op ed review 1/31

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

The House chamber was a study in contrasts and reactions Wednesday night during President Obama’s State of the Union address. Republicans appeared far more buoyant than Democrats, feeling a sense of renewal after the Democrats defeat in Massachusetts.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/01/28/obamas-state-of-the-union-found-a-confident-republican-minority-and-discontented-democratic-majority/

A survey released Friday by a liberal pollster showed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) in a dead heat with President Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential race.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/77649-poll-shows-huckabee-and-obama-in-dead-heat

If Scott Brown has kept President Obama up at night, there could be more sleepless nights at the White House thanks to a new poll that ranks the senator-elect as presidential timber. A Newsmax/Zogby poll shows the Massachusetts Republican within striking range of Obama in a hypothetical presidential matchup. The poll shows the pair statistically deadlocked if the presidential election were held today.

http://bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view/20100126poll_shows_scott_brown_would_top_obama_in_prez_run/srvc=home&position=0

A large majority of Americans are glad that Democrats lost their 60 seat supermajority in the Senate, according to a new CNN poll.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/77853-poll-americans-glad-dems-lost-supermajority

The Real Clear Politics average on the generic ballot now shows Republicans ahead 46%-42%. “This is historically unprecedented.“

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/generic-ballot-polls-suggest-epic-party-disaster-for-democrats-83043362.html

“Last Tuesday I challenged the conventional wisdom that the House of Representatives is not in play. After Scott Brown’s five-point victory in Massachusetts, it is worth asking whether the Senate is in play as well. If a Republican can win in a fairly high turnout election in Massachusetts, is there anywhere they can’t win?”

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/01/25/is_the_senate_also_in_play_100030.html

Democratic leaders in Congress have effectively slammed the brakes on Obamacare. Senate majority leader, Harry Reid deflected questions about health care. “We’re not on health care now,”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/health/policy/27health.html

Just when it appeared that the numbers for the Democratic health care proposals couldn’t have gotten worse-- they have. A new poll by CNN and Opinion Research, shows that 69 percent of respondents say Congress should dump the current Democratic health care proposals and either write an entirely new health bill or stop working on the subject altogether.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Disaster-poll-Nearly-70-percent-say-dump-the-Dems-health-care-bill-82823872.html

Visualize for a moment what would happen if San Francisco hosted a rally on the hot-button topic of abortion. How many people would you expect to show up to support each side? When the anti-abortion group Walk for Life staged a march in San Francisco last Saturday they turned out 40,000 pro-life activists, who were met by a well-advertised counter-protest which managed to draw 80 pro-choice advocates, something that seems inconceivable in the sex-positive liberal stronghold of San Francisco. How did this happen?

http://pajamasmedia.com/zombie/2010/01/26/pro-lifers-outnumber-pro-choicers-500-to-1-at-massive-s-f-abortion-rally/

Focus on the Family is planning to run a pro-life ad during the Super Bowl broadcast featuring University of Florida quarter back Tim Tebow. "

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-philbin/2010/01/26/predictable-lefty-outrage-tebow-pro-life-superbowl-ad

The ad’s theme will be “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life,” with Pam Tebow sharing the story of her difficult 1987 pregnancy -- instead of getting an abortion she decided to give birth to Tebow, the now-famous quarterback who went on to become a Heisman Trophy winner, leading the Gators to two BCS wins.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/campuschatter/2010/01/univ-of-florida-anticipates-tim-tebow-ad.html

Meanwhile, President Obama issued a special statement “celebrating the 37th birthday of the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade abortion decision.”

http://networkedblogs.com/p25296587

Obama the peace prize winner has allocated £4.3billion to spend on maintaining the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile - £370million more than what was budgeted by George Bush. The announcement comes despite the President declaring nuclear weapons were the ‘greatest danger’ to U.S. people during in his State of the Union address on Wednesday.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1247049/Nobel-Peace-Prize-winner-Barack-Obama-ups-spending-nuclear-weapons-George-Bush.html

Taxpayers have paid $101,000 for Nancy Pelosi's in-flight 'food, booze' Speaker's trips 'are more about partying than anything else'

