Recently I did something I don’t do very often, I bought a new car. No, this is not a “cash for clunkers” story, but a brief look at the serious challenges that are faced by the free market in America from the Barack Obama administration.

Now, buying a new car, whether it’s a brand spanking new car, or just a new to you car, involves a familiar procedure that we often refer to as the “dance,” or the “game,” or whatever signifier people use to explain how free-markets work in the buying and selling of things. It usually starts with the covert car lot trolling, which escalates to the commando-style deployments to check sticker prices, with the option to retreat to ‘escape vehicles’ to avoid the salespeople that seem to appear like wraiths from nowhere to begin their overly-happy greetings and the beginning of the all too familiar sales pitch process. If you have been there and done that, then you have probably made it to the advanced stages of the car buying process, which includes the test drives and the gritty back room negotiations, which usually involve the tag-team process of the salesman (always trying to get you the best deal – wink, wink) and his hard nose, but fair, supervisor, who must be privately consulted with repeatedly by the salesman, as you haggle your way to an amicable conclusion.

Now you might think I’m complaining about the process, which would be quite to the contrary. In fact, not only do I think the free market process of buying cars is the best game in town, I submit that the same supply and demand, give and take, process we see in the free market is what makes America uniquely great in all facets of life. Think about it. As with the investment of dollars for a car, Americans invest their time, labor, and even their vote, into the people and products they want to fulfill their services and needs. It’s at times hard work and we all have experienced a few ibuprofen moments, but it’s a fair system that works better than anything else on the planet.
The reason the free market works, and why it’s worth fighting for, can be easily seen by simply looking at the car buying (free market) process. In America, the buyer has the freedom to ‘talk’ and the freedom to ‘walk.’ That is, you can always – and I repeat, always – ask questions and kick the tires. If, heaven forbid, the buyer smells the “scent of lemons” on the ‘gem’ of a product being offered, he or she can take his or her money on down the road. That’s called freedom, and it has been the catalyst of improvements and innovations within the free market for the life history of this country.

The Barack Obama administration is attempting to turn this successful, time-tested, process on its head. Yes, they have products too. The latest products coming from the White House are Obama care and Cap and Trade – and many new models still to be brought out on the show room floor. However, with the Obama administration, they appear to be most fond of the ‘no questions asked’ purchase policy, and when the American people start to drive through the details of the president’s new policies and complain about the ‘scent of lemons,’ things start to get downright nasty. Not only has the administration demonized those who would bring about questions on why we should or should not buy into what the president is selling, it now appears that the American people may not be given the choice of taking their money and moving on down the road for something better. This little maneuver on a good day is called socialism, but after you drive it for a while, you see it really handles much more like communism.

For most Americans, the last several months have reinforced the true meaning of the slogan “buyer beware.” However, for those still in doubt, I would submit that if we wish to maintain the free market in this country, we must collectively stand up and stamp “No Sale!” on the anti-free market initiatives of Barack Obama.

Paul A. Ibbetson is a former Chief of Police of Cherryvale, Kansas, and member of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force. Paul received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Criminal Justice at Wichita State University, and is currently completing his PhD. in sociology at Kansas State University. Paul is the author of the books Living Under The Patriot Act: Educating A Society and Feeding Lions: Sharing The Conservative Philosophy In A Politically Hostile World. Paul is also the radio host of the Kansas Broadcasting Association’s 2008 and 2009 Entertainment Program of the Year, Conscience of Kansas airing on KSDB Manhattan 91.9 f.m. www.ibbetsonusa.com. For interviews or questions, please contact ibbetson91.9@gmail.com

The Obama administration is truly the place where Czars are made daily. Name your problem, concern, wish, or desire, and somewhere, for better or worse, there is an Obama Czar with power, authority, and funds to address the problem. The question that seems to come up repeatedly is: why do we need Czars that mirror other department agency heads? For example, why do we need a terrorism Czar when we have a head of the department of Homeland Security? In fact, currently the Obama administration has agency heads in place that do the work of the current drug Czar, health Czar, intelligence Czar, urban affairs Czar, blah, blah, blah; in short, all of these Czars are unnecessary expenditures of taxpayer funds. If your head begins to spin whenever the current list of Obama’s Czars is read, it is because at no time in history has there ever been a creation of so many overlapping bureaucratic power wielders within the U.S. government. The fundamental separation, which has been observed by those such as Glenn Beck, is that the Czars do not report directly to the people, as do the government agency heads, but directly to President Obama. That’s right; you won’t find any Senate deliberation behind the employment of the President’s special little helpers, now known as Czars. In fact, even the more politically informed individual would find it nearly impossible to keep up with the growing Czar list, let alone why we have them.

The existence and furtive work of these stealthy little Obama specialists should be grounds for analysis and discussion on conservative talk radio shows and I promise to make it a regular part of the Conscience of Kansas radio program; however, that may be a limited time offer. If discussions between the public and political talkers on these important issues, and others, are to cease from the conservative radio dial, it may come from the congressionally un-restrained and free-wheeling hands of the Czars. How so? Let me share it with you – while the sharing is still legal.

For talk radio, this would come from the newly conceived position of the FCC diversity Czar, now filled by Mark Lloyd. Lloyd, a past member of the far-left ‘Center for American Progress’ (CAP), which in its 2007 report, titled “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio,” was openly hostile to conservative talk radio and saw the Reagan repeal of the Fairness Doctrine as a fundamental component of the current disparity between liberal, (conveniently called “progressive”), and conservative talk radio. After lengthy calculations of the “fairness” gap (in reality, the reflection of the free-market superiority of conservative talk radio), Lloyd and his cohorts disclosed a plan to destroy talk radio through a series of restrictions, observations, and penalties.

