op ed review 6/28

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has put cap-and-trade legislation on a forced march through the House…. It looks as if the Democrats will have to destroy the discipline of economics to get it done. Despite House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman's many payoffs to Members, rural and Blue Dog Democrats remain wary of voting for a bill that will impose crushing costs on their home-district businesses and consumers. The leadership's solution to this problem is to simply claim the bill defies the laws of economics.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124588837560750781.html

Newt Gingrich: “The reality is that the bill before the House today imposes what could be the largest tax increase in history on the American people. And every single one of us who heats a home, drives a car, and manufactures or consumes products made in America will pay the price. Estimates are that the Waxman-Markey bill will raise electricity prices by an astounding 90 percent. It will raise gasoline prices by 74 percent. It will raise the average American family's energy bill by $1,500 each year. And, far from creating jobs, experts predict that the global warming bill will destroy 1,105,000 jobs on average each year, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by over 2,479,000 jobs. All in all, the bill is expected to reduce our gross domestic production (GDP) by $9.6 trillion. And for what?

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Cap-and-Trade-is-another-way-of-saying-2_2_5-7882637-49117697.html

In Dearborn, Michigan, where the local mosque's call to prayer is broadcast over the town by loudspeakers, a group of Christian evangelists were told that they could not pass out Bibles on the sidewalk during a festival.

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/06/26/a-religious-test

Despite ABC’s best efforts,: President Obama’s town hall meeting on health care delivered a sickly rating Wednesday evening. “Is he losing his charm?”

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/71441

In a rare moment of candor, President Obama explained to an audience how government-run healthcare would work in America: one way to shave medical costs is to stop expensive procedures performed on old people.

http://spectator.org/blog/2009/06/25/obama-wants-to-let-those-pesky

The day after Barack Obama’s largely passed over infomercial is the ideal time to review the George Soros funded Project on Death in America. Soros is a notorious advocate of the assisted suicide campaign…. in reality, the project is a drive to provide palliative care rather than treatment for gravely ill patients:… If we fail to abort Obama-Soros care, “involuntary euthanasia” will become part of standard medical treatment.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/12332

Who stands to benefit the most from Mark Sanford’s troubles? Pew finds that Mitt Romney has made his biggest gain among so-called independent voters. Back in 2008, just 29 percent of that important voting bloc had a favorable view of Romney, while 46 percent didn’t like him. Today, those numbers have-- to use a phrase that haunted Romney during the campaign--flip-flopped. Now, 44 percent of independents view Romney favorably.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/06/25/palin-still-rules-but-romney-is-gaining.aspx

Top Republicans and Democrats across Alaska are quietly lining up to run for governor amid growing speculation that Sarah Palin will not seek reelection in 2010. A number of Democrats and Republicans believe her silence is a sign she will not pursue a second term as governor so that she can play a larger role on the national political stage.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24051.html

Hundreds of New York City public school teachers accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that's what they want to do. Because their union contract makes it extremely difficult to fire them.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090622/ap_on_re_us/us_rubber_rooms

At last, there's a place in America where tax cutting to promote growth and attract jobs is back in fashion. Who would have thought it would be Maine? This month the Democratic legislature and Governor John Baldacci broke with Obamanomics and enacted a sweeping tax reform that is almost, but not quite, a flat tax.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124571672694839297.html

A month after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's showdown with the CIA over interrogation techniques, just 38 percent of Americans approve of her job performance, while 45 percent disapprove

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/22/AR2009062202972.html

Unbelievable: Rep Barney Frank is calling on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to relax recently tightened standards for mortgages on new condominiums.

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Housing/idUSTRE55L39120090622

The reason for the firing of the Americorps Inspector General becomes more obvious: “As a favorite program of Barack and Michelle Obama, AmeriCorps was enjoying a higher profile than ever before. The Corporation also stood to receive vast amounts of new funding from the $5.7 billion Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which would triple the size of AmeriCorps. And in the midst of that, here was the agency's inspector general saying he might re-open an investigation into an embarrassing episode involving hundreds of thousands of mis-spent dollars and a politically prominent supporter of the president.”

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/AmeriCorps-feared-bad-press-if-IG-investigation-continued-48998746.html

Hunters, whittlers and Boy Scouts, beware - your knives may soon be on the government's chopping block. The Obama administration wants to expand the 50-year-old ban on importing ''switchblades'' to include folding knives that can be opened with one hand, stirring fears the government may on the path to outlawing most pocket knives.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/24/bid-to-expand-knife-ban-doesnt-cut-it-with-critics/

The Rev. Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh became the first archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, established after a break with the US Episcopal Church over the issue of ordaining gays as priests.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090625/ts_csm/aarchbishop

Judge Sonia Sotomayor has a narrow view of the Second Amendment that contradicts the Court’s landmark decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. A heated debate has started in the U.S. Senate over her opposition to the right to keep and bear arms.

http://townhall.com/columnists/SandyFroman/2009/06/24/nra_members_must_oppose_sotomayor

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Thomas Sowell 6/23

A Gallup poll last week showed that far more Americans describe themselves as "conservatives" than as "liberals." Yet Republicans have been clobbered by the Democrats in both the 2008 elections and the 2006 elections.

In a country with more conservatives than liberals, it is puzzling-- in fact, amazing-- that we have the furthest left President of the United States in history, as well as the furthest left Speaker of the House of Representatives. Republicans, especially, need to think about what this means. If you lose when the other guy has all the high cards, there is not much you can do about it. But, when you have the high cards and still keep taking a beating, then you need to re-think how you are playing the game.

The current intramural fighting among Republicans does not necessarily mean any fundamental re-thinking of their policies or tactics. These tussles among different segments of the Republican Party may be nothing more than a long-standing jockeying for position between the liberal and conservative wings of that party.

The stakes in all this are far higher than which element becomes dominant in which party or which party wins more elections. Both the domestic and the foreign policy direction of the current administration in Washington are leading this country into dangerous waters, from which we may or may not be able to return. A quadrupling of the national debt in just one year and accepting a nuclear-armed sponsor of international terrorism like Iran are not things from which any country is guaranteed to recover. Just two nuclear bombs were enough to get Japan to surrender in World War II. It is hard to believe that it would take much more than that for the United States of America to surrender-- especially with people in control of both the White House and the Congress who were for turning tail and running in Iraq just a couple of years ago.

Perhaps people who are busy gushing over the Obama cult today might do well to stop and think about what it would mean for their grand-daughters to live under sharia law.