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=123472

Fox News Finishes Week #1 in All of Primetime Cable

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fnc/fox_news_finishes_week_1_in_all_of_primetime_cable_150010.asp

Fox is the most trusted television news network in the country, according to a new poll out Tuesday. A Public Policy Polling nationwide survey of 1,151 registered voters Jan. 18-19 found that 49 percent of Americans trusted Fox News, 10 percentage points more than any other network.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32039.html

Nearly three out of four Americans think that at least half of the money spent in the federal stimulus plan has been wasted, according to a new national poll.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/25/poll.stimulus.money/index.html?hpt=C2

Punxsutawney Phil might be the most pampered groundhog in the world, but that's not good enough for the folks at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/regional/s_664283.html

Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Sunday say they oppose a new stimulus package.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/24/cnn-poll-56-percent-oppose-stimulus-program/

NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon are dead. So are the rockets being designed to take them there — that is, if President Barack Obama gets his way…..”….the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on Earth-science projects — principally, researching and monitoring climate change.”

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-no-moon-for-nasa-20100126,0,6969808.story

While NASA worries about climate change, India is headed for space. (And the Chinese may colonize the moon)

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.b2bf77de17a9aaed90c52bff5566ace6.781&show_article=1

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Ben Shapiro 1/23

America: the time has come to roll back liberalism. This was the best week for conservatism in modern memory. On Tuesday, Scott Brown won a tremendous victory for the Republican Party in his Massachusetts Senate race. On Thursday, the Supreme Court handed down a decision more important to the Constitution than any it has handed down in decades.

The case, entitled Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, dealt with Citizens United's "Hillary: The Movie," a 2008 documentary highly critical of the then-Democratic presidential candidate. The Federal Election Commission saw the documentary as a political advertisement in violation of the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (BCRA), and shut down Citizen United's publicity efforts. Citizens United sued. And on Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations no less than individuals have a right to political speech.

The significance of the ruling is clear: It recognizes that freedom of the press and freedom of speech apply to all people, whether or not those people choose to organize legally as a PAC, a 527, a 501(c)(4) or a corporation. The unspoken rationale behind campaign finance reform has always been the equalization of access to political influence; many leftists feel that a poor man's speech is not truly "free" unless it counts as much as a rich man's in the public square. In this view, free speech is a commodity to be parceled out by the government in the name of equality, not an opportunity or a restriction on government interference in political action.

Because this rationale is not palatable to most Americans -- we don't want the government rationing our speech -- the campaign finance reform gurus have cloaked themselves in the guise of "anti-corruption." In Citizens United, however, the Supreme Court came out foursquare against that flimsy facade. "[T]he First Amendment," wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy, surprisingly lucid for once, "does not allow political speech restrictions based on a speaker's corporate identity."

The Citizens United decision demonstrates more than renewed allegiance to free speech principles, however. It demonstrates that perversions of the Constitution are not entrenched forever; Reagan-esque "rollback" is possible, even at the Supreme Court. Citizens United overtly states that the hallowed -- and foolish -- principle of stare decisis cannot be the final word for conservatives.

For too long, liberal legal authorities have hidden behind stare decisis when it suits them (see Roe v. Wade) and rejected it when they see fit (see Lawrence v. Texas). And conservative legal scholars have allowed liberals to get away with it because of the premium conservatives generally place on maintenance of the status quo -- as William F. Buckley famously put it, standing athwart history yelling Stop.

Historically, conservatives have embraced stare decisis on principle; liberals have embraced it without principle….Now, finally, conservatives are beginning to wake up. As Justice John Roberts, a big believer in stare decisis, puts it in his concurring opinion in Citizens United, "in the unusual circumstance when fidelity to any particular precedent does more to damage [the rule of law] than to advance it, we must be more willing to depart from that precedent." The next step is for conservative justices to begin righting the wrongs that have occurred time after time in the Court's jurisprudence. Scalia's pragmatism isn't good enough. Simply because a bad decision is old does not make it a good decision. Our Constitution did not respect precedent; if it did, we'd be monarchists. It respected certain principles, and those principles must be protected at all costs.

