op ed review 6/13
Americans' customary approval of their own representative in Congress has hit a 16-year low -- and a new ABC News index measuring all this pent-up discontent is well above the boiling point. The mood's captured in ABC's newly minted Frustration Index , based on four fundamental measures of public attitudes -- ratings of the president's performance, views of the economy, satisfaction with government and support for incumbents.
Democrats Are Skipping Town Halls to Avoid Voter Rage
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/us/politics/07townhall.html?hp
Former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina will be the Republican Party nominee in the November race against Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer.
Former eBay Inc CEO Meg Whitman, a political novice, has won the Republican nomination for
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0810422520100609
Nevada Republicans Tuesday picked tea party insurgent Sharron Angle to take on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, marking the start of an epic showdown between a king of Capitol Hill and a conservative renegade who wants to turn Washington on end. Angle, 60, is a fiercely committed small-government, low-tax crusader, an outsider even in the GOP, who says, "I am the tea party."
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100609/D9G7K3VO0.html
Some of Sarah Palin’s riskiest endorsements scored major victories Tuesday, showing off her power in Republican primaries.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38302.html#ixzz0qLx57KKs
Who is better informed about the policy choices facing the country—liberals, conservatives or libertarians? According to a Zogby International survey, the answer is unequivocal: The left flunks Econ 101.
This week the White House announced $234 million in grants to Americorps and other "service"-oriented nonprofits through the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act……states that voted for Obama in 2008 garnered 81% of the funding, while red states were thrown a bone of the remaining 19%.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/06/blue_state_bonanza_for_americo.html
Rachel M. Suits, 30, was the stabbing victim in a robbery early Monday morning as she walked near
http://blatherwatch.blogs.com/talk_radio/2010/06/bryan-suits-wife-stabbed-in-northend-robbery.html
Foreign companies possessing some of the world’s most advanced oil skimming ships say they are being kept out of efforts to clean up the oil spill in the Gulf because of a 1920’s law known as the Jones Act -- a protectionist law that requires vessels working in US waters be built in the US and be crewed by US workers.
http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/06/10/jones-act-slowing-oil-spill-cleanup/
When asked why President Obama hasn’t waived the Jones Act — which President Bush put on hold to facilitate Katrina rescue efforts — White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said a suspension “wasn’t necessary.”
http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/11/are-unions-impeding-oil-cleanup-efforts-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/
Whites are on the verge of becoming a minority among newborn children in the
Why
President Obama’s approval rating among Hispanics has dropped twelve percentage points since the start of the year, according to
http://blogs.chron.com/txpotomac/2010/06/poll_obamas_ratings_plunge_amo.html
A high proportion of deaths classed as euthanasia in
“Democrats May End Tax Break for Mortgages.” Calling them “tax entitlements,” senior Democratic lawmakers have argued they should be on the table for reform just like traditional entitlement programs Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/dems-may-end-tax-break-for-mortgages
Dino has the lead. In The Washington Poll for the week of May 24, the week he entered, Dino Rossi lead Patty Murray by 42% to 39%. He was in the news every day that week. That helps. But he just entered the race and is ahead.
http://www.washingtonpoll.org/results/JUNE2010.pdf
President Barack Obama is poised to increase the
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aa0cI64Gx.4E&pos=15
Meanwhile, massage and beauty schools are cashing in on federal stimulus spending.
http://www.ajc.com/news/for-profit-colleges-reap-541761.html
Huh? The small town of
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/7/stalin-bust-has-virginia-town-red-faced/
______________________________________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Geoffrey Hunt
The American Thinker, 6/1
Would someone remind us again why the nation elected this man to be president? A man with no resume, a man with no experience in running anything other than a political campaign, a man who is ignorant of history, economics, and technology? A man who is shallow and lazy? A man who shares neither character nor temperament with the American people in this vast republic? How did this happen?
Voters were smitten by the ideological handmaidens of identity politics and the promise of big government. The identity politics substituted a cosmetic profile for character and experience. The promise was that big government has the benevolent power and enlightened expertise to remake
What we've received instead was on display at the president's long-awaited press conference in the last week of May. Only a partisan or a fool could deny the irredeemable failure of these ideological handmaidens, the genius of Obama's shrinking presidency. No amount of posturing, buffing up, or Q&A briefing book drills could hide the reality that this man is on a raft at sea accompanied by an equally bewildered boatload of companions who have no idea how they arrived in such deep water, hundreds of miles from land, and with no clue that they are in trouble, let alone what to do about it.