The glib pieties in Barack Obama's televised sermonettes will not stop Iran from becoming a nuclear terrorist nation. Time is running out fast and we will be lucky if it doesn't happen in the first term of this president. If he gets elected to a second term -- which is quite possible, despite whatever economic disasters he leads us into-- our fate as a nation may be sealed.

Unfortunately, the only political party with any chance of displacing the current leadership in Washington is the Republican Party. That is why their internal squabbles are important for the rest of us who are not Republicans.

The "smart money" says that the way for the Republicans to win elections is to appeal to a wider range of voters, including minorities, by abandoning the Ronald Reagan kinds of positions and supporting more of the kinds of positions that Democrats use to get elected. This sounds good on the surface, which is as far as many people go, when it comes to politics.

A corollary to this is that Republicans have to come up with alternatives to the Democrats' many "solutions," rather than simply be nay-sayers.

However plausible all this may seem, it goes directly counter to what has actually happened in politics in this generation. For example, Democrats studiously avoided presenting alternatives to what the Republican-controlled Congress and the Bush administration were doing, and just lambasted them at every turn. That is how the Democrats replaced Republicans at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Ronald Reagan won two elections in a landslide by being Ronald Reagan-- and, most important of all-- explaining to a broad electorate how what he advocated would be best for them and for the country. Newt Gingrich likewise led a Republican takeover of the House of Representatives by explaining how the Republican agenda would benefit a wide range of people. Neither of them won by pretending to be Democrats. It was precisely the Republican "moderates"-- Bob Dole and John McCain-- who lost disastrously to Democrats who were initially little known individuals but who knew how to talk.

Edited from a longer column:

http://townhall.com/Columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/06/23/republicans_in_the_wilderness?page=full

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"I doubt whether there are many Americans who think Congress has either the right or competency to choose where they live, what clothes they wear or what cars they drive. Yet many Americans stand ready to allow Congress to decide what doctors they go to and what treatments they receive. We forget that once we have government-sponsored health care, it can be used to justify almost any restraint on liberty."

-Walter E. Williams

"[T]he unifying constant of [Obama's] domestic policies -- their connecting thread -- is that they advance the Democrats' dependency agenda. The party of government aims to make Americans more equal by making them equally dependent on government for more and more things."

-George Will

"While doctrinaire socialists might feel betrayed by liberalism's cozy embrace of big business, their betrayal pales in comparison to the bitterness of free-marketers who defend big business's freedom to operate, only to see these businesses use that freedom to hide behind the skirts of the nanny state. Real freedom means the freedom to fail as well as succeed. Big business wants to be protected from the former and deny competitors the latter. And their betrayal, more than anything, disheartens those who would defend both freedoms."

-Jonah Goldberg

"We can debate endlessly whether the Constitution authorizes any president to 'overhaul' the financial system. But I want to focus on a different matter: whether any president, with all his advisers, is capable of overseeing something as complex as the financial system. My answer is no, and it is ominous that a bright guy like Obama doesn't know this. He thinks he must regulate the system because it is so complicated and important. In fact, those are the reasons why he cannot regulate it, and should not try."

-John Stossel

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LEFTIST WATCH

Large Democratic Party donors have shut down a July 4^th tea party in Atlanta.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/06/july_4_atlanta_tea_party_cance.html

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. has backed off his plan to investigate purported wrongdoing by the liberal activist group ACORN, saying ''powers that be' put the kibosh on the idea.”

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/26/conyers-backs-off-probe-of-acorn-practices/?feat=home_headlines

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NEWS FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD

If it were in a position to do so, Al Qaeda would use Pakistan's nuclear weapons in its fight against the United States, a top leader of the group said.

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-40495320090621?sp=true

From Iran: “…upon learning of his son's death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a "bullet fee"—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back..”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124571865270639351.html

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BOOKS

“The Conservative's Handbook: Defining the Right Position on Issues from A to Z” by Phil Valentine. “Phil gets straight to the point on the issues, but provides an outstanding comprehensive detailed analysis. Entertaining, thought provoking, and meticulous with every page proves that Phil Valentine is an outstanding author.”

http://www.amazon.com/Conservatives-Handbook-Defining-Position-Issues/dp/1581826621/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246056188&sr=8-1

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GLOBALONEY

The Environmental Protection Agency is suppressing an internal study that undermines the administration's position on global warming. The author of the study has been warned that “ your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision....I can only see one impact of your comments given where we are in the process, and that would be a very negative impact on our office."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=582102

The cat is out of the bag: On Friday the Competitive Enterprise Institute got their hands on the report.

http://cei.org/cei_files/fm/active/0/DOC062509-004.pdf

They never have and they never will. The house of cards that is the science behind "climate change" is collapsing at exactly the same time it is being imposed by the Obama administration and Congress as an ideological "truth." America is facing the perfect storm of an imploding scientific theory that will be enforced by the rule of law.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/after_global_warming.html

The Spanish professor is puzzled. Why, Gabriel Calzada wonders, is the U.S. president recommending that America emulate the Spanish model for creating "green jobs" in "alternative energy" even though Spain's unemployment rate is 18.1 percent -- more than double the European Union average -- partly because of spending on such jobs? Calzada, (snip)has produced a report which, if true, is inconvenient for the Obama administration's green agenda,

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/06/25/tilting_at_green_windmills_97168.html

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ARTICLES

Ward Connerly, former University of California Regent, has an article that should raise any decent American's level of disgust for what's routinely practiced at most of our universities. Connerly tells of a conversation he had with a high-ranking UC administrator about a proposal that the administrator was developing to increase campus diversity. Connerly asked the administrator why he considered it important to tinker with admissions instead of just letting the chips fall where they may. His response was that that unless the university took steps to "guide" admissions decisions, the University of California campuses would be dominated by Asians. When Connerly asked, "What would be wrong with that?", the UC administrator told him that Asians are "too dull -- they study, study, study." Then he said to Connerly, "If you ever say I said this, I will have to deny it."

http://townhall.com/Columnists/WalterEWilliams/2009/06/24/vicious_academic_liberals?page=full

Five More Myths the Left Has Created About Itself

http://townhall.com/Columnists/JohnHawkins/2009/06/23/five_more_myths_the_left_has_created_about_itself?page=full

There has been much talk recently that the US is becoming more like Europe. To be more technically accurate, we should say that the US is becoming more like what Europe used to be. In the meantime, Europe is un-Europeanizing. We are about to make France look like a holdout for rugged individualism.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/hello_europe_goodbye_europe.html

