op ed review 2/28

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

A record-breaking gathering of more than 10,000 exuberant conservatives from around the country headed home after a rollicking three-day Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the nation's capital. Their excitement, enthusiasm and hopes for a conservative tsunami in this fall's midterm elections were palpable in panel discussions, organizing meetings and social gatherings.

http://tiny.cc/MTgWr

Glenn Beck remarks closed the 2010 CPAC. Beck's message was one of warning and hope; a history lesson and sermon all rolled into one. ''...Progressivism is the cancer of America and it's eating away at our Constitution..''

http://townhall.com/blog/g/fe1f3498-dc74-4c6d-8336-d4cd26916cbb?comments=true&commentsSortDirection=Descending

Conservative radio host Mark Levin criticized Glenn Beck’s CPAC speech attacking Republicans. Beck trashed the GOP as being “addicted to spending” during the keynote speech and has been a major advocate of the tea party movement, even suggesting the formation of third party of grassroots conservative activists. But on his show Monday night, Levin called on Beck to “stop dividing us” and suggested he "stop acting like a clown.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33353.html

Ann Coulter knocked ‘em dead. Delivering a comic routine that delighted the audience, Coulter took shots at every Democrat from the Obamas to the late Ted Kennedy. Coulter said that since President Obama was elected, "For the first time in my life, I'm sometimes not proud of my country," rousing cheers from the crowd.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/20/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6226648.shtml

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a stalwart foe of government spending, won a victory in the annual CPAC presidential straw poll.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/20/conservatives.meeting/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee ripped into CPAC calling it increasingly "more Libertarian and less Republican over the last few years, one of the reasons why I didn't go this year."

http://washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2010/feb/22/acu-responds-huckabee-attack-cpac/

President Obama’s approval rating now stands at minus nineteen.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

A Pew Research Center study says that the Democrats' advantage over Republicans with young voters has dramatically shrunk from a 32 point margin in 2008 to 14 points.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/02/21/s/

“Harry Joe crunches the numbers and, based on the generic balloting right now, says the House is all but gone for the Democrats: Even in the best case scenario for the Democrats, it would seem that holding the House would be very, very difficult.”

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/measuring-the-coming-gop-tsunami

A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll. Fifty-six percent say they think the federal government's become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/26/cnn-poll-majority-says-government-a-threat-to-citizens-rights/?fbid=yKhJPCtCUdm

On the eve of the Obama administration's most aggressive push yet to pass a national health care plan, a 50-year-old audio recording of former President Ronald Reagan speaking out against "socialized medicine" has become a huge YouTube sensation. Nearly 1 million viewers have watched the video, in which the late president, speaking before he became California governor, warns that government intervention in the health care system creates a slippery slope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdLpem-AAs

A gay marriage law has forced the Archdiocese of Washington DC to pull out of adoption and fostering. Rather than be forced to put foster and adopted children in same-sex homes, the Archdiocese has announced it is ending its adoption and foster care service after 80 years.

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000761.shtml

The U.S. Air Force admits that the chaplain's office at Andrews Air Force Base retracted an invitation to Family Research Council President Tony Perkins--a former Marine officer--to speak at a prayer luncheon held at the base on Thursday after the conservative leader criticized President Obama’s efforts to end “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell"--the military policy on homosexuality.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/61957

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday, the Army’s top command did not give the same enthusiastic endorsement to rescinding the Pentagon’s ban on gays in the military that was sounded by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff earlier this month.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33358.html

The House Democratic leadership stopped a vote Thursday night on the $50 billion classified intelligence budget after Republicans mounted a campaign against one of its provisions that would have imposed fines and prison terms on intelligence officers who engaged in “degrading” treatment of terrorist detainees. The provision was introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/26/gop-tries-to-kill-bill-on-cruel-interrogation/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_must-read-stories-today

President Obama's decision to kill the U.S. government's manned space flight program and quash a planned mission to the moon ran into bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill on Thursday. One Representative asked whether Mr. Obama's cuts "doom us to a future where there are no Americans in space or at least that the dominant language in space is not English."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/26/criticism-of-refocused-nasa-bipartisan/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_must-read-stories-today

Three quarters of Washingtonians think it should take a 2/3 majority of the legislature to raise taxes.

http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=ad7e51a1-a6d4-415f-be78-ab0246a3a467&c=28

Transit agencies in the Puget Sound region collect two-thirds of all transportation taxes and fees but only serve 3 percent of all trips.

http://washingtonpolicyblog.typepad.com/washington_policy_center_/2010/02/local-transit-gets-60-of-money-but-serves-less-than-3-of-all-trips.html

Great moments in socialized medicine: The Canadian Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador decided to get heart surgery in the US. “An unapologetic Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision.”

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5h0QC7bditrEb3wYz_6_b-gsGGDxA

Jay Leno will be reclaiming "The Tonight Show" with help from Sarah Palin next week when he returns as host of NBC's late-night show. Palin is scheduled for Tuesday, along with Olympic snowboarder Shaun White.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/02/23/sarah-palin-lindsay-vonn-scheduled-jay-lenos-return-tonight/?test=latestnews

“A bent to conservatism and family makes Hispanics a promising pool of votes for Republicans…more than half of Texas Hispanics call themselves conservative…”

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/022410dntexhisppolitics.39fae92.html

Rush Limbaugh remains the top dog in talk radio, followed by Hannity, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/2010/02/23/2010-02-23_rush_limbaugh_named_top_talk_radio_host_by_influential_trade_mag_9_of_top_10_are.html

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Harold Witkov 2/21

Back in the sixties, there was a television espionage series called Mission: Impossible. Thirty years later, there was the Mission: Impossible movie, starring Tom Cruise, followed by a couple of sequels. In both the movies and the television series, one of the main characters always gets his instructions from a personalized tape that includes the familiar phrase, "Your mission, should you decide to accept it."

My fellow conservative, there is an election this November, and I have a political mission for you. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to convince at least one person in your life whom you know to be a die-hard Democrat to vote Republican.

Although this mission will not prove as exciting as a Mission: Impossible movie, it is of utmost importance. In fact, the future of our country may depend on the fulfillment of your mission, should you decide to accept it. Do not -- I repeat, do not take this article or assignment lightly.

Background briefing:

I recently attended a two-day business meeting in which, not to my surprise, liberal business associates hopelessly outnumbered me. Ready to do battle with them in the field of political argument, I waited for them to start trashing the "obstructionist Republicans," which they did, and then I launched my own counteroffensive. I must admit that I had no success. Looking to change strategy, I later sought to continue the heated debating in one-on-one discourses. Sometimes, I felt I made real headway, particularly talking about Democrat runaway spending, a topic some could admit discomfort with, and then things would unravel because I went "too far." Evidently, I crossed an invisible line of credibility by defending FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin's intelligence, and by suggesting that the great Barack Obama may indeed be purposely trying to ruin our economy in his quest to remake America.

