Ponderstorm My Brainstorm on Life & Politics

The woman speaking in the 26 second video below, Peggy Joseph, is shockingly honest in her thoughts about what a Barack Obama Presidency means to her. Peggy Joseph is convinced that she will not have to worry anymore about putting gas in her car or paying her mortgage because Barack Obama is going to help her. Watch for yourself.

Sadly, Peggy Joseph believed Barack Obama’s spread the wealth thinking and now believes, not in earning more money through work, but in government transfer payments from the “rich” to those with less. This Marxist mentality amounts to legalized stealing. Thanks to Barack Obama’s two-years of campaigning and his promise to give tax cuts to 95% of Americans when only about 65% pay any income taxes, millions of Americans now believe they are entitled to a share of other people’s wealth. Sadly, many of those who currently pay no income taxes now expect a socialistic government check to cover their gas and mortgage.

It’s true, Obama is about change. However, it’s not the kind of change most people think they will be getting. Peggy Joseph is in for a surprise when her government check disappears after there are no more rich people to tax into poverty to pay for her gas and mortgage.

Barack Obama already told us his plan for bankrupting coal power plants. Now with his spread the wealth gone wild way of thinking, a more likely scenario, I fear, will be bankrupting the whole nation.

Posted under Barack Obama, Economy

Here’s an insightful political cartoon by Rick McKee that a Ponderstorm reader sent me. It does a great job of putting Barack Obama’s socialistic income redistribution notion into perspective.

As the rich candidate, would Barack Obama want his “spread the wealth around” scheme applied to his campaign contributions? What do you think? Should the government force the successful Barack Obama to share his campaign contributions with John McCain who is behind on fundraising? Wouldn’t that give John McCain a chance at success just like Barack Obama told ‘Joe the Plumber’ he wanted to do for those who earned less? (Click image to enlarge.)

Posted under Barack Obama

I just read something powerful from a pamphlet by William J. H. Boetcker (1873-1962) and entitled The Ten Cannots. It was originally published in 1916 but I feel its message is very fitting to us today and especially now during the 2008 Presidential election cycle. Here are the “10 cannots”:

1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
3. You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
4. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
5. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
6. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
7. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
8. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
9. You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
10. And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

I wish all in government and those aspiring to positions in government would take these simple yet powerful concepts to heart. Voters would be wise to do the same.

Please note: The above quote is often wrongly attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

Posted under 60 Seconds, Government, Quotes

The recording below contains a stunning admission by Barack Obama regarding the redistribution of wealth. It seems he is not arguing about whether we should or should not redistribute wealth but how best to do it. The recording is taken from a 2001 interview segment with the Odyssey radio program on WEBZ (91.5 FM) in Chicago. At that time Obama was an Illinois state senator from the 13th district and a senior lecturer in the Law School at the University of Chicago.

Please listen to this 4:17 audio segment and notice how Obama laments that the Warren Court was not that radical and failed to bring about redistributive change. He also said he was “not optimistic about bringing about major redistributive change through the courts.” He does seem to think that it can be done legislatively, though, as an administrative function. Note his lack of opposition to the idea of wealth redistribution by government. Contrary to that, he seems to wholeheartedly support that notion.

Unfortunately the above recording contains just snippets of Obama’s redistribution of wealth statements. Does anybody know where a recording of the rest of the interview can be found?

My thoughts on this: Read More…

Posted under Barack Obama, Video

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. I think the example on the left does just that regarding the seemingly complex concept of socialism and wealth redistribution. In my opinion, it sums up the functional basics of socialism very well.

Under a socialistic system, government (or the “community,” as socialistic proponents like to say) collects resources through “progressive” taxation. Stated another way, government levies an increasingly higher tax burden on those earning or owning more assets. In reality, though, socialism looks a lot like armed robbery since the threat of collective force is used to confiscate a person’s wealth.

It is also worth noting that, according to Marxist theory, socialism is the transitional stage between capitalism and communism.

Please note: I do not know who produced this graphic and thus cannot provide appropriate credit.

Posted under 60 Seconds, Government