op ed review 8/9
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
Nine months after Republicans suffered their worst political defeat in decades, President Obama and the Democrats are slipping in the polls and the Republican Party is expected to make gubernatorial and congressional gains in the 2009-10 election cycle, according to pollsters and election analysts.
President Obama's support among white voters fell to below 50 per cent for the first time in his presidency following his accusation the police "acted stupidly" in arresting a black Harvard professor,
“After 6 Months, More View Obama's Presidency as a 'Failure' Than Bush's”
President Obama’s effort to revamp the
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aqb9sFbXBp4g
Angry protesters shouted down Democrats at public events from
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25765.html
In response, the White House launched a coordinated effort to combat voices critical of health care reform….they are also asking citizens to snitch on their neighbors who might be spreading “disinformation.”.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25808.html
“The socialist governments of the Soviet Union, Fascist Italy, N. Korea,
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/citizen_informants.html
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, accused the White House of compiling an "enemies” list and expressed alarm that they could end up collecting electronic information on critics. "I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward e-mails critical of his policies to the White House," Cornyn wrote.
Go ahead, turn yourself in as a critic of socialized medicine: The Snitch email address is flag@whitehouse.gov
The White House effort could also be illegal. "According to 5 U.S.C. § 552a, United States agencies, including the Executive Office of the President, shall 'maintain no record describing how any individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment….unless pertinent to and within the scope of an authorized law enforcement activity.'"
Nancy Pelosi claimed protesters are "carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare."
Sen. Barbara Boxer: 'Well-dressed' protesters at Town Halls are out to 'hurt our president'...”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV84OBtGpSQ
AARP organizers of a health care ‘Listening Session’ stopped listening and cancelled the event after participants refused to ‘keep their comments quiet’.
Liberal groups are sending supporters detailed instructions on strategies to counter what they call organized disruptions of congressional town halls — events that have become new front lines in the fight over President Obama's health care proposal. Conservative groups critical of the overhaul headed into the August recess with their own battle plans for the events.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/08/06/liberal-groups-launch-town-hall-counteroffensive/
The one special interest that ought to be targeted in health care reform is the only one that may get off scott-free -- trial lawyers. In fact, Democratic lawmakers are discussing a tax cut for trial lawyers. A spokesman for the trial lawyer’s association admits it will have to be concealed in other legislation. "You cannot have a stand-alone bill to help lawyers ... so we have to tuck it into something.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/06/tax-cut-for-trial-lawyers/?feat=home_top5_shared
Yet another liberal lawmaker on Capitol Hill has acknowledged that the public option healthcare proposal being promoted by President Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill is a "Trojan horse" for a single-payer socialized healthcare system.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=627660
President Barack Obama's treasury secretary said Sunday he cannot rule out higher taxes. on middle-class Americans as part of a health care overhaul.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/2-Obama-officials-No-apf-2491158742.html?x=0&.v=7
Health care legislation before Congress would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions. Federal funds for abortions are now restricted to cases involving rape, incest or danger to the health of the mother.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/ap/20090805/twl-us-health-care-overhaul-abortion-ef375f8.html
It's official. The
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/06/white-house-war-terrorism-over/?feat=home_headlines
With two weeks to go until votes are counted in the primary for King County Executive, it appears former TV news anchor Susan Hutchison will likely be facing off with King County Councilmember Dow Constantine, according to a new poll.
Nearly half of the $2.4 billion in federal grant money awarded Wednesday to stimulate the
Bill Clinton's triumphant return from
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08062009/news/nationalnews/bills_hwood_blockbuster_183236.htm
Last year, lawmakers excoriated the CEOs of the Big Three automakers for traveling to
http://www.rollcall.com/media/37552-1.html
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ea362a36-7ce0-11de-9f29-00144feabdc0.html
In 2013,
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG888/
Western intelligence officials have warned
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Iranians-39ready-to-detonate-nuclear.5519526.jp
Sen. John McCain has announced his opposition to Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court: ''I do not believe she shares my belief of judicial restraint,'' McCain said in a floor speech.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0809/McCain_will_oppose_Sotomayor.html
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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Doug Patton 8/6/09
Imagine U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley walking into a diner in his home state of
Horrified, he calls the diner owner over to his booth and demands to know the meaning of this. The diner owner looks at the sandwich, shrugs, picks up a bottle of ketchup, dumps it on the contents of the sandwich and says, "Try it now."
As outrageous as this scenario sounds, it is exactly what Grassley and a few other Republican senators are accepting in the debate over "reforming" the American health care system. Democrats are serving up an excrement sandwich in the form of a massive government-controlled health care boondoggle that is as offensive to the American people as anything to come out of Washington in many a decade. It is a federal power grab on a scale none of us have seen in our lifetime. It will destroy the greatest health care system in the world, while driving up costs and rationing care.