Senate bill S.909 (House bill HR1913), would add gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity to the list of protected categories under current federal hate crimes laws…..We have become accustom to thinking of sexual orientation as pertaining to heterosexuality and homosexuality... But the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists 30 sexual orientations. Therefore, since the term “sexual orientation” remains undefined in the hate crimes bill all 30 of these orientations as defined by the APA will become federally protected behaviors. Among the 30 orientations are: exhibitionism, incest, voyeurism, zoophilia/bestiality, and pedophilia. It is for this reason critics of the bill call it “The Pedophile Protection Act.”

http://www.thecypresstimes.com/article/Columnists/Terry_L_Brown/THE_SPIRIT_BEHIND_HATE_CRIMES_LAWS/23034

Michael Medved, “Why Should So Many Americans Feel Threatened by Business?”

http://townhall.com/Columnists/MichaelMedved/2009/06/24/why_should_so_many_americans_feel_threatened_by_business

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

The US National Debt Clock:

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

North Korea's concentration camps reportedly contain over half a million citizens, and is possibly one of the worst cases of systematic human rights abuses occurring in the world today. Ahn Myong Chol, an ex-prison guard, describes the conditions of the inmates of Camp 22, in objective and chilling detail, like medical experiments being performed on entire families with poison gas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecZKGN_0uHc

Reforming our universities

http://www.mindingthecampus.com/

New RNC ad on health care:

http://action.afa.net/Detail.aspx?id=2147485715

Images from Iran:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS2ijHpzEuQ

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HUMOR

Sarah Palin speaking to U.S. troops in Kosovo: "Then Sen. John Kerry makes this joke, I don't know if you saw this, but he makes this joke saying, 'Aw shoot, of all the governors in the nation who disappeared, too bad it couldn't have been that governor from Alaska…But the way he said it, he looked quite frustrated, and he looked so sad, and I just wanted to reach out to the TV and say, 'John Kerry, why the long face?'"

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WISE WORDS

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

-Winston Churchill

"Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."

-James Madison

"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition."

-Thomas Jefferson

"Remember that every government service, every offer of government-financed security, is paid for in the loss of personal freedom. ... In the days to come, whenever a voice is raised telling you to let the government do it, analyze very carefully to see whether the suggested service is worth the personal freedom which you must forgo in return for such service."

-Ronald Reagan

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The Op-Ed Review is a compilation of the week’s news and opinions of interest to the conservative activist. I follow a variety of news sources and note what I think are the important events of the week that may be underreported in the mainstream media. I also read about 50 syndicated op-ed columns each week and reprint part of what I think is the best one. The goal is to help the reader be a more effective activist for the conservative cause. If you would like to receive this as an e-mail each weekend, click here to drop me a note. mailto:garyfoss3@comcast.net

Gary Foss

47th District Republicans

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op ed review 6/21

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Thus far in 2009, 40% of Americans interviewed in national Gallup Poll surveys describe their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal. This represents a slight increase for conservatism in the U.S. since 2008, returning it to a level last seen in 2004.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/120857/Conservatives-Single-Largest-Ideological-Group.aspx

A Pew poll found President Obama’s economic approval rating has fallen to 52 percent from 60 percent in April. A Wall Street Journal poll found 53 percent disapprove of his handling of GM and Chrysler vs. 39 who approve.

http://blogs.reuters.com/james-pethokoukis/2009/06/19/why-obamas-big-economic-gamble-is-failing/

Former President Bush fired a salvo at President Obama, asserting his administration's interrogation policies were within the law, declaring the private sector -- not government -- will fix the economy and rejecting the nationalization of health care. "I know it's going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we're in….You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/18/bush-takes-swipes-at-policies-of-obama/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_headlines

Congressional Democrats and the White House are scrambling to regain their footing after a series of setbacks has stalled political momentum to reform the nation’s healthcare system.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dems-reel-on-healthcare-2009-06-16.html

MSM to the rescue: In the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push for government run health care -- a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm! The network plans a primetime special -- 'Prescription for America' -- originating from the East Room, and exclude opposing voices on the debate.

http://drudgereport.com/flashaot.htm

The Washington Times has learned that ABC employees gave 80 times as much money to Mr. Obama's 2008 campaign for president than to his rival's.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/19/abc-employees-donated-heavily-to-obama/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_more_news_carousel

RNC Chairman Michael Steele urged supporters to “fight” ABC news. “It seems that the mainstream media has finally decided to dispense with the pointless denials of favorable coverage of the Obama administration. Now one network, ABC News, has actually turned its entire programming over to President Obama and his big-government agenda.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23885.html

The belated White House explanation for firing the AmeriCorps inspector general doesn't ring true. The White House claims Inspector General Gerald Walpin was effectively away without leave from his Washington office and that he was so "disoriented" and "confused" at a May 20 meeting that it made officials "question his capacity to serve." An exclusive witness told The Washington Times both charges are baseless.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/18/a-witness-to-walpin-gate/?feat=home_editorials

President Obama's unexpected firing last Thursday of an inspector general looked suspicious. Now the story is getting worse…. another, bigger controversy, has been largely overlooked involving a longtime top Democratic donor who bundled more than $800,000 for the Obama presidential campaign and Inauguration.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/16/obamas-walpin-gate-problem/

Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann says she's so worried that information from next year's national census will be abused that she will refuse to fill out anything more than the number of people in her household. Rep. Bachmann said the questions have become "very intricate, very personal" and she also fears ACORN will be part of the Census Bureau's door-to-door information collection efforts.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/17/exclusive-minn-lawmaker-fears-census-abuse/

After a semi-apology last week for a joke about one of Sarah Palin's daughters, David Letterman offered an unequivocal sorry during Monday's Late Show.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Letterman-Apology-Palin-1006911.aspx

Following a week of back and forth between David Letterman and Sarah Palin, the Olive Garden restaurant says it is cancelling all of its scheduled ads on Letterman’s “Late Show” for the rest of the year, citing the talk show host’s “inappropriate comments.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23889.html

Supporters of Gov. Sarah Palin hope to use a grassroots movement to raise more than $500,000 to help her pay her legal bills. On Monday, the Web site Conservatives4Palin launched a one-week fundraising Web-a-thon encouraging donations to the governor's legal trust fund. It includes a video that calls the ethics complaints filed against Palin "petty politics and frivolous attacks."

