Op Ed Review 6/7/09

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

In February, President Obama scolded corporate executives when he said: "You can't get corporate jets. You can't go take a trip to Las Vegas, or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime." Estimated cost of Obama and Michelle’s Air Force One date to take in a Broadway show? $250,000.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/01/curl-cost-nyc-weekend/

President Obama's speech reaching out to the Islamic world was laced with references to the Quran and his Muslim roots.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/world/6457465.html

Obama told a French reporter that in terms of numbers, America is “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.”

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/06/03/barack_hussein_obama_us_one_of_the_largest_muslim_countries_in_the_world

Obama's message to the Middle East: President George W. Bush is gone, democracy's an annoyance, human rights apply only to Gitmo inmates and America owes the Middle East confessions, concessions and apologies.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06022009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/a_grovelpalooza_172086.htm

Chicago politics comes to Washington: The Obama cabinet is using stimulus money to tour blue states promoting the great benefits of local stimulus projects. Few red states have been visited.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23379.html

The head of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP), is meeting with Obama administration officials this week to try to help mold Obama's healthcare plan into something that resembles Canada's.

http://townhall.com/columnists/JillianBandes/2009/06/03/canadian_healthcare_coming_to_america?page=full&comments=true

Next to universal health care, President Obama’s top domestic goal is government financed pre-school for all three- and four-year-olds, regardless of family income. Obama promised his supporters at the National Education Association that he will spend billions on his “Zero to Five” early childhood education initiative.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Zero-to-Five-Obamas-latest-paybaco-46615472.html

One of every six dollars of Americans' income is now coming in the form of a federal or state check or voucher. That's the highest percentage since the government began compiling records in 1929.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-06-03-benefits_N.htm

Greens have a lot to be happy about now that Sonia Sotomayor is poised to be come the next Supreme Court justice -- she's shown she's willing to impose their agenda from the bench.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06012009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/green_justice_171877.htm

Dick Cheney now has a more favorable image rating than Nancy Pelosi according to a Gallup poll.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/120761/Cheney-Pelosi-Poor-Ratings-Common.aspx

Microsoft Corp. CEO Steven Ballmer said the world’s largest software company would move some employees offshore if Congress enacts President Barack Obama’s plans to impose higher taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign profits.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAKluP7yIwJY

Gay activists put on the brass knuckles: “..activists have begun publishing lists online exposing individuals and organizations that have donated money in support of Prop. 8.”

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1859323,00.html

Harvard announced that they will establish an endowed chair in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies, in what is believed to be the first professorship of its kind.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/06/04/harvard_endows_chair_on_gay_studies/

When a right- wing Christian vigilante kills, millions of fingers pull the trigger. When a left-wing Muslim vigilante kills, he kills alone. This is the narrative in the Sunday shooting death of late-term abortion provider George Tiller of Kansas and the Monday shootings of two Arkansas military recruiters

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06032009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/double_standard_172269.htm

Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, arrested in the shooting, was under investigation by the FBI since his return from Yemen.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7730637&page=1

U.S. counterterrorism officials have authenticated a video by an al Qaeda recruiter threatening to smuggle a biological weapon into the United States via tunnels under the Mexico border. The video aired earlier this year as a recruitment tool makes clear that al Qaeda is looking to exploit weaknesses in U.S. border security

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/03/al-qaeda-eyes-bio-attack-via-mexico-border/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_photo_feature&

Now PETA opposes horse drawn carriages.

http://www.hollandsentinel.com/homepage/x726823152/PETA-petty-Council-to-vote-on-horse-drawn-carriages

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Ken Blackwell 6/4/09

The contrast between President Obama’s reaction to the murder of a late-term abortionist and the murder of a U.S. Army Recruiter could not be more stark. Obama raced to send U.S. Marshals into abortion facilities. He denounced the murder in the strongest terms in a statement which is posted on the White House website:

“I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.”

I agree that we cannot resolve our differences by acts of violence. I would like to have seen such a strong statement from the Obama administration when two U.S. Army Recruiters were shot in Arkansas, one of them fatally, by a recent convert to Islam.

Obama’s reaction to this heinous act of violence in Little Rock was, to be charitable, muted. He was busily preparing to fly off to Saudi Arabia to continue his apology tour.

The blogosphere has not been so muted. Liberal blogs erupted in rage over the killing of George Tiller. They rushed to blame conservatives and pro-lifers for creating “a hostile environment” for abortionists. FOX’s Bill O’Reilly was skewered for doing a number of reports on the late-term Wichita abortionist, who had claimed as many as 60,000 unborn children killed.

Well, if liberals believe that O’Reilly bears responsibility for the killing of George Tiller, would they agree that Congressman John Murtha is guilty of creating a hostile environment for members of our all-volunteer military? Murtha, a liberal Democrat, was most vocal in accusing our troops of war crimes in Iraq. When Marines who had fought in Haditha were brought up on charges, Murtha did not wait for the court martial or even for a proper investigation. He said: "There was no fire fight, there was no IED (improvised explosive device) that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood." The Haditha Marines were later cleared of reckless charges of murder.