In short, it will transform us into
Meanwhile, Sen. Grassley — usually a reliable conservative — is pretending that he, Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe and a few other Republicans can work out some sort of "compromise" with their Democrat "colleagues." At a time when the country is rallying behind the GOP claim that this legislation is a toxic mix of unacceptable rules, regulations, mandates, rationing and limitations from a government that can't even run the post office or administer a program whereby they give away free money for buying a new automobile, why give them political cover on this? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are desperate to claim their bill has "bipartisan support." If they are so terribly proud of this monstrosity, why are they so afraid to pass it on their own? If their "reform" is so great, why not let them serve it up and live or die on its merits, if there are any?
It is a lie that people are being denied health care in
Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress are trying to sell excrement sandwiches out of the back end of their traveling snake oil wagon as it passes through
ANOTHER GOOD READ:
One Step Closer to Losing Your Right to Health Care
Isn't the point of the Democrats' push to reform the health care system based on establishing health care as a right? That's what the politicians say of course. But in reality the result will be the exact opposite.
Part of the problem is that most Americans don't understand what a right is. A right is not a guarantee that the government (i.e., other people) will provide you something for free. We have the right to engage in religious expression, but that doesn't mean that the government pays for the construction of the church. We have the right to peacefully assemble, but the government doesn't promise to supply your transportation. You have the right to keep and bear arms, but don't expect the government to provide you with a free firearm and bullets. You have the right to free speech, but the government won't grant you free radio or TV air time.
What makes something a right is not whether the government can force somebody else to pay for it. What defines something as a right is whether the government can or cannot prohibit you from doing it. (President Obama notoriously called these "negative liberties".) If the government can't stop you from doing it, then it's a right. We have a right to religious expression because the government is prohibited from suppressing that expression. We have the right to assemble because the government must allow us to do so. We can speak freely because the government cannot censor us. Nor can the government take away law-abiding citizens' firearms……
Because the Democrats are promising universal health care, demand for health care will skyrocket. Because they also promise to control costs, doctors will leave the system and seek more profitable lines of work elsewhere. The result of increased demand and decreased supply means one thing: rationing.
In order to distribute scarcer and scarcer health care resources to larger numbers of patients, the government will have to determine who to treat and who to turn away. By adopting any such rationing scheme, the government is implicitly assuming the power to prohibit people from receiving health care. Some people will have to wait and suffer for months to be treated. Others, based on what the government determines according to cost and other factors such as how old you are, will be denied certain medical procedures out right. This prohibition -- whether temporary or permanent -- is a de-facto infringement on the individual right to health care…. The American health care system certainly needs to be reformed. This isn't the way to do it.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/07/one_step_closer_to_losing_your.html
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FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"'Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.' We have heard that many times. What is also the price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections. If everything that is wrong with the world becomes a reason to turn more power over to some political savior, then freedom is going to erode away.... Ultimately, our choice is to give up Utopian quests or give up our freedom. This has been recognized for centuries by some, but many others have not yet faced that reality, even today. If you think government should 'do something' about anything that ticks you off, or anything you want and don't have, then you have made your choice between Utopia and freedom."
-Thomas Sowell
"The administration has fulfilled a promise to cut spending by trimming $100 million from the 2009 budget. That's right -- $100 million with an 'm,' an imponderably small slice of this year's expenditures…... In fiscal 2009, our federal government will spend nearly $4 trillion, according to the Office of Management and Budget's historical tables. The $100 million cut represents 0.0025% -- less than one one-hundredth of 1% -- of those outlays. ... Now, thanks to the administration's 'relentless' belt-tightening, the deficit will be $1.79999 trillion rather than $1.8 trillion."
-Investor's Business Daily
"How did the health-care debate decay to the point where we think it entirely natural for the central government to fix a collective figure for what 300 million freeborn citizens ought to be spending on something as basic to individual liberty as their own bodies? That's the argument that needs to be won. And, if you think I'm being frivolous in positing bureaucratic regulation of doughnuts and vacations, consider that under the all-purpose umbrellas of 'health' and 'the environment,' governments of supposedly free nations are increasingly comfortable straying into areas of diet and leisure. ... Freedom is messy. In free societies, people will fall through the cracks -- drink too much, eat too much, buy unaffordable homes, fail to make prudent provision for health care and much else. But the price of being relieved of all those tiresome choices by a benign paternal government is far too high. Government health care would be wrong even if it 'controlled costs.' It's a liberty issue. I'd rather be free to choose, even if I make the wrong choices."