http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=10538354

With federal spending in 2009 at 28% of the economy and deficits heading north, Democrats are eyeing tax increases on everything from soft drinks to electricity to health benefits to charitable contributions. But the prize for creativity goes to the Internal Revenue Service, which is contemplating a new tax on the use of business cellphones.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124501952511913563.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments

A report contends the Obama administration's stimulus program is fraught with waste and incompetence -- evidenced by a turtle crossing in northern Florida that will cost more than $3 million and a snafu in which thousands of Social Security checks went out to people who had died.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-stimulus16-2009jun16,0,7085006.story

A leading health economist says President Obama delivered a subtle and unpleasant message to the American Medical Association, implying that doctors are the main problem behind rising healthcare costs.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=568898

The Anglican Church in North America will be formally founded next week, splitting from the Episcopal Church. The formalities cap a six-year progression out of the 2-million-member Episcopal Church by Episcopalians over the U.S. church's increasing doctrinal liberalism.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/17/new-anglican-church-poses-dilemma/?feat=home_headlines

President Barack Obama, whose homosexual supporters have grown frustrated with his slow movement on their priorities, is extending benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, a White House official said. The decision is a political nod to a reliably Democratic voting bloc that has become impatient with the White House in recent weeks.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Headlines/Default.aspx?id=570344

Two Japanese men are detained in Italy after allegedly attempting to take $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds over the border into Switzerland. Details are sketchy. The implications of the securities being legitimate would be bigger than investors may realize. At a minimum, it would suggest that the U.S. risks losing control over its monetary supply on a massive scale. “These men carrying bonds concealed in the bottom of their luggage would …be the fourth-largest U.S. creditors.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=a62_boqkurbI

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Gary Bauer 6/19

Palin Proves Conservatives Can Fight Pop Culture and Win

In the Age of Obama, many conservatives are consoling themselves with this thought: Conservatism wins on the issues. Polls show majorities of Americans want less government and fewer and lower taxes; they want leaders who will stand up to our enemies; they are skeptical about the science of global warming; they want public policy to show respect for human life at all stages, and, yes, most Americans still believe marriage should remain between a man and a woman.

A Gallup poll this week showed 40 percent of Americans interviewed describe their political views as conservative, while just 21 percent self identify as liberal.

Though conservative values remain popular among Americans overall, they have never been embraced by the popular culture. Hollywood, the music industry, sports and the fashion world are all overwhelmingly liberal. In these sectors of American society, conservative positions almost always lose.

These realities make the recent Sarah Palin-David Letterman dust-up quite interesting. For decades conservatives have engaged the popular culture at their peril. Whenever conservatives pushed back against the excesses of the pop culture, they risked getting labeled bigoted, ignorant or, worst of all, prudish. But Sarah Palin has proved that conservatives can fight the pop culture and win. That’s because while many Americans consume the entertainment of people like David Letterman, they embrace the values of people like Sarah Palin.

The controversy surrounds comments made more than a week ago by the "Late Show" host. Letterman joked that Palin, who was in New York City to attend an autism event, had bought makeup from Bloomingdale’s to update her “slutty flight attendant” look. He later added that Palin had attended a New York Yankees baseball game, and that during the seventh inning stretch Palin’s daughter had been “knocked up” by Yankees’ libidinous third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Letterman claims he was referring to Palin’s 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, but only Palin’s 14-year-old daughter, Willow, attended the game with her mother. So Letterman ended up joking about statutory rape.

Initially, Letterman did not apologize. While jokes that sexualize kids are “crude, sexist, perverted,” as Palin stated in response to Letterman, they have sadly become a comedic staple. Watch the most popular comedians and you’ll find many jokes are intended to humiliate, demean and tear down. Throw in some disgusting sexual references and you have a perfect recipe for big laughs in today’s popular culture. And if the target of the comedian’s demeaning sexual jokes is a conservative politician, so much the better.

There is an obvious double standard. What would have happened had Letterman made the same joke about Barack Obama and his family? We know. Letterman would have been forced into early retirement, and perhaps prosecuted under some “hate crimes” statute.

Letterman then offered a snarky non-apology apology in which he insisted he had meant to suggest that Bristol, not Willow, had been “knocked up” by A-Rod. While there is a significant legal difference, only according to our cultural elites could the addition of four years transform a beyond-the-pale insinuation into an acceptable punch-line. The target of his cruel insinuations remained a young girl who, through no fault of her own, is the daughter of a political figure.

Finally, after a week, Letterman offered something closer to a legitimate apology, which Palin graciously accepted. I doubt Letterman would have apologized had he not been forced to do so. But his jokes caused a huge backlash among his viewers, some of whom formed a campaign to urge CBS to fire him.

Viewers were so irate that one "Late Show" advertiser pulled its sponsorship. Letterman was slammed by women’s groups across the ideological spectrum. Even the National Organization for Women denounced him for “snicker[ing] about men having sex with teenage girls (or women) less than half their age…”

Despite the strong backlash……there’s deeper meaning in the incident. The cultural left lampoons Palin because her values and life are completely foreign to them. They find it bizarre that she hunts, prays and says things like “you betcha.’” They can’t fathom that she brought a child with Down syndrome to term and that she didn’t pressure her daughter into aborting an unexpected pregnancy.

Letterman may not know anyone who would vote for Palin or a family that looks like hers. But his Palin joke backfired in part because scores of millions of Americans are living lives that more closely resemble Palin’s life than Letterman’s. Like Palin, they pray in churches, hunt and fish and raise imperfect families with unconditional love. They are more than uneasy about the culture’s sexualization of children and its infantilization of adults.

The cultural left mocks Palin’s values, but its taunts often fail to gain traction, because Palin’s politics and principles are much more main-stream than those of her critics. Sarah Palin is a false target for the popular culture. It can’t resist the temptation to ridicule and lampoon her, but she offers too much common sense and inspiration to make for good jokes.

In the Age of Obama, pop culture elites may be excused for their over-the-top bashing of conservatives. Liberals have always controlled the popular culture, and now they control government too. They probably assume most of the country has shifted leftward and come round to their view of the world. But it hasn’t. Just ask David Letterman.