After returning home from the business meeting, I reassessed the political arguments and battles I had engaged in, what I said and what I should have said, and then came my epiphany. My grandfather was a salesman, my father was a salesman, and for the past thirty years, I too have been in sales. Had I not learned anything? Never in my life had I made a sale or heard a family story about a sale that was built around argument. Never had I made a sale by losing my cool, by sarcasm, by telling a potential buyer that his value system was out of whack, or that he was wholly misinformed. Obviously, the same rules should apply to the peddling of political thought. If I am to sell someone on a political idea, I need to treat him as I would a prospective buyer, employing utmost courtesy, listening skills, and by sticking to message.

Your instructions:

We are at war with Barack Obama and his political far left agenda. Barack Obama is not up for reelection until 2012. Since we cannot vote him out of office until then, the next best thing we can do is defeat his allies, the Democrats, this November. Part of our approach to defeating the Democrats at the ballot box should include chipping away at the Democrat base. The good news is this is not a mission impossible. If you follow the instructions below, you will find it far easier to get a dedicated Democrat to change his vote than to get him to change his political belief system.

This "get a Democrat to vote Republican mission" will be achieved never through arguing and heated debate, but instead by smart salesmanship skills directed at Barack Obama's Achilles heel: the economy. While talking politics with a liberal, it is your mission to redirect the political discourse to the economy. You must keep hammering away (ever so politely) at the obvious. Spending trillions of dollars we do not have can only lead to unparalleled runaway inflation or fiscal collapse. Printing money with nothing to stand behind it is monetary madness, as is the growing debt to the Chinese, as is the burgeoning deficit. This spending spree of Congress and the Democrats has to end before it is too late. Health care for everyone might sound nice, but providing health insurance to thirty million uninsured Americans sounds more like a budget-buster than a deficit-reducer. And remember, my fellow conservative, that when shining the light of truth on Democrat economics, you should always employ the word unprecedented: unprecedented deficit, unprecedented borrowing, unprecedented spending, unprecedented unemployment since the Great Depression, and unprecedented bailouts.

So let your liberal sister-in-law Doris expound pro-choice, your nephew Chuck call for gun control, and your neighbor Fred rant about global warming. Do not take the bait, and do not let the quips about FOX News, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin get you off-track. Instead, like a good salesperson, keep your cool and redirect the conversation to the economy, and tell them:

"I appreciate and respect your point of view, but if this kind of spending through the roof continues by the Democrats, all the moral issues you espouse will go by the wayside. If this country goes bankrupt, as it surely is on course to, your good intentions in voting will be the equivalent of rearranging furniture on the Titanic. You might find this difficult to believe, but I am scared to death, and I am thinking about your children as well as my own. We are talking about the financial meltdown of America, and do not think that it can never happen here. If you want this country to stay afloat, you might want to consider voting Republican for the first time. If you find that beyond your principles, perhaps you might want to sit out this election."

My fellow conservative, I understand that some of us are not cut out for this mission. We are not all meant for undercover work. You may believe that to hold one's tongue is a sign of weakness, and that fair Lady Sarah Palin needs her honor defended with the throwing down of the gauntlet when necessary. I appreciate the sentiment. You are excused from this mission, and you may withdraw with head held high. For those willing to accept this political mission, however, I trust that you can take it from here. Good luck.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/your_political_mission_should.html

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"A mere three days before President Obama's supposedly bipartisan health-care summit, the White House [Monday] released a new blueprint that Democrats say they will ram through Congress with or without Republican support. So after election defeats in Virginia, New Jersey and even Massachusetts, and amid overwhelming public opposition, Democrats have decided to give the voters what they don't want anyway. Ah, the glory of 'progressive' governance and democratic consent……They want what they want, and they're going to play by Chicago Rules and try to dragoon it into law on a narrow partisan vote via Congressional rules that have never been used for such a major change in national policy. If you want to know why Democratic Washington is 'ungovernable,' this is it."

-The Wall Street Journal

"The president says he doesn't want to make a theatrical production of it, but since the president himself is a theatrical production, it's difficult to see how the great health care summit can be anything but……The Democratic task at hand is to animate a corpse with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and who wants to volunteer for that? But Mr. Obama is determined to prop it up for a vote."

-Wesley Pruden

"[Barack Obama failed to sell a health care reform plan to American voters] because the utter implausibility of its central promise -- expanded coverage at lower cost -- led voters to conclude that it would lead ultimately to more government, more taxes and more debt."

-Charles Krauthammer

"This is a perfect snapshot of the West at twilight. On the one hand, governments of developed nations microregulate every aspect of your life in the interests of 'keeping you safe.' ... On the other hand, when it comes to 'keeping you safe' from real threats, such as a millenarian theocracy that claims universal jurisdiction, America and its allies do nothing. ... It is now certain that Tehran will get its nukes, and very soon. This is the biggest abdication of responsibility by the Western powers since the 1930s."

-Mark Steyn

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GLOBALONEY

Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/21/sea-level-geoscience-retract-siddall

A senator wants an investigation of the false climate testimony before Congress and wants Al Gore to reappear. The illegalities may involve more than just lying to Congress. Ranking Republican James Inhofe told EPA head Lisa Jackson that man-induced climate change was a "hoax" concocted by ideologically motivated researchers who "cooked the science."

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=522120

At one time some would call them "deniers." The more generous called them "skeptics." But now, increasingly, it appears that they can be called something else: sane.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/time_to_turn_up_the_heat_on_th.html

Snow Moving towards Dallas TX, Only two inches of snow needed to break all time record

http://www.nbcdfw.com/weather/stories/More-Snow-Expected-Tonight-84994822.html

Al Gore's Nine Lies

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=522005

George Will: “A religion is what the faith in catastrophic man-made global warming has become. It is now a tissue of assertions impervious to evidence, assertions that everything, including a historic blizzard, supposedly confirms and nothing, not even the absence of warming, can falsify.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/19/AR2010021903046.html

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BOOKS

“The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran” by Robert Spencer. Spencer unveils the mysteries lying behind this powerful book, guiding readers through the controversies surrounding the Koran's origins and its most contentious passages. Stripping out the obsolete debates, Spencer focuses on the Koran's decrees toward Jews, Christians, and other Infidels, explaining how they were viewed in Muhammad's time, what they've supposedly done wrong, and most important, what the Koran has in store for them.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Infidels-Guide-Koran/dp/1596981040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267121275&sr=8-1

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LEFTIST WATCH

Astroturf on the left: Visitors at radio.barackobama.com are provided with a phone number of a conservative talk radio show, and a list of health care talking points.