Could Murtha and his fellow liberals be responsible for inflaming Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammed, the 23-year old arrested in the Arkansas shootings? The New York Times reports that, “in a lengthy interview with the police, Mr. Muhammad said he was angry about the killing of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chief Thomas said. Previously known as Carlos Bledsoe, Mr. Muhammad told investigators that he had converted to Islam as a teenager, Chief Thomas said.”

President Obama did not immediately send in U.S. Marshals to protect military recruiters, even though this Little Rock attack is hardly an isolated incident. This is not the first time we’ve gone soft on common-sense measures for defense.

After 9/11, the U.S. Department of Transportation weighed in against proposals to arm the pilots. They raised ridiculous objections, like: “What if a pilot goes beserk in the cockpit?” Critics at the time asked pointedly: “When was the last time you heard of a postal worker going pilot?” Since the beginning of commercial aviation in the 1920s, American pilots have had a wonderful record of protecting their passengers. Congress prevailed then. Today, by law, and with proper training, American pilots can carry weapons for our safety as well as their own.

President Obama should immediately issue orders to allow military recruiters to be armed for self-defense. They are, after all, enlisting other Americans to be members of our all-volunteer U.S. Armed Forces.

This is a critical test of Obama as Commander-in-Chief. Although he never served, he can now demonstrate his concern for our troops by allowing recruiters to carry side arms. He needs to do more than lay wreaths on their graves. They are trained. They can be trusted. Let those who protect us protect themselves. Arm the recruiters.

http://townhall.com/Columnists/KenBlackwell/2009/06/04/arm_our_military_recruiters?page=full

Another must-read this week: George Will: “In the history of developed democracies with literate publics served by mass media, there is no precedent for today's media enlistment in the crusade to promote global warming "awareness."..The incessant hectoring by the media-political complex's "consciousness-raising" campaign has provoked a comic riposte in the form of "The Goode Family," an animated ABC entertainment program at 9 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesdays. Cartoons seem, alas, to be the most effective means of seizing a mass audience's attention. Still, the program is welcome evidence of the bursting of what has been called "the green bubble." Gerald and Helen Goode, their children and dog Che (when supervised, he is a vegan; when unsupervised, squirrels disappear) live in a college town, where T-shirts and other media instruct ("Meat is murder"), admonish ("Don't kill wood") and exhort ("Support our troops . . . and their opponents"). The college, where Gerald works, gives students tenure. And when Gerald says his department needs money to raise the percentage of minority employees, his boss cheerily replies, "Or we could just fire three white guys. Everybody wins!" Helen shops at the One Earth store, where community shaming enforces social responsibility: "Attention One Earth shoppers, the driver of the SUV is in aisle four. He's wearing the baseball cap……”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/03/AR2009060303240.html

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"This week, the president [declared], 'What we are not doing -- what I have no interest in doing -- is running GM.' It was during the same speech in which he announced that the federal government was forcing GM into bankruptcy, deciding what creditors should get (regardless of what bankruptcy law says), and taking a 60 percent stake in the company."

-Jacob Sullum

"When government gets this intertwined with the private sector, when it makes decisions not based on neutral economic criteria but by what is at best guesswork about the allocation and valuation of vast amounts of capital, bailout favoritism and crony capitalism are inevitable."

-Michael Barone

"The Constitution of the United States set out to limit the powers of the federal government, but judges have greatly eroded those limitations over the years, and the dispensing of bailout money has allowed the Obama administration to exercise powers that the Constitution never bestowed."

-Thomas Sowell

"Dick Cheney clearly drives the liberal media nuts. As much as they'd like to bask in the glow of the new and glorious Obama Era, they simply cannot achieve that requisite state of Nirvana with Cheney around. They spent eight long years packaging Cheney as some evil and deadly combination of Darth Vader and the Ebola virus. Now they can add to the descriptors a new title: Count Dracula. The man refuses to die."

-Brent Bozell

"We are a nation of laws. Lawless violence breeds only more lawless violence. ... By word and deed, let us teach that violence against abortionists is not the answer to the violence of abortion. Every human life is precious."

-Robert P. George

"President Obama said Monday the U.S. won't be involved in GM operations. He swore he doesn't want to run a car company. The next day the dashboard warning light in my Buick came on telling me to check the engine and turn off Rush Limbaugh or else."

-Argus Hamilton

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LEFTIST WATCH

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday that he and Cuban ally Fidel Castro risk being more conservative than U.S. President Barack Obama. During one of Chavez's customary lectures on the "curse" of capitalism and the bonanzas of socialism, the Venezuelan leader made reference to GM's bankruptcy filing, which is expected to give the U.S. government a 60 percent stake in the 100-year-old former symbol of American might. "Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right," Chavez joked on a live television broadcast.

http://www.reuters.com/article/ObamaEconomy/idUSTRE5520GX20090603?feedType=RSS&feedName=ObamaEconomy&virtualBrandChannel=10441

For the past few years, liberal activists have gathered in Washington each spring for the Take Back America conference, where speaker after speaker -- Obama sometimes among them -- would give rollicking denunciations of the Bush administration before packed rooms of partisans. But now that Obama has actually taken back America, the activists at this year's gathering feel a bit like the dog that finally caught up with the car.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/03/AR2009060303173.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

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BOOKS

Jonah Goldberg’s best seller, “Liberal Fascism” hits the shelves in its paperback version (with a new afterword on Barack Obama).

