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

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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