-Mark Steyn
“…After 60 years of universal health care (in the
-Theodore Dalrymple
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LEFTIST WATCH
“…the Elite Left vs the Populist Left” Who said this: “And in the face of Obama’s deplorable agenda we have “progressive” organizations like MoveOn, which should be declared the Sociopathic Slime-Balls of the Century.” Rush Limbaugh? Nope. A prominent Left-wing blog, OpEdNews.com….
http://www.ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=334190249782507
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BOOKS
“The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism”, by Robert Murphy. . In this much-needed work, Murphy takes on the most common anti-capitalist myths and exposes them for the lies that they are. In the process he shows that capitalism is not only innocent of the charges leveled against it, but it is actually one of the best things that has ever happened to man (and also to the environment).
http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35799
"No Apology: The Case for American Greatness." by Mitt Romney. Interesting title for a Republican who just may be mulling a presidential bid against a Democratic incumbent who some Republicans think is, well, apologizing for
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GLOBALONEY
Want to be green? Consider keeping your "clunker."….even when new cars and appliances are more efficient than the ones they replace, the act of replacing them entails environmental costs not accounted for.
Nothing is perhaps more pathetic than the exertions of economic developers and politicians grasping at straws, particularly during hard times. Over the past decade, we have turned from one panacea to another, from the onset of the information age to the creative class to the boom in biotech, nanotech and now the "green economy." This latest economic fad is supported by an enormous industry comprising nonprofits, investment banks, venture capitalists and their cheerleaders in the media. Their song: that "green" jobs will rescue our still weak economy while saving the planet. Ironically, what they all fail to recognize is that the thing that would spur green jobs most is economic growth.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/03/green-jobs-economic-growth-opinions-columnists-joel-kotkin.html
The Science and Public Policy Institute announces the publication of Climate Money, a study revealing that the federal Government has a near-monopoly on climate science funding. “For the first time, the numbers from government documents have been compiled in one place. It’s time to start talking of “Monopolistic Science”. It’s time to expose the lie that those who claim “to save the planet” are the underdogs. And it’s time to get serious about auditing science, especially when it comes to pronouncements that are used to justify giant government programs and massive movements of money.” “Joanne Nova, who wrote our study, speaks for thousands of scientists in questioning whether a clique of taxpayer-funded climate modelers are getting the data right, or just getting the “right” data. Are politicians paying out billions of our dollars for evidence-driven policy-making, or policy-driven evidence-making? The truth is more crucial than ever, because American lives, property and constitutional liberties are at risk.”
This is the study:
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/originals/climate_money.pdf
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ARTICLES
A poster showing President Barack Obama as Heath Ledger's "Joker" character from "The Dark Knight" is creating a stir on the streets of
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-obama-posters,0,940643.story
Liberal columnist Richard Cohen sees the light: “The real purpose of hate-crime laws is to reassure politically significant groups -- blacks, Hispanics, Jews, gays, etc. -- that someone cares about them and takes their fears seriously. That's nice. It does not change the fact, though, that what's being punished is thought or speech. Johns is dead no matter what von Brunn believes. The penalty for murder is severe, so it's not as if the crime is not being punished. The added "late hit" of a hate crime is without any real consequence, except as a precedent for the punishment of belief or speech. Slippery slopes are supposedly all around us, I know, but this one is the real McCoy…. For the most part, hate-crime legislation is just a sop for politically influential interest groups -- yet another area in which liberals, traditionally sensitive to civil liberties issues, have chosen to mollify an entire population at the expense of the individual and endorse discredited reasoning about deterrence.”
A day after the White House dismissed protesters at town-hall events as the work of conservative groups promoting “manufactured anger”, the administration's political wing began mobilizing millions of its own supporters. Supporters who go to the group's Web site are asked to enter their names, e-mail addresses, mailing addresses and phone numbers. The coordinated effort from
Trustworthiness: The media savaged President George H.W. Bush for breaking his tax pledge. Will President Obama instead get a pass for breaking trust on middle-class taxes and medical care? Could Obama have been elected president without promising not to raise taxes on the middle class? Would Americans have trusted him with the highest office in the land if he had proposed replacing all private health insurance with a Euro-style, socialistic, single-payer system?
http://www.ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=334189902271204
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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
Now is your chance to grade the Obama Administration and Congress on how it's handled the second 100 days in office.
Good pictures, check the one for Tue, Aug 4th “One major contributor to health care costs goes unnoticed at congressional hearings”
Here are the video clips of President Obama promising to eliminate private insurance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk
Protestors shout down Obamacare in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8UjY3YDlwA
At “Meet-And-Greet”, Rep. Chris Murphy Meets Some Hostility
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-web-murphy-tea-party0806aug06,0,1371927.story
Constituents make congressmen sweat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOLs7Cybnqw
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WISE WORDS
"[T]he government of the
-James Madison
"Our struggle for nationhood, our unrelenting fight for freedom, our very existence -- these have all rested on the assurance that you must be free to shape your life as you are best able to, that no one can stop you from reaching higher or take from you the creativity that has made America the envy of mankind."
-Ronald Reagan
"The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it."
-H. L. Mencken
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posted by gary at
12:35 PM
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