Barbra Streisand says “Elections Should be Won -- Not Bought”, but has given over $600,000 to political causes.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2010/02/24/doh-streisand-says-elections-should-be-won-not-bought-has-given-over-600k

How’s this for chutzpah: "After a decade of profligacy, the American people are tired of politicians who talk the talk but don't walk the walk when it comes to fiscal responsibility. It's easy to get up in front of the cameras and rant against exploding deficits. What's hard is actually getting deficits under control. But that's what we must do. Like families across the country, we have to take responsibility for every dollar we spend."

-Barack Obama

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ARTICLES

Michael Barone: “You are victims. You are helpless against the wiles of big corporations and insurance companies and you need protection. You need the government to take over and do things you cannot do for yourself. That is the thinking of what David Brooks calls "the educated class" that favors the Democrats' health care bills. Members of this elite spout tales of woe of people denied coverage or care with the implication that there but for the grace of government go you. So sign on and the government will take care of everything…”

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Obama_s-nanny-care-insults-the-American-spirit-85115567.html

The Dead Road of Socialism

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/20373

“Keeping You Safe: Iran will go nuclear and formally inaugurate the post-American era.”

http://article.nationalreview.com/425573/keeping-you-safe/mark-steyn

“While our attention was elsewhere, the Democratic Party (and Rep Jim McDermott) launched a disgraceful sneak attack against our intelligence professionals. The Democrats attempted to subject anyone who interrogates a terrorist in a less than gentle manner--for example, by "exploiting the phobias of the individual," to 15 years' imprisonment.”

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/02/025690.php

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Must see smackdown: The Dallas Tea Party answers MSNBCs Keith Olbermann.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMdPTpOyUk4

The Rube Goldberg Machine contest 2010. National Finals are at Purdue University, March 27^th

http://www.rubegoldberg.com/

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WISE WORDS

"The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians."

-Benjamin Disraeli

"The state tends to expand in proportion to its means of existence and to live beyond its means, and these are, in the last analysis, nothing but the substance of the people. Woe to the people that cannot limit the sphere of action of the state! Freedom, private enterprise, wealth, happiness, independence, personal dignity, all vanish."

-Frederic Bastiat

op ed review 2/21

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Highlighting the GOP’s continued momentum, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report made ratings changes in 25 House races Thursday, all of which favor Republican candidates. The downgrading of Democratic prospects in the races paints an increasingly promising picture for GOP chances of taking over the House next year.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33151.html

Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana announced that he will not seek a third term in November, a decision that, coming on the heels of other Democratic departures, could imperil the party's prospects of retaining control of the Senate

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/15/AR2010021503451.html?hpid=topnews

Thirty-four percent of voters queried think members of the House and the Senate ought to be re-elected -- while an astonishing 63 percent were in favor of throwing the bums out, the new CNN poll showed. That's the worst performance for Congress in the history of the network's polling -- the latest red flag for the floundering Democratic leadership as it heads into an anti-incumbent voter wave just eight months before the midterm elections.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/congress_poll_ralfzutWeCzpTpC6x1wrhP#ixzz0fo56SIBW

And 52 percent of Americans said President Barack Obama doesn't deserve reelection in 2012, according to a new CNN poll.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/81213-52-say-obama-doesnt-deserve-reelection-

Former Vice President Dick Cheney rallied conservative activists today during a brief yet surprise appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). "I think 2010 will be a phenomenal year for the conservative cause and I think Barack Obama is a one-term president," Cheney said to a standing ovation.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tea-party-activists-republican-leaders-gather-conservative-conference/story?id=9873498

With about 10,000 registered participants, this year's Conservative Political Action Conference was the largest and most festive yet and had to be moved to a larger Washington hotel. "A year ago, this meeting was big and scared. Now it's big and excited," said anti-tax leader Grover Norquist.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61H5U520100219?type=politicsNews

The White House is making another effort to revive healthcare. The monster just won’t die.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/19/blogs/coopscorner/entry6224538.shtml

Leaders of major conservative groups on Wednesday signed a manifesto vowing to push the country to return to constitutional principles, saying they've grown tired of having to accept government expansion at the hands of liberals. "It's our turn. We've had about enough of you. We're going to take you on, and it's time to defeat you," said Mark Levin, talk-radio host and president of the Landmark Legal Foundation. Orchestrated by former Attorney General Edwin I. Meese III, the manifesto - labeled "the Mount Vernon Statement" because it was signed near the first president's home - is designed to update a 1960 declaration issued by conservatives that heralded the rise of 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater and, eventually, President Reagan.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/18/conservative-manifesto-is-a-call-to-action-signers/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_must-read-stories-today

Over the past year alone, the amount the U.S. government owes its lenders has grown to more than half the country's entire economic output. Even more alarming, experts say, is that those figures will climb to an unprecedented 200 percent of GDP by 2038 without a dramatic shift in course.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/national-debt-budget-deficit-scary-forecast-taxpayers/story?id=9854459

Now that President Obama has closed the F-22 line, we learn that Russia has unveiled a new jet fighter that renders all legacy US fighter aircraft and the F-35, upon which the Pentagon has staked the future of US airpower, "strategically irrelevant and non viable…”

http://www.airforce-magazine.com/DRArchive/Pages/2010/February%202010/February%2018%202010/IsItaGameChanger.aspx

In an effort to try and rescue Sen. Harry Reid, President Obama is unveiling $1.5 billion in housing help to Nevada.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100219/D9DV7SS00.html

Five Muslim soldiers at Fort Jackson in South Carolina were arrested just before Christmas. We’re learning now that the men are suspected of trying to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson.

http://blogs.cbn.com/stakelbeckonterror/archive/2010/02/18/update-five-muslim-soldiers-arrested-at-fort-jackson-in.aspx

The cheery image of former President George W. Bush appeared on a billboard in Minnesota earlier this month, next to the words, "Miss me yet?" Now the online store CafePress is seeing a huge demand for these items:

http://shop.cafepress.com/miss-me-yet

The Dalai Lama was allowed to speak to President Obama, but to keep from offending China, they made him leave out the White House back door, between the trash bags waiting to be picked up. Here’s the photo.

http://www.gettyimages.co.nz/detail/96834730/AFP

Texas and several national industry groups on Tuesday filed separate petitions in federal court challenging the government's authority to regulate U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1661844120100216

President Obama’s new envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference is at the center of a controversy over remarks attributed to him defending a man who later pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid a terrorist group.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/238741

Thousands of people swarmed the Washington State Capitol on Monday to protest tax increases — and then an hour later thousands more were bused in by state-employee unions to support them.

