op ed review 8/1

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

A federal judge blocked most of the new Arizona immigration law just hours before it was to take effect, handing the Obama administration a win in the first stage of a legal battle expected to end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. A Clinton appointee, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton issued a temporary injunction, ruling that it would "impermissibly burden federal resources." In other words, enforcing federal law is a violation of federal law.

http://www.latimes.com/la-na-arizona-immigration-20100729,0,3606702.story

Dallas Morning News: “Bolton had to stand on her head to buy the Justice Department's case…. a less legal translation would be: If the feds aren't doing the job they insist is theirs alone, it's not fair to force them to do more.”

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-immig_0730edi.State.Edition1.1462318.html

David Limbaugh: “…the latest example of a virtually unchecked renegade federal government waging war against the states and against the liberties of its citizens.”

And nobody seems to have noticed that in 1996, Congress passed a law known as 287g that empowers state and local law enforcement to impose immigration law. More than 60 jurisdictions in states across the country have taken advantage of it, including Florida, Virginia, Oklahoma, Ohio, New Hampshire, California, and even Massachusetts.

http://politics.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/battle/2010/07/30/Congress-Passed-an-Arizona-Like-Immigration-Law-in-1996

According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, 55 percent of Americans back the Arizona law and 58 percent disapprove of Obama immigration policies.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/28/judicial-activism-against-arizona/

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced that he is considering introducing a constitutional amendment that would change existing law to no longer grant citizenship to the children of immigrants born in the United States. Currently, the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to any child born within the United States. But with 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, Graham said it may be time to restrict the ability of immigrants to have children who become citizens just because they are born within the country.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40395.html

President Obama turned down an invitation to speak at the Boy Scouts' Jamboree marking the group's 100th anniversary. The Jamboree kicked off this week at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, where organizers had invited the president to speak to the 45,000 scouts in attendance. All three of Obama's predecessors have made it to one Jamboree while in office.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/27/obama-missing-historic-boy-scout-jamboree-fundraisers-view-taping/

President Obama's choice to be the government's chief budget officer received a bonus of more than $900,000 from Citigroup Inc. last year -- after the Wall Street firm for which he worked received a massive taxpayer bailout.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/28/omb-nominee-got-900000-after-citigroup-bailout/

“Starting today, Arizona residents at least 21 years old can carry a concealed weapon without a permit.”

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/07/29/20100729arizona-concealed-weapons-law.html

The recovery lost momentum in the spring as growth slowed to a 2.4 percent pace, its most sluggish showing in nearly a year and too weak to drive down unemployment.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Recovery-loses-speed-as-apf-2286906230.html?x=0&.v=6

Time magazine admits that Rush Limbaugh might have been right about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico not being the environmental disaster that everyone warned.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/07/29/time-mag-shocker-rush-limbaugh-might-have-been-right-about-oil-spill

Support is mounting for a University of Illinois professor who was fired for telling students in his Catholicism class that he agrees with the Catholic Church's teaching against homosexuality. A student at the university accused Professor Ken Howell of engaging in "hate speech" when he stated in a class review session that he agreed with the Catholic teaching that homosexuality is immoral.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=1098952

Republican Dino Rossi picked up some endorsements: Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, announced he's backing Rossi from his Senate Conservatives Fund. Also, the endorsements of the Family Research Council PAC, FreedomWorks PAC, and Gun Owners Action League of Washington.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politicsnorthwest/2012484220_rossi_endorsed_by_demint_conse.html?syndication=rss

Meanwhile, Republican U.S. Senate candidates Clint Didier and Paul Akers made an unusual announcement Thursday — they will be joining forces for the campaign, setting aside the fact they are competing on the ballot for the same seat. The two anti-establishment candidates said they would start doing joint radio ads and talking in joint online forums. Both said they are upset at the political establishment — a not-too-subtle dig at front-runner Dino Rossi, who was recruited by national Republican leaders.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2012485747_didierakers30m.html

Meanwhile, U.S. Senate candidates Clint Didier and Paul Akers held a joint BlogTalkRadio appearance.

http://palousitics.blogspot.com/2010/07/didierakers-big-announcement-shocker.html

Cal Coburn Brown, who raped and tortured a woman in a 36-hour ordeal, then took her life, can be executed, the Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/424126_brown29.html?source=rss