Edited from a longer article, read it here:

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=32362

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"In a time when many homes are marked by absentee fathers, the last thing we need is to be beating up on fatherhood in general. Yet, 'dad' seems to be the only person in modern society who it is acceptable to belittle. To what extent does such treatment pervert our son's developing attitudes about the men they are expected to become? And why would we teach our daughters that there's no real hope or need to marry a strong, reliable man of character? Timeless messages about the wisdom of fathers in shows like 'Father Knows Best' have disappeared. They just aren't 'politically correct.' As a wife and mother of two young men who are being raised in an anti-male culture that spews the mantra of radical feminism, I'd like to say a few words to America's dads: We need you. Loving fathers are critical to the development of children. And the truth is that every woman is a better person when she has a good man to rely on. Dads are not an 'optional' family accessory to be tossed in the corner like dirty socks or trampled on like a door mat. We should reject the attitudes of both women who treat them that way and of any man who has bought the lie and started assuming the loser role. And we need to let our boys know that one of the greatest contributions they can make as adults is to be strong fathers who are committed to their families. ... To good husbands and dads everywhere, thank you for what you contribute to your families and to society. And to wives and mothers, let's make sure we affirm the men in our lives and teach our children to respect them too. A good man is a priceless blessing from God. Let's remember to treat them like the treasures they are."

-Rebecca Hagelin

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LEFTIST WATCH

Rep. Bawney Fwank, chair of the House Banking Committee, says his successful intervention to keep a General Motors distribution center open in his Massachusetts district isn't evidence that Congress will have undue influence in running the new 60% government-owned auto company.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124502854248814207.html

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BOOKS

Glenn Beck's “Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government”

http://www.amazon.com/Glenn-Becks-Common-Sense-Control/dp/1439168571/ref=pd_ys_home_shvl_1

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GLOBALONEY

The city of Seattle has temporarily stopped buying biodiesel fuel for its fleet of vehicles after discovering that ethanol production may be worse for the environment than gasoline.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/407384_fuel19.html?source=rss

“One of our biggest worries is that our politicians are so fixated on the idea that CO2 is causing global warming that most of them haven't noticed that the problem may be that the world is not warming but cooling, with all the implications that has for whether we get enough to eat.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/5525933/Crops-under-stress-as-temperatures-fall.html

Even a $600-a-year increase in utility bills would be a "hardship" for 78% of American families. If the pending Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill (HR 2454) becomes law, utility bills will soar. Farm and business energy costs will skyrocket — and be passed on to consumers, or defrayed by layoffs. Everything Americans grow, make, buy and do will be far pricier.

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=330043500143549

The Global Warming Petition Project

http://www.petitionproject.org/

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ARTICLES

Mark Steyn delivered a recent lecture at Hillsdale College. “…..When I ran into trouble with the so-called "human rights" commissions up in Canada, it seemed bizarre to find the progressive left making common cause with radical Islam. One half of the alliance professes to be pro-gay, pro-feminist secularists; the other half are homophobic, misogynist theocrats. Even as the cheap bus 'n' truck road-tour version of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, it made no sense. But in fact what they have in common overrides their superficially more obvious incompatibilities: Both the secular Big Government progressives and political Islam recoil from the concept of the citizen, of the free individual entrusted to operate within his own societal space, assume his responsibilities, and exploit his potential…” Read the whole thing here:

http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp

Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor claim that her Second Amendment rulings are examples of "judicial restraint." The problem is that she's restraining the Second Amendment. Judge Sotomayor has ruled twice that the right to keep and bear arms is not a "fundamental right." The second time was after the U.S. Supreme Court said that it is.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/sotomayors_fundamental_flaws_1.html

Krauthammer: “Millions of Iranians take to the streets to defy a theocratic dictatorship that, among its other finer qualities, is a self-declared enemy of America and the tolerance and liberties it represents. The demonstrators are fighting on their own, but they await just a word that America is on their side. And what do they hear from the president of the United States? Silence. Then, worse. Three days in, the president makes clear his policy: continued "dialogue" with their clerical masters. ……where is our president? Afraid of "meddling." Afraid to take sides between the head-breaking, women-shackling exporters of terror -- and the people in the street yearning to breathe free. This from a president who fancies himself the restorer of America's moral standing in the world…”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/18/AR2009061803495.html

Free health care is a very expensive proposition. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut Democrat, are sponsoring a massive health care bill to extend coverage to 50 million Americans who supposedly do not have it. On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the cost of the Kennedy-Dodd health care bill would run to at least $1.6 trillion

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/19/the-cost-of-government-health-care/print/

Bonaparte famously said to "never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence." Thus stands the Kennedy health care bill, placeholder for the hard left dream of a government takeover of the American health system. The bill is a taxpayer-supported monument to the lethal stupidity of this statist objective that will leave Americans with fewer choices, more government control over medical decisions, higher taxes, and a smaller private health insurance market

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/06/16/a-trillion-dollars-in-incompet

“On Dec. 12, 1974, my grandparents were driving home when a vehicle traveling 50 miles per hour hit them. On March 17, 2002, I was driving home when a vehicle driving traveling 50 miles per hour hit me. My grandparents were killed instantly. I lived. My grandparents were driving an AMC Gremlin. I was driving a Dodge 3500 diesel dually pickup truck.”

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cburgard/2009/06/15/dear-mr-president-please-dont-kill-my-kids/

“The best and the brightest on the left go into politics. The best on the right run their own businesses. So it is no surprise that the left is far more adept, even expert at the art of hardball politics. And they are telling us something profound. The left is telling us something many feel, many find as a hunch, that Sarah Palin is the most dangerous threat to the Obama administration...”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/sarah_palin_the_21st_century_i.html

Reader’s Digest’s publishers are pushing it “in a decidedly conservative direction.” It is cutting down on celebrity profiles and ramping up on inspiring spiritual stories. “It’s traditional, conservative values: I love my family, I love my community, I love my church,” said Mary Berner, the president and chief executive of Reader’s Digest Association.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/business/media/19readers.html?_r=1

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Celebrities who lean to the right:

http://wcbstv.com/slideshows/Conservative.Celebrities.20.824701.html

Lou Pritchett is a former vice president of Procter & Gamble whose career at that company spanned 36 years before his retirement in 1989. He recently wrote an open letter to President Obama that the New York Times refused to print.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/youscareme.asp

Abrams tank runs over a car bomb.

http://shock.military.com/Shock/videos.do?displayContent=191740&page=2&ESRC=dod.nl

Grassroots fundraiser to retire Gov Palin’s legal debt:

http://www.conservatives4palin.com/2009/06/sweet-tina-brown-has-some-advice-for.html

New news service, customizable to your city:

http://seattle.fwix.com/

Astonishing photos, hard to believe they’re one hundred years old.

http://www.socyberty.com/History/The-Incredible-Century-Old-Color-Photography-of-Prokudin-Gorsky.797569/1

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WISE WORDS

"In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself."