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20100216/NEWS/302169995

The Washington State Senate voted to suspend the two-thirds-vote requirement of Initiative 960 for tax increases until July 2011. This moves the Democrat-controlled Legislature another step closer to raising taxes with a simple, 50-percent majority vote. Voters have approved that law 3 times and that 2/3's law has survived 4 court challenges. Nonetheless, Democrats in Olympia took it away without hesitation

http://www.theolympian.com/topstories/story/1131753.html

Senator John McCain has recruited his former running mate and conservative star Sarah Palin to campaign on his behalf as he faces the strongest challenge yet to his 24-year tenure in the US Senate.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/sarah-palin/7244346/John-McCain-recruits-Sarah-Palin-to-help-defend-Arizona-seat.html

The law has sided with gun rights advocates who took the city of Seattle and former Mayor Greg Nickels to court over the city's gun ban.

http://www.komonews.com/news/84274247.html

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Larrey Anderson 2/7/10

The Tea Party is a unique populist movement and moment in American history. There is no charismatic leader of the party. The Tea Party has more grassroots movers, shakers, and members than any other populist movement ever seen in our country. So what makes it so different from previous populist political factions?

"Populism" is a vague political concept. There have been populist (and wannabe populist) political movements on the left, on the right, and even in the middle (wherever that is) in the history of American politics. None of the movements were particularly successful -- and many of them were outright scams.

On the left, think of Democrat Senator John Edwards's attempt to define himself as a "populist" with his "two Americas" speeches. A multimillionaire trial lawyer tried to get himself elected President of the United States on the hypocritical distinction between "us and them" -- the rich and the poor. Edwards, of course, portrayed himself as the populist champion of the poor.

Ponder George Wallace (whom the media called a "right-wing populist" rather than a Democrat racist) and his famous quote: "I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say, segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." Wallace was the Democrat Governor of Alabama when he made that statement in 1962. He won his election with the largest popular vote in the history of the state. Wallace went on to form the so-called "populist" American Independent Party in the late 1960s.

And don't forget the über-populist Ross Perot and Reform Party USA. Perot and his political party stand for...for...for...political pundits are still trying to figure it out……

So what makes the Tea Party different? I have attended several local Tea Party gatherings (and addressed a couple of them). There is one document that is ubiquitous at these events: the Constitution for the United States of America[iii]. People hand out copies of the Constitution like hors d'oeuvres that are served at...a de rigueur tea party. At one Tea Party, I helped a women lug a couple of cardboard boxes filled with pocket-sized copies of the Constitution into the hotel conference room. We sat the boxes on a folding table next to the dais for the speakers. "I only bought a thousand copies. You think that will be enough?" she asked me. I smiled. "Enough for today..." I started to reply….

"Populist constitutionalism" -- that's what the Tea Party is all about. Love and respect for the Constitution is driving the movement. Sharing the document, and then discussing its meaning, purpose, and ideas -- that is the process that is taking place as a result of this love and respect.

This discussion is what America needs right now. The Constitution (and a real federal government) contains the set of principles that can unite all Americans (with the possible exception of the most radical of those on the left, who want to see some kind of socialist central state).

Social conservatives, fiscal conservatives (who might be liberal on some social issues), libertarians, and moderates can agree to disagree about issues like abortion, legalized drugs, gay marriage, etc. The Constitution teaches all of them that the resolution to these problems should be conducted on the state or community level, as opposed to the national level.

These divergent groups agree that the federal government has, over the last several decades, stepped farther and farther outside of the bounds of the Constitution. Issues including health care, cap-and-trade, and excessive regulation of businesses are outside the specific powers granted to the federal government. More and more Americans are aware of this fact. And more and more Americans are sharing the promises and the premises of the Constitution with their friends and neighbors through Tea Parties being held across America. This is what I mean when I say that the Tea Party is "populist constitutionalism."…

The Tea Party does not need a charismatic leader. It is essentially an ongoing educational process -- one that will be heard (one way or another) by tone-deaf and constitutionally ignorant politicians. The Tea Party teaches a multitude of Americans what they are no longer taught in our public schools and universities: America was, from the beginning, intended to be a grand experiment in freedom and local and state control.

Take Nevada and Utah as instances. The states border each other. Yet one state endorses legalized gambling, prostitution, and easy access to liquor. Right nextdoor, teetotaling Utah frowns on all of these "immoral" practices.

That's the way the Founding Fathers wanted America to be. They knew that different people have different needs and values. They realized that they should be free to express those values legislatively on the state and community levels. If an American finds Nevada's laws too promiscuous (or Utah's laws too restrictive), the citizen can either work to change the laws of the particular state...or move across state lines.

There are and will continue to be arguments and dissention within the Tea Party. (The media is already noting this and eating it up.) But Americans are famous for contention and debate. No populist movement (unless it is focused on a single issue, like prohibition) will be in agreement on every issue. Disputation and disagreement in the Tea Party is a sign of health and enthusiasm, not a portent of dissolution.

Populist constitutionalism is the surest and clearest path to saving our republic. Thank God (and I mean that literally) for that dedicated woman who asked me if she had brought enough copies of the Constitution to the Tea Party gathering. I will close by answering her as I should have when we were standing at that table: "As far as the Constitution goes, you can never have enough copies...and we should never stop learning as much as we can about the greatest political document ever written."

Edited from a longer column, read it here:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/populist_constitutionalism_and.html

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"It's not a good idea for Republicans to accept President Barack Obama's invitation to a 'bipartisan' health care summit, because it would not advance acceptable health care reform. The only thing it likely would advance would be Obama's propaganda message -- and, thus, his socialist agenda."

-David Limbaugh

"It isn't to evil dictators with a lust for power that Americans have been slowly surrendering their autonomy. It is to well-intentioned authorities who believe sincerely that our freedoms must be circumscribed for our own good. ... First Lady Michelle Obama announced what The New York Times called 'a sweeping initiative ... aimed at revamping the way American children eat and play -- reshaping school lunches, playgrounds, and even medical checkups -- with the goal of eliminating childhood obesity.' Nothing in the Constitution authorizes the federal government to take charge of 'revamping the way American children eat and play.' It is only our passivity that makes such an encroachment possible. This used to be the land of the free. Is it still?"