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzhhZjQ4OTJlNTNhMzI1ZmMyNGUxN2U3MDhiZmIwZjA=&p=1

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ARTICLES

You have to go to the UK to find journalists who don't kiss Obama's feet.

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

“We think of the moral mind as being like an audio equalizer, with five slider switches for different parts of the moral spectrum. Democrats generally use a much smaller part of the spectrum than do Republicans. The resulting music may sound beautiful to other Democrats, but it sounds thin and incomplete to many of the swing voters that left the party in the 1980s, and whom the Democrats must recapture if they want to produce a lasting political realignment.”

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Why-do-people-persist-in-voting-Republican-46574882.html

5 Character Flaws That Are Destroying America's Future

http://townhall.com/Columnists/JohnHawkins/2009/06/02/5_character_flaws_that_are_destroying_americas_future?page=full

We Americans are a spoiled bunch. At the same time we benefit from the greatest health care advancements in human history, we have, in our self-centered way, bought into the fairy tale that our health care system is broken. We have convinced ourselves (snip)that the only solution to the problem is a government remedy. If we are not careful we may get what we wish for.

http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/107472.html

“It's been a long time since American devotees of Marx (Karl, not Groucho) have had much to cheer about. But with the bankruptcy filings of General Motors and Chrysler, and the transfer of stock ownership from the firms' long-suffering shareholders to the government and unions, communists of the world can rejoice. The workers are now, finally, significant owners of the means of production.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/200194

Democrats congratulating themselves for being the party of diversity seem to have forgotten what they did to Gonzales and Estrada. Estrada had a compelling life story, perhaps even more compelling than Sotomayor’s. His bid ended, however, after a two-year filibuster by Senate Democrats. Estrada could have become the first Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court when vacancies cropped up during Bush’s second term. But Democrats would have no part of it. So, when weighing the Sotomayor nomination, some historical perspective is helpful. Remember that the so-called party of diversity was largely responsible for ousting the nation’s first Hispanic attorney general and blocking the nomination of what would have been the nation’s first Hispanic on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and, potentially, the U.S. Supreme Court. That’s not surprising. The goal of liberalism has never been to put minorities in positions of power. It’s been to put liberal minorities in positions of power. All others need not apply.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/columns/oped_contributors/Remember-Gonzales-and-Estrada-46589047.html

Larry Elder: “How on earth did this happen? General Motors, the 100-year-old car company that once employed more than 500,000 workers and had a 50 percent market share, just crumbled into bankruptcy. The government now runs it……manufacturers in Japan sought out the advice of W. Edwards Deming, an American quality-control expert. American businesses ignored Deming's theories on continual improvement, but Japanese companies lingered on his every word.”

http://townhall.com/Columnists/LarryElder/2009/06/04/who_drove_the_chevy_off_the_levy?page=full

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Must see, the next ad from Government Motors.

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dburge/2009/06/02/government-motors-the-2012-pelosi-gtxi-ssrt-sport-edition/

Lloyd Marcus, is a songwriter & vocalist of the American Tea Party Anthem, as well as President, NAACPC (National Association for the Advancement of Conservative People of Color)

http://www.lloydmarcus.net/

Chart showing the federal deficit projected out ten years. You should be worried about this:

http://www.seanet.com/~jimxc/Politics/May2009_4.html#jrm7439

Adnan Barqawi’s address to the Republican Party of Virginia State Convention.

http://www.pwconservative.net/2009/05/adnan-barqawis-speech-to-rpv-state.html

Microsoft’s new search engine:

http://www.bing.com/

Welcome to YourMorals.org, where you can learn about your own morality while contributing to scientific research on moral psychology.

www.YourMorals.org

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WISE WORDS

"Today, when a concerted effort is made to obliterate this point, it cannot be repeated too often that the Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals -- that it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government -- that it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."

-Ayn Rand

"One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence."

-Charles A. Beard

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LATE NITE

Jay Leno: [Did] you see that video online of the wind knocking down Joe Biden's teleprompter at the Air Force graduation? See, that's when you know you're talking to too much -- when even Mother Nature goes, "Shut up. Okay? Just shut up."……At a fundraiser in Beverly Hills, people paid $30,000 to attend a dinner and a discussion with President Barack Obama. The subject of the discussion? The struggling economy…….President Obama was here in Los Angeles [last] week to bring his message of change to Hollywood. And, really, is there any place in America that loves change more than Hollywood? The place that brought you four "Terminator" sequels, 10 "Police Academy" movies and 29 "Star Trek" films. This town runs on new and innovative ideas.

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