After getting caught moving his new yacht to Rhode Island to avoid Massachusetts taxes, now Sen. John Kerry says he always intended to make the $500,000 payment once he had registered the boat.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/07/30/kerry_says_he_always_intended_to_pay_tax/

International AIDS charities say they now long for the good old days of ..... the previous administration.

http://blogs.investors.com/capitalhill/index.php/home/35-politicsinvesting/1931-global-aids-activists-pine-for-president-bush

With Congress gridlocked on an immigration bill, the Obama administration is considering using a back door to stop deporting many illegal immigrants - what a draft government memo said could be "a non-legislative version of amnesty." The memo, addressed to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas and written by four agency staffers, lists tools it says the administration has to "… reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/immigration-memo-republicans-accuse-obama-administration-scheming-amnesty/story?id=11288210

What a concept!: A proposed reorganization of the British National Health Service would “shift control of England’s $160 billion annual health budget from a centralized bureaucracy to doctors at the local level.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/world/europe/25britain.html?_r=2&hp

But “some of the most common operations — including hip replacements and cataract surgery — will be rationed as part of attempts to save billions of pounds, despite government promises that front-line services would be protected.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/7908742/Axe-falls-on-NHS-services.html

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Will Washington's Failures Lead To Second American Revolution?

By Ernest Christian, Gary Robbins, Investor’s Business Daily, 07/30/2010

The Internet is a large-scale version of the "Committees of Correspondence" that led to the first American Revolution — and with Washington's failings now so obvious and awful, it may lead to another.

People are asking, "Is the government doing us more harm than good? Should we change what it does and the way it does it?"

Pruning the power of government begins with the imperial presidency. Too many overreaching laws give the president too much discretion to make too many open-ended rules controlling too many aspects of our lives. There's no end to the harm an out-of-control president can do.

Bill Clinton lowered the culture, moral tone and strength of the nation — and left America vulnerable to attack. When it came, George W. Bush stood up for America, albeit sometimes clumsily. Barack Obama, however, has pulled off the ultimate switcheroo: He's diminishing America from within — so far, successfully.

He may soon bankrupt us and replace our big merit-based capitalist economy with a small government-directed one of his own design. He is undermining our constitutional traditions: The rule of law and our Anglo-Saxon concepts of private property hang in the balance. Obama may be the most "consequential" president ever.

The Wall Street Journal's steadfast Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote that Barack Obama is "an alien in the White House."

His bullying and offenses against the economy and job creation are so outrageous that CEOs in the Business Roundtable finally mustered the courage to call him "anti-business." Veteran Democrat Sen. Max Baucus blurted out that Obama is engineering the biggest government-forced "redistribution of income" in history.

Fear and uncertainty stalk the land. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says America's financial future is "unusually uncertain."

A Wall Street "fear gauge" based on predicted market volatility is flashing long-term panic. New data on the federal budget confirm that record-setting deficits in the $1.4 trillion range are now endemic. Obama is building an imperium of public debt and crushing taxes, contrary to George Washington's wise farewell admonition: "cherish public credit ... use it as sparingly as possible ... avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt ... bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be Revenue, that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not ... inconvenient and unpleasant ... ."

Opinion polls suggest that in the November mid-term elections, voters will replace the present Democratic majority in Congress with opposition Republicans — but that will not necessarily stop Obama. A President Obama intent on achieving his transformative goals despite the disagreement of the American people has powerful weapons within reach. In one hand, he will have a veto pen to stop a new Republican Congress from repealing ObamaCare and the Dodd-Frank takeover of banks.

In the other, he will have a fistful of executive orders, regulations and Obama-made fiats that have the force of law. Under ObamaCare, he can issue new rules and regulations so insidiously powerful in their effect that higher-priced, lower-quality and rationed health care will quickly become ingrained, leaving a permanent stain. Under Dodd-Frank, he and his agents will control all credit and financial transactions, rewarding friends and punishing opponents, discriminating on the basis of race, gender and political affiliation. Credit and liquidity may be choked by bureaucracy and politics — and the economy will suffer.

He and the EPA may try to impose by "regulatory" fiats many parts of the cap-and-trade and other climate legislation that failed in the Congress. And by executive orders and the effect of an industrywide "boot on the neck" policy, he can continue to diminish energy production in the United States.