-Jeff Jacoby

"Only two things are infinite -- the expanding universe and Democrats' hostility to the District of Columbia's school choice program. Killing this small program, which currently benefits 1,300 mostly poor and minority children, is odious and indicative. It is a small piece of something large -- the Democrats' dependency agenda, which aims to multiply the ways Americans are dependent on government. ... The dependency agenda is progressive education for children of all ages, meaning all ages treated as children."

-George Will

"In the Obama world view, KSM did not perpetrate an act of war but simply pulled off the equivalent of a liquor-store holdup with a somewhat higher body count: it's not a war, it's a law enforcement matter."

-Mark Steyn

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GLOBALONEY

“The climate-change campaign is in catastrophic free fall. Nearly every day brings a new embarrassment or retraction for the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the supposed gold standard for "consensus" science. The withdrawal this week of BP, ConocoPhillips and Caterpillar from the main US business lobby for greenhouse-gas controls is the latest political blow to the campaign..”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_crackup_of_the_climate_consensus_T3eGnulTAq4Xm76qB0Mr7N

The academic at the centre of the ‘Climategate’ affair, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, has admitted that he has trouble ‘keeping track’ of the information. And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250872/Climategate-U-turn-Astonishment-scientist-centre-global-warming-email-row-admits-data-organised.html#ixzz0fciisMtx

Billionaire real estate tycoon Donald Trump wants Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize stripped from the Global Warmingist-in-Chief. "With the coldest winter ever recorded, with snow setting record levels up and down the coast, the Nobel committee should take the Nobel Prize back, " Trump recently told members of his country club.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/02/15/donald-trump-wants-al-gores-nobel-peace-prize-stripped

As the climate-change issue looses public support, President Obama is trying to prop it up by redirecting NASA away from space missions towards climate research.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/19/turning-nasa-into-a-global-alarmism-and-scares-adm/

Climate alarmists conjured a world where nothing was certain but death, taxes and catastrophic global warming. They used this presumed scientific certainty as a bludgeon against the skeptics they deemed "deniers" -- a word meant to have the noxious whiff of Holocaust denial. All in the cause of hustling the world into a grand carbon-rationing scheme.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/warming_meltdown_iD1hypJAstOrvovafbIbGK

The U.S. economy will lose $2.4 trillion over the next two decades if the federal government does not allow oil and natural gas drilling in restricted onshore lands and in offshore areas previously closed to energy companies, according to a new study released on Monday.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Will-the-US-flush-another-24-trillion-down-the-drain-84810192.html

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BOOKS

Former GOP Sen. Fred Thompson has written a memoir about his small-town childhood that will be released this May. ''Teaching the Pig to Dance'' recounts the movie star-turned-politician’s 50s-era upbringing in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. The title alludes to what Thompson concedes were some of his own flaws. It’s not a political manifesto, said the associate, but it will detail the Tennessean’s discovery of Barry Goldwater and conservatism.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32956.html

“Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation” by Jason Mattera. “A heat-seeking missile aimed straight at the Cult of Obama. Explosive, devastating, and rib-crackingly hilarious, Obama Zombies is a must-read for every citizen who cares about protecting freedom for future generations of America. If you know an Obama Zombie who needs awakening, buy this book now!”

http://www.amazon.com/Obama-Zombies-Machine-Brainwashed-Generation/dp/1439172072/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266681404&sr=8-1

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LEFTIST WATCH

Leftie Bill Maher: “Americans Not Bright Enough to Really Understand the Issues”

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2010/02/17/maher-strikes-again-americans-not-bright-enough-really-understand-issues

Harvard-educated Professor Amy Bishop, now charged in the triple murder and triple attempted murder of her colleagues at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, was a far-left political extremist who “was ‘obsessed’ with President Obama to the point of being off-putting.” What? You didn’t hear this from the mainstream media?

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/9390

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ARTICLES

The British consider privatizing their NHS hospitals: “The sorry saga of the NHS and my year undercover in hospitals……After a year visiting behind the scenes at hospitals, I have seen at first hand how the biggest problem confronting the NHS is its monolithic bureaucracy. I had not realized how costly the actual structure of the NHS is until I sat in on a hospital board meeting. Making sure the hospital complied with the latest government initiatives dominated the agenda. We didn't discuss patients, improving care, saving money or any issue relating to the hospital. The focus was on the bureaucratic process…”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1252458/The-sorry-saga-NHS-year-undercover-hospitals.html#ixzz0g5ph4JzR

Net neutrality is an issue that that is dear to the left, but has flown under the radar of most Americans. It’s a rather technical and arcane subject, but can be summed up rather simply: Net neutrality rules enforced by the Federal Communications Commission would allow government bureaucrats to micromanage the Internet — thus sucking out the lifeblood of the digital economy and threatening the dynamism and freedom we’ve come to take for granted online.

http://biggovernment.com/jlakely/2010/02/15/why-obama-is-wrong-about-net-neutrality-and-his-scheme-must-be-defeated/#more-75006

One might think this is the first auto recall in decades from the way government officials and Congressional Committees have pounced on Toyota. There was no government outcry and no demand for Congressional hearings over other recent recalls by Ford and Honda. So why has Toyota suddenly become the target of a government-led witch hunt? Toyota’s U.S. operations are extremely successful, not saturated by inefficient union monopolies, and are in direct competition with the now government-owned General Motors.

http://biggovernment.com/brjohnson/2010/02/17/toyota-and-the-union-backed-government-led-witch-hunt/#more-76546

Palin-mania easily surpassed Danica-mania at Daytona International Speedway. When she arrived for the drivers meeting, Palin was immediately mobbed. She briefly chatted with Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, shook hands with supporters and smiled big. She took a seat up front next to Harry Connick Jr., who sang the national anthem for the race. When NASCAR president Mike Helton acknowledged her as a special guest, she got the largest ovation from the room, packed from the front to the back with drivers, team members, support personnel and onlookers. After sitting through the meeting, Palin could not get out the door. Fans mobbed her, asking for pictures and autographs.. Even when she was able to get out the door, she stopped every few feet to take pictures. One fan asked where her husband, Todd, was on Valentine's Day. Palin said he couldn't make it because he's in Alaska preparing for the Iron Dog, the world's longest snow-mobile race.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/os-nascar-daytona-500-sarah-palin-0215-20100214,0,596430.story

“The conservative intelligentsia are starting to take Sarah Palin seriously, but I suspect they have not got her quite right yet. Within 24 hours of each other, heavyweights Dorothy Rabinowitz and George Will have published op-eds critical of her.”