-James Madison, Federalist No. 51

"[T]hose who have never broken free from the mentality of tax-and-tax and spend-and-spend still think increasing taxes is the best way to solve America's problems. ... We need a tax policy that offers incentives for people to work, save, and invest -- all the things that will keep our economy growing and improve our well being. We need a basic tax reform that will permit us to bring everybody's tax rates down. ... Our country needs leadership that can see beyond the demands of the special interest groups and prepare America for a better tomorrow."

-Ronald Reagan

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The Op-Ed Review is a compilation of the week’s news and opinions of interest to the conservative activist. I follow a variety of news sources and note what I think are the important events of the week that may be underreported in the mainstream media. I also read about 50 syndicated op-ed columns each week and reprint part of what I think is the best one. The goal is to help the reader be a more effective activist for the conservative cause. If you would like to receive this as an e-mail each weekend, click here to drop me a note. mailto:garyfoss3@comcast.net

Gary Foss

47th District Republicans

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of political, economic, scientific, and other issues of the day. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Op Ed Review 6/14

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Conservatives raced toward victory in some of Europe's largest economies as initial results and exit polls showed voters punishing left-leaning parties in European parliament elections in France, Germany and elsewhere. Right-leaning governments were ahead of the opposition in Germany, France, Italy and Belgium, while conservative opposition parties were leading in Britain and Spain. Germany's Social Democrats headed to their worst showing in a nationwide election since World War II.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090607/ap_on_re_eu/european_elections

In the words of the socialists’ leader in the Euro-parliament, the centre left suffered a “very bitter evening”...

http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13805596

During a visit to Afghanistan, Rep. Mike Rogers, Michigan Republican, witnessed captured foreign fighters being read Miranda warnings. The Justice Department says this is done ''to preserve the quality of evidence obtained.'' "This is the logical conclusion to [the] Obama administration's approach to combating terrorism. Actually scratch that. America is no longer fighting terrorists, just investigating alleged crimes," says one blogger.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/12/stop-mirandizing-terrorists/

Chicago politics comes to DC: 1)The AmeriCorps Inspector General accuses prominent Obama supporter of misusing AmeriCorps grant money. 2)Prominent Obama supporter has to pay back more than $400,000 of that grant money. 3)Obama fires the AmeriCorps Inspector General

. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Whats-behind-Obamas-sudden-firing-of-the-AmeriCorps-inspector-general-47877797.html

The Obama Administration has appointed a compensation czar to determine pay for top executives at Government Motors, Chrysler, Bank of America, American International Group, Citigroup, Chrysler Financial and GMAC.

http://blogs.ajc.com/thinking-right/2009/06/11/whats-my-pay-mr-czar/?cxntfid=blogs_thinking_right

No word yet on when Obama will impose pay caps on labor union bosses.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/back-story/2009/jun/11/business-groups-dare-obama-to-limit-pay-for-unions/

What next? “President Obama will proclaim public education K-12 as too crucial to the future of the nation to be left in the hands of volunteer citizen committees, also known as School Boards and Independent School Districts…”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/nationalizing_public_education.html

The Philadelphia Women’s Center gave away free abortions this week “in honor of Dr. George Tiller.”

http://townhall.com/columnists/JillianBandes/2009/06/09/the_philly_abortion_giveaway?page=full

The American Medical Association is letting Congress know that it will oppose creation of a government-sponsored insurance plan, which President Obama and many other Democrats see as an essential element of legislation to remake the health care system.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/us/politics/11health.html

“..Dave Letterman told a rape joke about a little girl. Not just any little girl, of course, because that would be wrong. No, his joke on national television was about the daughter of Sarah Palin,…a Republican. Which, to many of the Left, apparently made it right… “They'd lynch him if he told it about, say, one of Barack Obama's daughters instead.”

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25622580-5000117,00.html

If there was any question that a stubborn strain of old-school sexism persists in Obama's America, one has only to look at certain leaders of the "liberal media" but which is sounding and acting, recently, more like the frat-house media. There, like a virus hiding in the body…misogyny has found a place to lurk almost undetected,

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/06/12/letterman_palin/index.html

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor belongs to a highly selective club for women only.. “If this judge were a man, the nomination would never make it to the Senate for hearings.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/11/sotomayors-club-for-women-only/

A Christian evangelical group that works to improve the lives of underprivileged children says it has been prohibited from conducting Bible study classes in public housing projects in Tulsa, Okla

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,525424,00.html

Could California become the first state in the nation to do away with welfare?

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/nation/story/69467.html

A 7 foot tall statue the late former President Ronald Reagan was unveiled in the Capitol Rotunda this week.

http://projects.ajc.com/gallery/view/news/reagan-statue-capitol/

Newt Gingrich was the keynote speaker at Monday night's fundraising dinner for the Senate and House Republican campaign committees, but it was Sarah Palin who stole the show

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/08/AR2009060804096.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

“Exxon Mobil's surprise decision to join Trans-Canada on a vast Alaska gas pipeline project is a big step toward making the U.S. self-sufficient in domestic energy. By defying naysayers, Sarah Palin is now vindicated.”

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=329698559684271

Your tax dollars at work: The House passed a plan to provide vouchers of up to $4,500 for consumers who turn in old cars and trucks for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124458189145699485.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

“A new test to reveal the gender of a fetus in early pregnancy has sparked a row over whether it will lead to sex-selection abortions.”

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10577091

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright said that President Obama hasn't spoken to him since they parted ways last year, because "them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/10/wright-suggests-jews-white-house-wont-let-speak-obama/

Former President George H.W. Bush celebrated his 85^th birthday by leaping into thin air from a plane.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/06/12/at-85-george-hw-bush-jumps-for-joy/

Air France Flight 447’s passenger manifest contained the names of two people with alleged ties to Al Qaeda.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090610/ts_csm/aterrorlink

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Cal Thomas: 6/9

A statue of Ronald Reagan was unveiled last week in the Capitol Rotunda at a time when many Republicans, and even some conservatives, think Mr. Reagan's ideas are passe. Before moving on, Republicans and those conservatives who don't want to ''live in the past'' should be asked what better ideas they have to offer.

As the Obama administration and congressional Democrats move quickly with their new power to grab even more power and build larger, more intrusive and costlier government, they - and we - should consider Mr. Reagan's thoughts on the "power of the individual, rather than government power and peace through strength to keep us free." And, "Man is not free unless government is limited." And, "[C]oncentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty."