Americans should look at Citizens United and take heart. Not all bad decisions are irreversible, even at the Supreme Court. At the same time, Citizens United should be a cautionary tale for American voters. It took the Supreme Court nearly a decade to dismantle the most egregious encroachment on free speech in our nation's history. We should rely not on them but on ourselves to preserve constitutional principles.

We can roll back the damage liberals have done to our founding principles -- just look at Scott Brown. It's easier to get rid of liberals and to roll back their awful policies electorally than it is to overrule awful Supreme Court decisions stamped with the legitimacy-conferring patina of stare decisis. Roll back starts with us.

Edited from a longer column, read it here:

http://townhall.com/columnists/BenShapiro/2010/01/23/its_time_to_roll_back_liberalism

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

“You know, this is an amazing week. Massachusetts goes Republican, health care dies and the Supreme Court unshackles the First Amendment. It's the best week I've had since spring break in medical school -- and I don't even remember it…”

-Charles Krauthammer

“Scott Brown has given the Republicans an opportunity, not a cure - either for his party or the country. He's showing the Republicans how to get up to fight again. He stopped the rush to destroy American health care (with all its manifold shortcomings still the best place in the world to get sick) and remake America into a European nanny state. Mr. Brown succeeded because he didn't adopt his party's usual war cry: "I'm a Republican but I'm not as bad as you think."

-Wes Pruden

The central fact of the (SOTU) speech was the contradiction at its heart. It repeatedly asserted that Washington is the answer to everything. At the same time it painted a picture of Washington as a sick and broken place. It was a speech that argued against itself: You need us to heal you. Don't trust us, we think of no one but ourselves.”

-Peggy Noonan

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GLOBALONEY

In a stunning admission, the scientist responsible for publishing the part of the 2007 IPCC report on global warming in Asia says he knew the evidence for the disappearing Himalayan Glacier was suspect but allowed it into the report in order to put pressure on governments to take action. “This story is getting huge play in Great Britain - not so much here in America.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/01/ipcc_scientist_admits_glacierg.html

The chief of the U.N.'s climate science panel says he isn't going anywhere, despite calls for his head amid allegations that he is a sloppy scientist who presided over a report that contained intentionally misleading statements.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/25/climate-panel-knowingly-inaccurate-statements-says-insider/

Global warming ranks dead last of the public’s 21 concerns.

http://people-press.org/report/584/policy-priorities-2010.

The fact this appeared in the leftie UK newspaper The Guardian is noteworthy: ”Scientists have underestimated the role that water vapor plays in determining global temperature changes, according to a new study that could fuel further attacks on the science of climate change.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/29/water-vapour-climate-change

Climate researchers and the Weather Channel's founder accuse NASA of the same data manipulation as Britain's Climate Research Unit. Were weather stations cherry-picked to hide the temperature drop?

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=518890

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LEFTIST WATCH

Alter: “The year 2010 is already a nightmare for progressives, and it's only January. In one week alone, the health-care bill derailed, the liberal radio network Air America went silent, and the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment allows corporations to pump as much money as they want into political campaigns.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/232147

A remarkable thing is happening to Rahm Emanuel: he is losing his aura of invincibility. A year ago, Emanuel was the untouchable attack dog for a president on top of the world. Now, according to some liberal critics, he is “a cowardly, petty, small-minded thug.”

http://dailycaller.com/2010/01/26/progressives-anger-grows-against-white-house-chief-of-staff-rahm-emanuel/

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ARTICLES

“Whoo-hoo, huzzah and yee-haw! This week put the party back in Republican Party. It was like watching the history of the last three years in reverse. Not since Michael Corleone took care of business at the end of “The Godfather” did so many hopes get realized with such alacrity. Ted Kennedy’s seat went to a fiscally responsible, pro-business working class hero whose every styling and utterance repudiated Ted-ism..”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/best_week_ever_m9aQQ8SzETD7HWFKVKJSMI

Fred Barnes notes that Scott Brown’s victory exploded “the fable about a death struggle pitting tea party populists and angry conservatives against moderates and the Republican hierarchy.” Brown – like Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie — succeeded in a state that went for Obama in 2008 by snatching those voters in the middle of the political spectrum and energizing his own base.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/222716