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTRjNmRiMDE2MWM5MzFjYzY2MGRiYWM3NzEwNmJmZDU

“CPAC embraces the New Mitt Romney”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33161.html

The home "weatherization" jobs in the stimulus bill were subjected to Davis-Bacon wage regulations--a favorite of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department--under which federal Labor Department officials establish "prevailing wage" rates that must be paid. Why do unions like this system? Because the "prevailing wages" are determined in a way that guarantees they are usually more than the actual market wage, sometimes by large margins. All that finagling takes a certain amount of bureaucracy, however….As a result, the Department of Energy apparently weatherized only 22,000 homes under the program. Another pre-existing program, which doesn't have to comply with Davis-Bacon, appears to have weatherized about 100,000 homes.

http://slate.com/blogs/blogs/kausfiles/archive/2010/02/18/unions-are-crippling-obama-exhibit-a.aspx

The electoral map is turning red again.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33059.html

It is more than just interesting how advertisers are rebelling against free television’s current crop of lurid, creepy content. For the Hollywood elite, this is a canary in the coal mine, and they should heed that figurative dead bird’s warning. Their time as the sole arbiters of what will and will not be seen is ending. And the conservative movement stands to gain.

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2010/02/17/tv-backlash-sponsors-rebel-against-salacious-content-create-family-friendly-programming/#more-309330

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

The top 100 most popular conservative websites:

http://deathby1000papercuts.com/dbkpreport/2010/02/the-conservative-100-most-popular-conservative-sites-feb-14-2010/

Great bumper stickers, coffee cups and t-shirts: “Contrary to what you’ve been taught, NOBODY OWES YOU A THING”, “Guns don’t kill people, dads with pretty daughters do”, “Proud member of the angry mob”

http://www.politicalarmor.com/

“Impeach Obama” billboards are starting to sprout.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Wisconsin-Billboard-Calls-for-Obamas-Ouster-84376727.html

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WISE WORDS

“It has been said by liberal intellectuals that the conservative believes all social questions, at heart, to be questions of private morality. Properly understood, this statement is quite true. A society in which men and women are governed by belief in an enduring moral order, by a strong sense of right and wrong, by personal convictions about justice and honor, will be a good society-whatever political machinery it may utilize; while a society in which men and women are morally adrift, ignorant of norms, and intent chiefly upon gratification of appetites, will be a bad society-no matter how many people vote and no matter how liberal its formal constitution may be.”

-Russell Kirk

op ed review 2/14

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Independent voters see Pres. Obama in a negative light by a nearly 2-1 margin, according to a new Marist College survey, while almost half of voters say he has failed to meet their expectations.

http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2010/02/obama_hits_lowe.php

Most voters think the country would be better off if the majority of the current Congress wasn’t reelected this November, and their confidence in their own congressman continues to fall. The number of voters nationwide (61%) who give Congress a poor job performance rating is now at its highest level in more than three years. Also, 75% of likely voters now say they are at least somewhat angry at the federal government’s current policies.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/february_2010/63_say_better_for_country_if_most_of_congress_not_reelected

A new Washington Post-ABC News Poll finds the same proportion of Americans pondering a change in their congressional representation as were thinking the same thing back in 2006 and 1994, the last two times that control on Capitol Hill changed parties dramatically.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/02/obama-congress-polls.html

The same poll shows far more Americans trust congressional Republicans to handle the big issues than they did just a few months ago, as public approval of Washington sinks. Suddenly, the Republicans aren't looking so bad.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/10/republicans-winning-trust-handling-big-issues-poll-shows/

Sarah Palin addressed the Tea Party Convention last Saturday, laying out the populist-conservative case against Obama. We “need a commander in chief and not a law professor” in the war against “radical Islamic extremists” she declared.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/232801

Sarah Palin has given the clearest indication yet that her ambition is to become President of the United States, rather than merely the leader of the radical grassroots Tea Party movement that adores her.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7018587.ece

Amid chants of “Run, Sarah, run”, Ms Palin told the Nashville audience: “America is ready for another revolution and you are part of this.” The former governor of Alaska also mocked the president as a “charismatic guy with a tele-prompter..”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6395e3fc-1427-11df-8847-00144feab49a.html

The South Carolina Republican Party announced Monday that it’s uniting with tea party groups in the state to share resources, coordinate messaging and push the GOP in a more conservative direction. “This is something the grass-roots pushed up with an understanding that we are stronger together than apart.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32692.html

The Senate Tuesday failed to advance President Barack Obama's nomination of a union lawyer to the National Labor Relations Board, as the debate and vote became a test of union clout in Congress.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/84129.html

The Boeing Airborne Laser Testbed team made history by shooting down a ballistic missile in its boost phase. The experiment marked the first time a laser weapon has engaged and destroyed an in-flight ballistic missile, and is the first time that any system has accomplished the feat in a missile’s boost phase of flight. (Ronald Reagan would be proud.)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1111660620100212?type=marketsNews

Rhode Island Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy has decided not to run for re-election. after eight terms in office, bringing an end to his House career just months after his father, Sen. Ted Kennedy, passed away.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/house/patrick-kennedy-to-retire.html?hpid=topnews

Has the French ACLU hear about this? “Newcomers to France will be made to sign a declaration of values as part of a new campaign to define national identity. Other measures include the flying of the French flag and the singing of the national anthem - La Marseilleise - at schools, to promote patriotism.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8505751.stm

With a new book due out in August, Meghan McCain is still throwing cheap shots at the Right in hopes of building up her liberal fan base to sell books. ABC News reports: Meghan McCain, the daughter of former GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and a self-described "progressive Republican," today assailed the tea party movement.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/02/cheap_shots_from_meghan_mccain.html

The number of illegal immigrants in the United States dropped by nearly 1 million from 2007 to 2009 as the Bush administration ramped up enforcement efforts just as the economy took a dive, according to new figures the Homeland Security Department released Tuesday. The drop - which analysts said is unprecedented in modern history - indicates that more illegal immigrants left to go back home, and that fewer illegal immigrants actually tried to cross the border in 2007 and 2008 - data that will play a major role when Congress takes up the immigration issue later this year.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/10/1-million-fewer-illegals-in-us-new-study-says/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_must-read-stories-today

A Christian teacher in the UK lost his job after complaining that Muslim pupils as young as eight hailed the September 11 hijackers as 'heroes'. Nicholas Kafouris said he was forced from his post because he would not tolerate the 'racist' and 'anti-Semitic' behavior of children.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1249393/9-11-bombers-heroes-What-Muslim-children-told-Christian-teacher-forced-job-tolerating-racism.html

A Muslim bus driver in the UK stunned passengers when he pulled over and started praying in the aisle - with the engine still running. The driver parked without warning then rolled out a fluorescent jacket as an improvised prayer mat. He took off his shoes, knelt down facing Mecca, and began to chant.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1249335/Bus-delayed-Muslim-driver-pulls-pray-aisle.html

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Maggie Gallagher 1/20/10

The headline from The Washington Post celebrates yet another milestone: "University of Virginia picks its first female president."