With the growing opposition by the public to a re-emergence of radio free-market killers, such as the “Fairness Doctrine,” it seems only too convenient that Obama’s employment of Mark Lloyd, in the hired gun position of FCC diversity Czar, would take place now. This maneuver, while being liberal to the core, also has a familiar Chicago mafia style aroma – where dirty work is not handed down to the visible public figures, but quietly hired out on the side. No matter how one looks at the situation, in reality, we are observing another end-run maneuver to try the take away the people’s choice of what political voices are available when they turn their radio dial.

Paul A. Ibbetson is a former Chief of Police of Cherryvale, Kansas, and member of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force. Paul received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Criminal Justice at Wichita State University, and is currently completing his PhD. in sociology at Kansas State University. Paul is the author of the books Living Under The Patriot Act: Educating A Society and Feeding Lions: Sharing The Conservative Philosophy In A Politically Hostile World. Paul is also the radio host of the Kansas Broadcasting Association’s 2008 and 2009 Entertainment Program of the Year, Conscience of Kansas airing on KSDB Manhattan 91.9 f.m. www.ibbetsonusa.com. For interviews or questions, please contact ibbetson91.9@gmail.com

The moon landing really happened, Pearl Harbor wasn’t staged, no covert organization is trying to control your mind through radio waves, and Elvis is really, really dead. Those are the first conspiracy theories that jump to mind – that I can announce with clarity and pride that I do not believe in. The need to do this is readily apparent when we talk about the Obama administration’s current framing of the modern “right-wing extremist,” because frankly, if it wasn’t an official documented policy, no sane person in America would believe that our Government could hold such a disdain for its own people in this way.

Let’s start with what you already know (or what you know but may not have thought long and hard about): for the first time in modern history, vocal dissent in America – over the actions of the government – is no longer ‘free’ speech. It now comes with a price, which is becoming more expensive by the moment. What’s the price you have to pay to disagree with the current administration? The first noticeable change is a swift classification transformation, from being ‘patriotic’ to being ‘potentially dangerous;’ from people ‘out to get answers’ to people ‘out of control.’ If this seems over the top, turn on your television and watch the DNC’s ads, depicting the “angry mob,” and a weird thing will happen – you just may see yourself, or at least your beliefs, depicted in what the DNC frames not only as “angry, out of control agitators,” but also “paid rabble-rousers for the RNC.” These lowly disrupters include senior citizens, military veterans, mothers, fathers, registered republicans, registered democrats (you know, “trouble -makers”). Well, maybe it’s just a DNC anomaly – let’s not get crazy and blame the White House for some potential overzealous DNC staffer putting commercials over the airwaves without thinking. I mean, that’s using restraint, right? The problem is that the White House is officially asking people to turn in U.S. citizens who speak out against the administration’s policies (the “mob”), by sending the Obama administration the damaging evidence and the coordinates of these no-good, good-for-nothing, problem-talkers, through the White House’s official e-mail system at whitehouse.gov.

May we have some restraint please! Maybe, just maybe, this is simply another badly worded request for general feedback, and not an attempt to punish certain people (or groups of people) who question how their elected officials run their country. No such luck. The recently made public, April 7, 2009, Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA) assessment, titled Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment, shows the administration’s new framing of the modern right-wing extremist.

In this document (that would most certainly send a shiver up the leg of Joseph Goebbels), the right-wing extremist is depicted as an individual – angry over the decline of the economy and the loss of U.S. manufacturing and construction jobs. This right-wing extremist also harbors unwarranted anger over open borders issues, advancing firearm restrictions, and the expansion of social services to illegal aliens. Other dangerous perceptions, documented in the assessment, include how the right-wing extremist places ‘state’ authority over ‘federal’ authority; the right-wing extremist is, in general, antagonistic to the ‘historic nature’ of the Barack Obama presidency.

The only thing not included in the assessment was any actual evidence of criminal activities by this ‘radical’ group. A few loose McVeigh-like references from the 1990s are thrown out in very weak attempts to have factual foundations for this version of the new, modern, right-wing extremist. So, in the end, I’m almost sorry to say that this is another conspiracy theory I can put to rest. I’m sorry to say it because it means that we are faced with a true reality as scary as anything ever cranked out of the conspiracy mill. If you believe that, then you must ask yourself, do you fit the new framing of the right-wing extremist, and, what will be the penalties of such inclusion? This new classification of the right-wing extremist will indeed be increasingly hard to categorize, since the components that make up this individual are not found in the modus operandi of the criminal, but are instead found in the operation of free speech, and the lawful deliberation of the people with those that have been elected to serve them. With that said, it appears that the Barack Obama administration is working diligently to address this growing group that they have identified, classified, and demonized as the modern right-wing extremist.

Paul A. Ibbetson is a former Chief of Police of Cherryvale, Kansas, and member of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force. Paul received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Criminal Justice at Wichita State University, and is currently completing his PhD. in sociology at Kansas State University. Paul is the author of the books Living Under The Patriot Act: Educating A Society and Feeding Lions: Sharing The Conservative Philosophy In A Politically Hostile World. Paul is also the radio host of the Kansas Broadcasting Association’s 2008 and 2009 Entertainment Program of the Year, Conscience of Kansas airing on KSDB Manhattan 91.9 f.m. www.ibbetsonusa.com. For interviews or questions, please contact ibbetson91.9@gmail.com