  When the carbon tax, or cap and trade, failed to gain traction in the Legislature, the administration simply had the EPA declare carbon dioxide a pollutant and a danger as a green house gas.  Nancy Pelosi says that the legislation will be reintroduced.  Meanwhile, the federal government has started the tax ball rolling by laying the groundwork for forcing industry to start measuring the very thing every human exhales and every plant transforms into the oxygen we breath.  Why not start with the largest green house gas element, water vapor?  The cap and trade system is an artificially created commodity market that will transfer money from industry to others.  It is taking from one and giving to another, or as President Obama said in his campaign, spreading the wealth.  Do you think you are unaffected?  Everything a producer spends, including taxes, is a cost in production and added to the price of goods and services for the consumer.  Think about this when your energy rates double and triple.

This country has never been stupid until the education system was nationalized.  We allowed the government to dictate the agenda for what was needed to be learned by our youth.  We allowed the responsibility to be moved from our households, to the states, and eventually to the federal government.  We allowed the unionization of the teachers to prevent us from making sure that the best teachers were rewarded and that the poorest were removed.  We allowed the basics to be pushed aside for social issues.  We allowed the majority to be imposed upon by many minority stakes.  We have allowed the dumbing down of America.  There is no need to wonder why our schools are failing and our kids are in trouble.  What federally run operation is ever successful?  The military could be one exception, at least until the politicians get involved and weaken it by revealing things that our enemies should not know or by slashing the budgets and pointing fingers later when a crisis arises.  It was communist revolutionary Lenin who said, Give me one generation of youth, and I will transform the entire world (Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia 2002).

Ronald Reagan said, "Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them."  "Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives."  "Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."  "No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!"

In a quote attributed to Nikita Khrushchev, former Soviet dictator, "When you are skinning your customers, you should leave some skin on to heal, so that you can skin them again."  This is what is happening to the "middle class".  The turnip is being squeezed dry.  Class warfare has been employed as never before.  During the past election cycle I heard the terms rich and greed more than ever before.  Profitability and wealth were demonized relentlessly to garner votes from the lower income levels including those who are dependent upon the welfare state we have created.  The powers to be seem to be stopping just short of taking over industry, leaving skin to heal so they can continue to garner cash flow for social reconstruction. By completely taking over the banking, auto or energy sectors, the politicians would have no one to blame when the inevitable failures occur.  By influencing them with tax dollars and regulations, they can continue to blame others for mismanagement and corruption while appearing to be the white knight that is only seeking to protect the interests of the American public.  It is much like passing a bill with the support of only a couple members of the opposing party and then calling it a bipartisan effort.  It is merely cover for the eventual blow back from the public as they endeavor to share and even shift the blame to someone else.

"We can't expect the American people to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have communism".  Nikita Khrushchev

So here we are watching liberty and sovereignty die.  Our new global society will require the death of our dollar, the death of our uniqueness, and the death of our individuality.  We are now servants to the system, the federal machine.  We are a long way from the people and the states creating the limited Federal government to serve very specific needs of the citizens.  Consider the following quotes from Joseph Stalin and see how closely they apply to our time.
"Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed"
"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas."
"It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything."
"Mankind is divided into rich and poor, into property owners and exploited; and to abstract oneself from this fundamental division; and from the antagonism between poor and rich means abstracting oneself from fundamental facts."
"When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use."
And finally, "America, is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within."
Mission accomplished, almost.

Did you know that we were in a crisis?  If not, President Obama will sure let you know.  Really, is there anyone that isn't aware of the financial and housing meltdowns?  It would seem that good leadership would lead.  Where is it?  President Obama used the word crisis a total of twenty four times in one speech this past Friday.  "I'm here today to talk about a crisis unlike any we've ever known", he began in a speech at Phoenix, Arizona, on the home mortgage crisis.  Mentioning it as the topic is fine, but beating the drum so hard will not encourage a single soul.  Where is the positive spin to encourage consumer confidence?  Politicians are widely known for spin, so where is it when we actually need a little.  In our sound-bite society, positive spin may encourage the so-called main street to loosen the purse strings a bit, the real key to ending a recession.  All that was heard in the campaign was "hope and change, "yes we can", and "eight years of failed Bush policy."  What we get is doom and gloom, only the government can, and more of the same.  The same Democrat controlled Congress that spent money, gave bail outs, and promoted the bad lending practices in the Community Reinvestment Act, is the same Congress that President Obama handed the reigns of leadership to so they could pass the biggest spending bill in history.  And we haven't seen the budget yet.  Where is the leadership in giving the farthest left politicians, Reed and Pelosi, the freedom to spend on every pet project they've been seeking to finance over the past years?

In the same speech, President Obama states, "Our housing crisis was born of eroding home values, but also of the erosion of our common values. It was brought about by big banks that traded in risky mortgages in return for profits that were literally too good to be true; by lenders who knowingly took advantage of homebuyers; by homebuyers who knowingly borrowed too much from lenders; by speculators who gambled on rising prices; and by leaders in our nation's capital who failed to act amidst a deepening crisis."  I guess Barney Frank and Chris Dodd had nothing to do with failure of oversight and promoting poor policies.  There were leaders who attempted to reign in the problems over the past couple years, including the Bush White House, but Barney Frank did well to block that failing to see a problem in regulation.  And President Obama, then Senator Obama, never lifted a finger to act against the rising problem.  He is not above it all as he was part of the majority party in Congress.  Where was the leadership then?  Where is the leadership now?

Hope and change is really the same old, same old.  Liberal spending after campaigning against the evils of President Bush's deficit spending.  $785 billion dollars, borrowed dollars even before the budget cash to be spent, is definitely deficit spending.  And remember, the Democrats, President Obama's party, was in control of the purse strings, not President Bush.  My point isn't to defend President Bush.  My point is that we are seeing the same old spending.  Spending to fix a problem that was caused by spending.  Where is the change?  And about the hope, does it really exist when we are told that the government is the only party that can get us out of this recession?  The same people that want to spend us out of it are the people that made the policies that helped us get into the big downturn.  Good leadership would be attempting to pump up the nation's producers and labor force, encouraging people to produce goods and loosen the purse strings to help the economy.  With every speech President Obama makes, he causes people to wonder how much worse things will get and to hang onto whatever cash they have.  It is depressing for people to think our only hopes hang on the government solving the problem.

And how does it help those with money to invest to loosen their hold on the cash when President Obama talks about raising taxes on them?  The Washington Post reports that he plans to reduce the deficit by the end of his first term.
"Obama proposes to dramatically reduce those numbers, said White House budget director Peter Orszag: "We will cut the deficit in half by the end of the president's first term." The plan would keep the deficit hovering near $1 trillion in 2010 and 2011, but shows it dropping to $533 billion by 2013, he said -- still high but a more manageable 3 percent of the economy.

To get there, Obama proposes to cut spending and raise taxes. The savings would come primarily from "winding down the war" in Iraq, a senior administration official said. The budget assumes continued spending on "overseas military contingency operations" throughout Obama's presidency, the official said, but that number is lower than the nearly $190 billion budgeted for Iraq and Afghanistan last year."

He talks about raising taxes on the people that have the money while trying to work out of a recession.  I fail to see how this type of a message will make any entrepreneur feel comfortable about risking funds and then having more of the profits, if there are any, pilfered by the tax collector so the politicians can give it to those in society who didn't risk anything to earn the profits.  The entitlement attitude of today is being fed by the government.  Spread the wealth as he told Joe the plumber.

Hope and change, where for art thou?

For more encouragement, read the comments of Soros.  Maybe this is where President Obama gets his material.

Soros sees no bottom for world financial "collapse"