What we've received instead from the ideology of identity politics and big government has been the spread of competency and accountability so thin that the federal government is utterly incapable of defending our shores and borders from invasion -- one by sea in the form of a massive crude oil slick, the other by land in the waves of illegal immigrants flooding Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. In utter exasperation, the citizens of Arizona finally took matters into their own hands, only to be vilified by Obama and his cohorts, who have neither the will nor the capacity to do anything about it…..
ObamaCare was the progeny of a shrinking president preoccupied with identity politics accompanied by big government ideology and not much else, floated on the emotional chaise of justice and fair distribution. Yet its proponents thoroughly disregarded the vast, complex, and highly skilled bureaucracy needed to attain those ideals in a brand new, centralized, top-down social engineering monstrosity. It will require a bureaucracy ten times the size of the Pentagon.
And now we are watching in slow-motion agony the failure of identity politics and big government unwilling and unable to cope with the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster, gradually revealed like a developing image from a Polaroid instant print. Identity politics assured that no one with any skills or experience would occupy the top jobs in Obama's administration needed to navigate a crisis of this magnitude.
And where oh where is the president, anyhow? Playing another round of golf and hosting the
Obama's presidency is finished because identity trumped competency. And without competency, his big government is dysfunctional and destructive.
So what's the alternative? Simple. The ideology of limited government. Why? Because limited government is the antithesis of identity politics. The ideology of limited government wouldn't need to rely on overextended organization competencies to manage vast and complex bureaucracies because those bureaucracies would be unnecessary and wouldn't exist. Without identity politics, people who actually know what they're doing could occupy key jobs.
Limited government has to assemble and target just those competencies needed to carry out the limited duties envisioned in the U.S. Constitution, such as providing for the common defense, facilitating interstate commerce and a monetary system, and defending the rights reserved to the people. Everything else can be better-managed by private enterprise, where distributed self interest can gather competencies in units small enough to accomplish something useful.
Identity politics combined with incompetence have exposed the absurdity in the ambitions of big government and made Obama the weakest, most anemic and flaccid president in the modern era. The Latinate word would be diminutive. In simple Saxon tongue, the word is small. This is Obama's presidency.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/06/the_smallest_president_1.html
_______________________________________________________________________________
FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"The effort to destroy the Jewish state has many fronts. One front is in
-Mona Charen
"In
-Michelle Malkin
"National Security: A Mexican cartel plots to blow up a dam -- in
-Investors Business Daily
"[W]hy do so many Bill Clinton stories end with the words 'nothing improper happened'?"
-Ann Coulter
“Al Gore won an Emmy, an Oscar, and a Nobel Prize for his chicanery and successful swindle of the global community. Maybe Tipper just got tired of living that inconvenient truth.
-Alicia Colon
_____________________________________________________________________________________
BOOKS
“The Manchurian President” The book uncovers a far-leftist, anti-American nexus that has been instrumental in not only helping build Obama's political career but in securing his presidency. Klein, with Brenda J. Elliott details with shocking precision how this nexus continues to influence Obama and the White House and is involved in drafting policy aimed at reshaping our country.
http://www.amazon.com/Manchurian-President-Communists-Socialists-Anti-American/dp/1935071874
____________________________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
One of the great unresolved questions of recent history is why so many members of the Western left have become so besotted with, and apologetic for, ruthless totalitarian regimes.
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/05/31/dancing-with-devils/
Is there anything a journalist cannot or will not twist to bring the topic back to how life would be so much better if only not for that awful George W. Bush? On Tuesday's CBS Evening News, with the help of the Washington Post's Sally Quinn, Sharyl Attkisson managed to blame news that Al and Tipper Gore are separating, on how they never got over being denied the presidency despite winning the popular vote in 2000. If only Bush hadn't taken it from them.
__________________________________________________________________________________
NEWS FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday Israel was "doomed" and singled out US President Barack Obama for scorn, blaming Washington for orchestrating new nuclear sanctions against Tehran. Speaking during a visit to the World Expo in
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5isyj2tN7JOhrI9MQuZZH4O18sqjg
Taliban militants in
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=36902
__________________________________________________________________________________
GLOBALONEY
"The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years... And we've only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we're a threat? ..The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles... hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages... And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference?"