How Republicans won the Internet: Scott Brown's supporters became fans of the candidate on Facebook, where they commented on his status updates and uploaded their own photos. The Republican Senate hopeful took to Twitter, using the #masen hashtag to let his followers know how the race was going. His campaign powered its field operation through targeted online ads and Web-based spreadsheets, and raised $12 million from 157,000 individual donations in the last two weeks of the race.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/22/AR2010012202286.html?hpid%3Dopinionsbox1&sub=AR

Five states where GOP might pull another Brown

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0122/Five-states-where-GOP-might-pull-another-Brown

“The lesson of the Obama presidency is exactly the opposite of what our stuck-on-stupid media are telling us. It is that we must never, ever hire, promote, or elect somebody to a position of power and responsibility merely because of his race. Abraham Lincoln would not have been surprised. Neither would Martin Luther King, Jr. Even the editors of the New York Times choose schools for their kids not by race, but by educational competence. Somehow the American people have forgotten their common sense while Obama was rifling their wallets…The captain is drunk in the deckhouse, and the ship of state is heading for the rocks. Our enemies are trying to take advantage of our failure to elect even sensible leadership.….ultimately this is a failure of the American people, of our pathetic excuse for a media, and of the anti-American hatred that pervades the Left. Yes, God protects orphans, widows, and the United States. But you can rely on pure dumb luck for only a little while before the ship of state comes to grief on that unforgiving iceberg.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/the_lesson_of_an_affirmative_a.html

An unreported disclosure by China has taken the international financial world by shock and surprise. China declared that its foreign exchange reserves had increased to $2.4 Trillion in 2009, a gain of $453 Billion in one year. It is estimated that the reserves will rise by an equal amount in 2010. The significance of this astounding statistic cannot be underestimated. By comparison the total foreign exchange reserves of the European Union (27 countries) was $648 Billion in 2009. China's one year increase alone was higher than the total reserves of all but one nation, Japan ($1.074 Trillion). (United States: $84.4 Billion)

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/01/the_balance_of_power_shifts_to.html

“Before being Mirandized, he was singing like a canary.” The bottom line: Abdulmutallab's cooperation was limited to a 50-minute preliminary interview conducted by local agents as he waited for pain meds and more treatment. The second interview produced nothing and he has exercised his newfound right to remain silent ever since. Given what we know about Abdulmutallab's activities and the four months he spent in Yemen with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, it is incredible that he was Mirandized after talking for just 50 minutes.”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/daily/daily.asp#blog-414511

Think about this before you book your next flight: “In virtually unnoticed testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee last week, National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Director Michael Leiter explained that U.S. policy leading up to the attempted Christmas Day suicide attack on Northwest Flight 253 was calculated to “draw a line between two types of al-Qaida operatives: Those we allow on planes and those we do not.”

http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/article/60497

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

An enlightening lecture by professor Beck:

http://lucianne.com/article/?pageid=glenn_beck_show

What’s your share of this?: Total public debt $12T

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Figures-on-government-apf-2178072020.html?x=0&.v=2

The first-ever National Tea Party convention in Nashville starts next week

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2010/01/the_other_tea_party_convention_activists_meet_in_dc.php

Steve Lee says he never set out to be an internet hit. He just loves guns - and thought he would write a song about it. He says he is as shocked as anyone that his YouTube clip I Like Guns has been viewed more than 1.26 million times in the six weeks it has been online.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/love-song-for-firearms-becomes-an-internet-hit-20100124-msma.html

“Scorned Mistress of Married Obama Adviser Posts Billboards Nationwide”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583653,00.html

See clip here of a stunned Justice Alito doing a refined rendition of Joe Wilson's, "You Lie" moment during President Obama’s SOTU address

http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=16042

What Sen Ben Nelson’s ad should have said about health care: “show me the money”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4I47przdPM&feature=player_embedded

Top 100 conservatives and liberals in America

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6990965/The-most-influential-US-conservatives-20-1.html

A letter from a 95-year-old retired World War II sailor in Hawaii to President Barack Obama has stirred up attention on the Internet.

http://www.kitv.com/politics/22338101/detail.html

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WISE WORDS

"If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy."

-Thomas Jefferson