But meantime, the data continues to mount that our educational system is massively failing one gender: boys.

In a new book, "Why Boys Fail," Richard Whitmire points to a study that tracked every graduate of Boston Public Schools in 2007. For every 167 women in a four-year college, there were only 100 men. (Gender beat race as a predictor of college attendance: Black women were 5 percentage points more likely than white men to be in college.) The Boston Public Schools system is hurting boys. And it's not just Boston: Nearly 60 percent of all bachelor's degrees in the country go to women.

Do we care about our boys?

The Economist recently put Rosie the Riveter on its cover to celebrate a major milestone: In the U.S., women are now the majority of the workforce. Why? Massively greater numbers of men than women are losing their jobs in this recession.

Is this really good news?

And yet every sign that boys or men are hurting gets determinedly turned around into a happy news story of female success. The disconnect between the happy headlines and the reality underneath will only be solved by women. The irony of men is that they cannot defend themselves or organize around their own systemic, gendered problems. Putting their own gender in the position of "the weaker sex" unmans them -- and also makes them deeply unattractive to women. It's not going to happen.

So the only way we are going to identify the new problem that has no name, own it, and do something about it, is if women with power make it a cause of our own. We have sons as well as daughters, nephews as well as nieces. We want husbands and fathers for ourselves or for our children who are confident, successful males and good family men willing and able to work hard to support those families. The problem is not that women are doing well, it's that boys are doing badly. The two genders cannot be pitted against one another without all of us losing.

A new report by the Pew Research Center finds that more younger women are marrying down: 28 percent of wives aged 30- to 44-years-old have more education than their husbands, compared to 19 percent of husbands who are better-educated than their wives. One in four wives now substantially outearns her husband.

It turns out women are not necessarily happy about male failure. Betsy Stevenson and Justin Wolfers' 2007 study, "The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness," notes that "By many objective measures the lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years, yet we show that measures of subjective well-being indicate that women's happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to men."

When men fail, fewer women get married. Since 1970, the proportion of 30- to 44-year-olds who are married dropped from 84 percent to 60 percent. What's next? Ask black women. In 1970, black wives were already more educated than their husbands, and just 62 percent of black people aged 30 to 44 then were married. By 2007 that figure had plunged to 33 percent. Fewer than one out of three black Americans in prime marrying/childbearing years is now married. This is one core reason why out-of-wedlock birthrates are so high.

An education system failing a generation of boys is going to produce unprecedented human misery for children, for women, and for the men themselves.

Are we women enough to do something about it?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucmg/dowecareaboutboys

More on this: “UNC Chapel Hill, with a student body that is nearly 60 percent female, is just one of many large universities that at times feel eerily like women's colleges.”

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/408/story/1232291.html

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"The Left doesn't want to govern, it wants to rule.... The Left is not about principles. It is about itself. It is about power. Now that President Obama has been politically weakened, look for the mask to come back on. The words of sweet reason, the entreaties to 'make a deal,' and feigned affection will now make a surprise reappearance. When the Left cannot rule, it will try to govern. Until the next time."

-Richard Fernandez

"The fate of ObamaCare is starting to have something of the feel of a Greek tragedy. We are not superstitious, but [Rep. Jack] Murtha's death as the result of medical error at a government-run hospital is certainly an eerie coincidence."

-James Taranto

"Today's tax system was shaped by sadists who were trying to be nice: Every wrinkle in the code was put there to benefit this or that interest. Since the 1986 tax simplification, the code has been recomplicated more than 14,000 times -- more than once a day."

-George Will

“….the vicious cycle of government employee unions winning permanent, inflexible and unsustainable entitlements for unionized employees, while recycling their mandatory dues into campaign contributions to politicians who further entrench the unions in government and politics. Ending this vicious cycle really has to be the #1 priority for those of us who wish to remain a people with a government and not the other way around.”

-Stefan Sharkansky

"Obama's budget points to a dismal future in which half of the country subsists on welfare while the other half receives a paycheck for processing welfare claims in the federal bureaucracy."

-Jeffrey Folks

"In the first post-primary Rasmussen survey in Illinois for the Senate seat briefly held by President Obama, the Republican Mark Kirk 'holds a modest 46% to 40% lead over Democrat Alexi Giannoulias.' How embarrassing, how debilitating, would it be if Democrats were to lose Obama's U.S. Senate seat?"

-Rich Galen

_________________________________________________________________________________________

GLOBALONEY

Europe is leading the way towards the realization that the climate change ideology that they have adopted is wrong. The solar subsidies Germany has been giving are being cut back severely. Plans to decommission nuclear power plants in Germany are being reconsidered. The latest twist: leaked documents from the European Commission may kill heavily promoted and subsidized biofuels programs.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/02/europe_ahead_of_america_in_dit.html

President Obama has spent billions on so-called green job programs as part of the economic recovery and plans to spend billions more. He has repeatedly argued this will create good-paying jobs that cannot be outsourced. But, according to the green groups themselves, these jobs can be highly expensive. Just last month, the White House admitted it was spending $135,294 per job.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=520993

“Large, fluffy snowflakes fell heavily across North Texas Thursday….A new record of 11.2 inches was set Thursday night at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport…”

http://www.nbcdfw.com/weather/stories/Up-To-2-of-Snow-Expected-Thursday-84053662.html

“..it's likely by the end of the week snow will be on the ground in all 50 states.”

http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=11973034

The steady snowfall in Rome was the heaviest seen in the Italian capital in 24 years.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100212/wl_nm/us_italy_snow_1

Exaggeration and alarmism have been a chronic weakness of environmentalism since it became an organized movement in the 1960s. Every ecological problem was instantly transformed into a potential world-ending crisis, from the population bomb to the imminent resource depletion of the “limits to growth” fad of the 1970s to acid rain to ozone depletion, always with an overlay of moral condemnation of anyone who dissented from environmental correctness.

http://article.nationalreview.com/424508/climate-gtterdmmerung/the-editors

Audi's "Green Police" Super Bowl ad was clearly out to mock environmentalist fervor -- and it hit close to home in greener-than-thou San Francisco.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/green/San-Francisco-Mayor-Responds-to-Green-Police-Super-Bowl-Ad-jw-83817937.html?