-George Carlin
__________________________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
Pat Buchanan; “What’s Mama Grizzly Up To?” “Looking over Palin's endorsements -- McCain over J.D., Fiorina over DeVore, Branstad over Bob Vander Plaats and Rod Roberts -- the lady is not running for Mrs. Conservative. The one explanation that makes the most sense of all the seeming inconsistencies in endorsements is that Mama Grizzly is thinking about moving the Wasilla brood into the big house.”
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37445
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is a rising star in the Republican Party, a true representative of the tea party spirit. She’s plainspoken, brilliant, and incisive. She’s running for re-election to the House in
President Obama poses a real and present danger to the Second Amendment, and he's working to pack the Supreme Court with justices who will undermine Americans' gun rights.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/9/kagans-threat-to-gun-owners/
Dorothy Rabinowitz, WSJ: “The Alien in the White House The distance between the president and the people is beginning to be revealed.”
Robin of Berkeley psychoalalyzes Obama. Not a pretty picture.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/06/a_shrink_asks_whats_wrong_with.html
Every week brings fresh bad news about Obamacare. Many companies are considering dropping their health coverage as a result of the incentives the law creates. Small businesses are reporting that the law’s tax credits are encouraging them not to make new hires. Most people with preexisting conditions, who were supposed to be the chief beneficiaries of the law, will be left out from its high-risk pools: There are 4 million of them, but enough funding for only 200,000.
http://article.nationalreview.com/435339/the-republican-retreat-on-health-care/the-editors
Social Security benefits will exceed Social Security taxes in 2016, according to the Social Security Trustees 2009 annual report. It goes downhill from there…… Increased expenditures to care for the sick and elderly mean less money invested in the future: in the plants and equipment that increase the economy’s productive potential; in new technologies that raise productivity; in the education of the next generation to compete in a global economy….. We’ve kicked the can down the road for so long we’ve run out of road. And this time we can’t borrow to build a new one.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=acQoZ36ss8pU
How to fight back against Public Unions: A Primer
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/06/how_to_fight_back_against_publ.html
In case you were tempted to buy the faux Washington outrage at BP and its gulf oil spill in recent days, here's a story that reveals a little-known corporate political connection and the quiet way the inner political circles intersect, protect and care for one another in the nation's capital…We already knew that BP and its folks were significant contributors to the record $750-million war chest of Barack Obama's 2007-08 campaign. Now, we learn the details of another connection.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/06/rahm-emanuel-bp-gul-oil-spill.html
PBS station managers made a big push last year to drive any trace of "sectarian" Christianity out of the taxpayer-funded broadcasting system, banning any church services or religious lectures that appeared on a handful of stations. They ultimately compromised and banned any new church programming. But on at least one program, PBS sounds like it's declaring war on Christianity, including smears on Christianity that are not based on reality.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/guests/s_684511.html
_______________________________________________________________________________________
NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
“Today marks the launch of what will be an invaluable website for elected officials, candidates, journalists, and, really, all Americans: ObamaCareWatch.org. Directed by noted health care expert James Capretta, the site provides one-stop shopping for anyone who wants daily updates on the current and anticipated effects of Obamacare, the facts and arguments about it, and new developments concerning it.”
Just what it says:
PensionWatch reports on the coming pension tsunami that will engulf
http://www.pensiontsunami.com/ .
Obama sings the kickass song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yghFBt-fXmw
Are there too many bureaucrats and are they paid too much?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xzd3puYmiM
_________________________________________________________________________________________
LATE NITE
Jay Leno: President Obama says he would have fired BP CEO Tony Hayward if he worked for him. Unfortunately, the White House works for BP, so his hands are tied……..BP has the worst safety record of all the oil companies and has paid $373 million in fines. They don’t call them fines though, they’re called “campaign contributions.”……Hall & Oates have canceled an upcoming concert in
__________________________________________________________________________________________
WISE WORDS
"Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions."
-G.K. Chesterton
“Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges, and Governors, shall all become wolves."
-Thomas Jefferson
posted by gary at
12:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home