As government acquires the auto industry and seeks to own health care, as it plans to take more money from the productive in order to subsidize the unproductive or less productive, as government evolves from nanny into a cruel and abusive guardian that will rob the individual of incentive and punish those who manage to succeed with crippling regulations and higher taxes, where are the champions of liberty and personal responsibility?

Instead of stories many of us heard as children about people who grew up in difficult circumstances - alcoholic mother, abusive father, racial discrimination, physical handicaps - and rose to self-sufficiency, even prosperity, we get messages that say you can't do it on your own and you will never amount to anything unless you place your faith in government.

"You can do it," parents tell their children as they urge the youngsters to higher levels of achievement. This sentiment used to be found in popular culture, including feel-good films that inspired people to achieve their ideals. Now we punish the successful and make the pursuit of success more difficult because of strangulating government.

Why must government "fix" health care? Because government does few things well, why aren't better minds than politicians leading the way? We know what works. It isn't collectivism and government bureaucrats telling us what type of health care they will allow us to have that will bring transformation; it is individuals employing innovation. Individuals such as the late statistician W. Edwards Deming, who developed his System of Profound Knowledge and his 14 Points for Management guidelines using principles known as "systems thinking." He used those systems as a consultant to Japanese industry to help several Japanese manufacturers create more efficient workplaces, higher profits and increased productivity. (Visit www.managementwisdom.com/goodnews.html for an excerpt from a television documentary that spells out how health care can be fixed, starting with hospitals, not government.) Why aren't more people raising the profile of these proven solutions, which have cut costs and improved patient care at hospitals that have implemented them?

Some years ago, CBS News correspondent Lesley Stahl reported on a jobs program run out of a Harlem housing project in New York City. Participants were the hard-core unemployed who either had never had a job or couldn't hold onto one. All were minorities. The leader asked, "How many think racism is a problem in America?" Every hand went up. He then said, "So what? Your problem isn't racism; your problem is attitude, and that's what we're going to change."

He taught them how to dress, how to shake hands and look prospective employers in the eye. Cameras followed one woman to an interview. She got the job and began to cry. She had discovered her value and the power of the individual. Government didn't give her that job; she got it on her own. In fact, government had been sending her checks, which had caused her to be more dependent on government.

"There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect," Mr. Reagan said. And, "Government's first duty is to protect the people, not ruin their lives."

As politicians prepare to do things for which government has little experience and even less ability, where are the leaders who will again embrace the power behind Mr. Reagan's thoughts? It was Mr. Reagan who said, "Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them." He warned, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."

Government is eroding freedom. It is time to fight, but where are the generals to lead us? Will the public wake up and realize what is being stolen from us before it is gone?

Read the full column here:

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/09/reagan-unveiled/

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"In the end, the explanation for this long, long war -- which grows longer -- doesn't lie in anything we've done but in who we are: a nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Has there ever been a doctrine more subversive to the despotisms of the world? What we in the West do, right or wrong or neither, is but an excuse for the war being waged against our civilization by a rapacious enemy. It is what we are that threatens them: a beacon. Ideas have consequences; they can spread of their own accord. That is why we are such a threat to their closed societies. It is what we represent: freedom. And freedom attracts by its very existence. Eternal vigilance, it turns out, isn't just the price of liberty but of our existence."

-Paul Greenberg

"The teaching establishment and politicians have hoodwinked taxpayers into believing that more money is needed to improve education. The Washington, D.C., school budget is about the nation's costliest, spending about $15,000 per pupil. Its student/teacher ratio, at 15.2 to 1, is lower than the nation's average. Yet student achievement is just about the lowest in the nation. What's so callous about the Washington situation is about 1,700 children in kindergarten through 12th grade receive the $7,500 annual scholarships in order to escape rotten D.C. public schools, and four times as many apply for the scholarships, yet Congress, beholden to the education establishment, will end funding the school voucher program. Any long-term solution to our education problems requires the decentralization that can come from competition. Centralization has been massive. In 1930, there were 119,000 school districts across the U.S; today, there are less than 15,000. Control has moved from local communities to the school district, to the state, and to the federal government. Public education has become a highly centralized government-backed monopoly and we shouldn't be surprised by the results."

-Walter E. Williams

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LEFTIST WATCH

Now the ACORN crime family is jumping on the global warming alarmism bandwagon, according to (the left-leaning) Worldwatch Institute. The radical community group, which is now facing voter registration fraud charges in Nevada, has joined forces with Al Gore and other groups for the ultimate taxpayer shakedown: carbon emission controls.

http://spectator.org/blog/2009/06/08/acorn-enters-the-highly-lucrat

Gay activists in California try to turn neighborhoods against pro-marriage supporters.: "Dear Neighbor, Our neighbors, Colleen and Jay Pimentel (address) contributed $1,500.00 to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign. NEIGHBORS SHOULD BE AWARE OF THEIR NEIGHBORS' CHOICES."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1904146-1,00.html

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BOOKS

Thomas Sowell: “In an age that values cleverness over wisdom, it is not surprising that many superficial but clever books get more attention than a wise book like "The Character of Nations" by Angelo Codevilla, even though the latter has far more serious implications for the changing character of our own nation…..But clever people among today's intelligentsia disdain the very idea that there is such a thing as "national character."

http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/06/10/the_character_of_nations?page=full&comments=true#comments

“American Passage: The History of Ellis Island” by Vincent J. Cannato a "sweeping and heart wrenching read"

http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/

_______________________________________________________________________________________

GLOBALONEY

A row between the fast food giant Burger King and one of its major franchise owners has erupted over roadside signs proclaiming "global warming is baloney".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/05/burger-king-global-warming-us

Sales of the Prius in the US are down more than 45 per cent this year.

http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2243569/sales-stall-prius-big-japan

Taking public transportation may not be as green as you think, says a new US study

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.243153c6a091a3b942a75077729e8c92.c51&show_article=1

More and more Democrats are ready to vote against Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s climate change bill, according to a congressional committee chairman who now opposes his leader.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dem-mutiny-on-climate-bill-grows-says-peterson-2009-06-10.html

Welcome to the third annual International Conference on Climate Change, a daylong session of speeches and scientific presentations that took place Tuesday just blocks from the U.S. Capitol. Almost no media covered the event. (too many of the speakers were global warming skeptics)

http://hamptonroads.com.nyud.net/2009/06/global-warming-not-so-fast-skeptics-say-meeting

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ARTICLES

Mark Steyn: “The British National Health Service is the biggest employer not just in the United Kingdom but in the whole of Europe. Care to estimate the size and budget of a U.S. health bureaucracy?.... by historical standards, we're loaded: We have TVs and iPods and machines to wash our clothes and our dishes. We're the first society in which a symptom of poverty is obesity: Every man his own William Howard Taft. Of course we're "vulnerable": By definition, we always are. But to demand a government organized on the principle of preemptively "taking care" of potential "vulnerabilities" is to make all of us, in the long run, far more vulnerable. A society of children cannot survive, no matter how all-embracing the government nanny. I get a lot of mail each week arguing that, when folks see the price tag attached to Obama's plans, they'll get angry. Maybe. But, if Europe's a guide, at least as many people will retreat into apathy. Once big government's in place, it's very hard to go back.”