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LEFTIST WATCH

A new web site targeting the tea parties is a part of a complex network of money flowing from the mountainous coffers of the country's biggest labor unions and trickling slowly into political slush funds for Democratic activists. A seemingly grassroots organization that's mounted an online campaign to counter the tea party movement is actually the front end of an elaborate scheme that funnels funds -- including sizable labor union contributions -- through the offices of a prominent Democratic party lawyer.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/09/anti-tea-party-web-site-scheme-funnel-funds/

“Throughout all Women’s Studies Programs on American campuses you will find the demonization of Valentine’s Day, since, as the disciples of Andrea Dworkin angrily explain, the day is a manifestation of how capitalist and homophobic patriarchs brainwash and oppress women and push them into spheres of powerlessness. As a person who spent more than a decade in academia, I was privileged to witness this grotesque attack and “deconstruction” of Valentine’s Day at close range…”

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/02/12/hating-valentine%E2%80%99s/

One of the big events surrounding the Super Bowl was Pam and Tim Tebow's ''pro-life'' ad for Focus on the Family. Naturally, the National Organization for Humorless Scold Women couldn't stand to see a positive pro-family ad go without comment: NOW president Terry O'Neill said it “glorified violence against women.” ??

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/National-Organization-for-Women-upset-83814942.html

A new report by the International Planned Parenthood Federation is advocating that children as young as 10 be given extensive sex education, including an awareness of sex's pleasures.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585108,00.html

The progressive movement is often difficult to pin down because allied groups use multiple names and organizations to spread confusion and give the appearance of both overwhelming numbers and independent expenditure. We should not be fooled by this host of political malcontents attempting to co-opt state and local politics in the name of a national agenda. Examining the tactics of these groups gives us the key to understanding the purpose

http://biggovernment.com/jwales/2010/02/07/my-name-is-legion-the-secretary-of-state-projects/#more-68210

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NEWS FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD

Every time Valentine’s Day comes around, the Muslim world reacts with ferocious rage, with its leaders doing everything in their power to quash the festivity that comes with the celebration of private romance. Imams around the world thunder against Valentine’s every year — and the celebration of the day itself is literally outlawed in Islamist states. The Saudis, for instance, ruthlessly punish the slightest hint of celebrating Valentine’s Day. Just a few days ago, the Kingdom and its religious “morality” police officially issued a stern warning that anyone caught even thinking about Valentine’s Day will suffer some of the most painful penalties of Sharia Law.

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/02/12/hating-valentine%E2%80%99s/

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ARTICLES

“Sarah Palin hit the nail on the head when she told the Tea Party Convention that this repeated mantra of ‘bi-partisanship’ needs to find exit. Quickly. Like right now…”

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/19769

Five Lessons from the Tea-Party Convention

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1960726,00.html

While Barack Obama remains obsessed with George W. Bush, Sarah Palin hardly acknowledged his existence in Nashville at the Tea Party convention. Her back to the future vision for America skipped right over all the Bush years and went back to the principles of Ronald Reagan. That was perfectly appropriate for the Tea Party convention. It is the zeitgeist of the movement. The "kinder-gentler, compassionate conservatism" of Bushes 41 and 43 brought deeply flawed big-spending concepts that have become confusing distractions. Those twelve years of drift -- surrounding Newt Gingrich's forcing Bill Clinton to govern from the right -- have allowed liberals to blur issues and blame the failure of big government on conservatism. Ironic, isn't it? How's that new tone working out again, Mr. Rove?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/sarah_palin_and_the_tea_party.html

Michael Barone: “Obama and his party are acting in collusion with unions that contributed something like $400,000,000 to Democrats in the 2008 campaign cycle. Public-sector unionism tends to be a self-perpetuating machine that extracts money from taxpayers and then puts it on a conveyor belt to the Democratic party. But it may not turn out to be a perpetual motion machine. Public-sector employees are still heavily outnumbered by those who depend on the private sector for their livelihoods. The next Congress may not be as willing as this one has been to bail out state governments dominated by public-sector unions. Voters may bridle at the higher taxes needed to pay for $100,000-plus pensions for public employees who retire in their 50s…”

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Public-sector-unions-bleed-taxpayers-to-help-Dems-83652517.html#ixzz0ezUAy0E5

If you're a follower of conservative politics and also a user of the social networking tool Twitter, you've more than likely have noticed the use of "#tcot," for "top conservatives on Twitter" associated with certain posts that pertain to that subject matter. But it all didn't happen by accident.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2010/02/08/how-conservatives-found-twitter-and-evolution-tcot-according-tea-party-ac

“There are few human beings on planet earth more annoying than Deepak Chopra, the touchy-feely, New Age Guru whose fetid, gooey, and completely banal nostrums regarding health and healing have reached a new low in the history of civilized thought. He is, in short, a first class idiot. Reading Chopra's writings at Huffington Post is a mind altering experience….”

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/02/the_depthless_mind_of_deepak_c.html

Good dog story, a black lab who spent the past five years sniffing out bombs and weapons hidden by the Taliban wins the “Victoria Cross.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1248979/Heroic-military-dog-honoured-Victoria-Cross.html

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Reagan’s “A Time for Choosing” speech, 10/27/64, still timely now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXBswFfh6AY

Sarah: “Good, old-fashioned, from the heart speech. No TelePrompTer, one or two minor stumbles that didn't matter..”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/02/sarah-palin-tea-party-speech-video.html

Here are the 10 questions the census taker will ask you. Tell them the questions about race are none of their business.

http://2010.census.gov/2010census/how/interactive-form.php

Here’s the Tebow super bowl ad that the National Organizations for Women says glorifies violence against women.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BIOTItUwvk

The rest of the story: Focus on the Family’s Tebow Story

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/nsc/box/video_tebow.aspx

There is a billboard along I-35 near Wyoming, Minn., with a huge photo of former president George W. Bush and this question: "Miss Me Yet?"

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/02/bush_miss_me_yet_billboard_is.html

“Green police “super bowl ad causes stir:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml54UuAoLSo

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WISE WORDS

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."

-Thomas Jefferson

"We can't reduce taxes until we reduce government spending, and I have to point out that government does not tax to get the money it needs; government always needs the money it gets."

-Ronald Reagan

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HUMOR

"The Weather Channel reported Thursday that last week's ice storms in the South knocked out electricity in some areas for a week. Oklahoma has a firewood shortage because the trees are all frozen. People are staying warm by burning Al Gore's books."

-Argus Hamilton

"The Saints won [the Super Bowl] 31-17 over the weekend, and there was a huge snowstorm in Washington with over two feet of snow. So it's true what people say, that the Saints would win when hell freezes over."

-Jay Leno