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/health-care-government-2462454-life-expectancy

Newsweek editor Evan Thomas has created a precious contrast in the media's approach to presidents Bush and Obama. "Well, our job is to bash the president, that's what we do," Thomas said on February 2, 2007. Well, that was then, this is now. "I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above – above the world, he’s sort of God." – Evan Thomas on Hardball, June 5, 2009.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2009/06/08/quick-take-evan-thomas-vs-evan-thomas

“The establisment Left had been crushed across most of Europe, just as it was in the early 1930s…….. It is not clear why a chunk of the blue-collar working base has swung almost overnight from Left to Right, but clearly we are seeing the delayed detonation of two political time-bombs: rising unemployment and the growth of immigrant enclaves that resist assimilation.”

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ambrose_evans-pritchard/blog/2009/06/08/europe_swings_right_as_depression_deepens

Charles Krauthammer's remarks upon receiving the 2009 Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism: “….the genius of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes was to have discovered a niche market in American broadcasting -- half the American people. The reason Fox News has thrived and grown is because it offers a vibrant and honest alternative to those who could not abide yet another day of the news delivered to them beneath layer after layer of often undisguised liberalism. What Fox did is not just create a venue for alternative opinion. It created an alternate reality…A few years ago, I was on a radio show with a well-known political reporter who lamented the loss of a pristine past in which the whole country could agree on what the facts were, even if they disagreed on how to interpret and act upon them. All that was gone now. The country had become so fractured we couldn't even agree on what reality was. What she meant was that the day in which the front page of The New York Times was given scriptural authority everywhere was gone, shattered by the rise of Fox News. What left me slack-jawed was the fact that she, like the cohort of mainstream journalists she represented so perfectly, was so ideologically blinkered that she could not fathom the plain fact that the liberal media were presenting the news and the world through a particular lens. The idea that it was particular, and that there might be competing ones, perhaps even superior ones, was beyond her ken. That's why Fox News is so resented. It altered the intellectual and ideological landscape of America. It gave not only voice but also legitimacy to a worldview that had been utterly excluded from the mainstream media. I'm proud to be part of this televised apostasy. And particularly proud to be part of the single best news program on American television, the six-o'clock news -- first with Brit Hume, now with Bret Baier. How good is "Special Report"? So good that even if I weren't on it, my mother would watch it -- and she spent 50 years as a Democrat.”

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06102009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/how_fox_news_opened_america_173419.htm?page=0

The Party Of Yes:6 Ways Democrats Are Hurting America

http://townhall.com/Columnists/JohnHawkins/2009/06/09/the_party_of_yes_6_ways_democrats_are_hurting_america?page=full

Karl Rove: “How to stop socialized health care”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124467554761003983.html#mod=djemEditorialPage

Do you want your government to know that you have bowel troubles? Do you mind if the president can discover if you have erectile dysfunction? ...Do you think this is a silly claim? Well, don’t.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/11789

During his White House years, William Jefferson Clinton was dubbed "America's first black president" by a black admirer. Applying the standard of identity politics and pandering to a special interest that earned Mr. Clinton that distinction, Barack Hussein Obama would have to be considered America's first Muslim president.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/09/americas-first-muslim-president/

Which is more newsworthy — the murder of an abortion doctor in Wichita, Kan., by an alleged anti-abortion activist or the murder of an Army recruiter and the wounding of another in Little Rock, Ark., by an alleged Muslim convert who is said to hate the U.S. military? Most people not involved in news-placement decisions would probably say they were equally newsworthy. But those in the news media actually making those decisions had a different view.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23481.html

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Help organize a July 4th TEA PARTY in your city

http://www.teapartyday.com/

Jon Voight’s speech to the Republican dinner:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2009/06/09/video-jon-voights-speech-republican-dinner

Six things you cannot say in Seattle: Number six: “I’m a Republican.” “There is no surer ticket to the Mental Hospital for the Criminally Insane than to make this declaration in Seattle today.”

http://crosscut.com/2009/06/11/seattle/19017/

A supervolcano may be brewing beneath Mount St Helens

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227124.700-supervolcano-may-be-brewing-beneath-mount-st-helens.html

What’s left of Saddam Hussein’s palaces:

http://www.richardmosse.com/photography.php?pid=1&photo=32

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WISE WORDS

"In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself."

-James Madison

"[T]hose who have never broken free from the mentality of tax-and-tax and spend-and-spend still think increasing taxes is the best way to solve America's problems. ... We need a tax policy that offers incentives for people to work, save, and invest -- all the things that will keep our economy growing and improve our well being. We need a basic tax reform that will permit us to bring everybody's tax rates down. ... Our country needs leadership that can see beyond the demands of the special interest groups and prepare America for a better tomorrow."

-Ronald Reagan

“That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.”

-Abraham Lincoln

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LATE NITE

Letterman: Well, it's been a busy week here on the Late Show. Earlier in the week, I made some jokes that upset Sarah Palin. I was telling jokes about her family and stuff. She got really upset. And I think everything's fine now. I think everything's going to be great because she called today and offered to take me hunting.

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The Op-Ed Review is a compilation of the week’s news and opinions of interest to the conservative activist. I follow a variety of news sources and note what I think are the important events of the week that may be underreported in the mainstream media. I also read about 50 syndicated op-ed columns each week and reprint part of what I think is the best one. The goal is to help the reader be a more effective activist for the conservative cause. If you would like to receive this as an e-mail each weekend, click here to drop me a note. mailto:garyfoss3@comcast.net

Gary Foss

47th District Republicans

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