By the trick of letting current-law tax rates "expire," he can impose a $3.5 trillion 10-year tax increase that damages job-creating capital investment in an economy struggling to recover. And by failing to enforce the law and leaving America's borders open, he can continue to repopulate America with unfortunate illegals whose skill and education levels are low and whose political attitudes are often not congenial to American-style democracy.

A wounded rampaging president can do much damage — and, like Caesar, the evil he does will live long after he leaves office, whenever that may be.

The overgrown, un-pruned power of the presidency to reward, punish and intimidate may now be so overwhelming that his re-election in 2012 is already assured — Chicago-style.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/542171/201007301830/Will-Washingtons-Failures-Lead-To-Second-American-Revolution-.aspx

Another good read, rocker Ted Nugent fires both barrels with this Washington Times editorial:

“Barack Hussein Obama did not sneak into power. An army of clueless, disconnected, ignorant Americans invited him to bring his Marxist, glaringly anti-American jihad into our lives……Will we finally use the incredible freedoms as provided by the sacrifices of our amazing warrior heroes of the U.S. military to be sure this insanity can never happen again? Can we show at least that basic respect for the privilege of being American and how we got here? It is not them, it is us. Pogo was right.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/30/it-is-us/?page=2

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"From Karl Marx to today, the Left has always hated people on the Right, not merely differed or been angry with them. The question is: why? Here are three possible answers. First, the left thinks the right is evil. ... Second, when you don't confront real evil, you hate those who do. ... Third, the left's utopian vision is prevented only by the right. ... Hatred of conservatives is so much part of the left that the day the left stops hating conservatives will mark the beginning of the end of the left as we know it."

-Dennis Prager

"The next time you hear a liberal scoffing at the idea that the American left has a set of 'talking points,' or that they're 'reading from the same script,' tell him to google 'JournoList.' Frankly, it is completely unsurprising that 400, invitation-only, members of leftist media, academia, think tanks and political activist associations would be attempting to coordinate their political strategy. When your ideology is bankrupt, the only thing left is strength in numbers. And when you revere the collectivist aspirations of Marxist/socialist all-encompassing government, 'group-think' becomes as natural as breathing."

-Arnold Ahlert

"The more the president appeals to his base in racial terms, the more his appointees identify themselves as members of a particular tribe, and the more political issues are framed by racial divisions, so all the more such racial obsession creates a backlash among the racially diverse American people. America has largely moved beyond race. Tragically, our president and a host of his supportive special interests have not."

-Victor Davis Hanson

"Elites may have more brilliance, but those who make decisions for society as a whole cannot possibly have as much experience as the millions of people whose decisions they pre-empt. The education and intellects of the elites may lead them to have more sweeping presumptions, but that just makes them more dangerous to the freedom, as well as the well-being, of the people as a whole."

-Thomas Sowell

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LEFTIST WATCH

“Mexican Flag Flies as Dozens Arrested at Illegal-Immigration Law Protests.” A clue about who was behind this protest: note the big Cuban flag with an inserted picture of Che Guevara .

http://www.breitbart.tv/mexican-flag-flies-as-dozens-arrested-at-anti-immigration-law-protests/

Despite its name, membership in the liberal online community Journolist wasn’t limited to journalists. Present among the bloggers, reporters and editors were a number of professional political operatives, including top White House economic advisors, key Obama political appointees, and Democratic campaign veterans. Some left government to join Journolist. Others took the opposite route. A few contributed to Journolist from their perches in politics. At times, it became difficult to tell who was supposed to be covering policy and who was trying to make it.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/29/political-operatives-on-journolist-worked-to-shape-news-coverage/

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ACTIVISM

King County Republican Party's 2010 Family Picnic, Homestead Park in Mercer Island, Saturday, August 14^th, 11am – 3pm

http://www.kcgop.org/sitemax/

Sign Fred Thompson’s petition to renew the Bush tax cuts:

http://www.leagueofamericanvoters.com/petition?promo_code=A5E8-1

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ARTICLES

It is just a technical matter, the Obama administration says: We just need to make a slight change in a law to make clear that we have the right to see the names of anyone’s e-mail correspondents and their Web browsing history without the messy complication of asking a judge for permission. It is far more than a technical change. The administration’s request, reported Thursday in The Washington Post, is an unnecessary and disappointing step backward toward more intrusive surveillance from a president who promised something very different during the 2008 campaign.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/opinion/30fri1.html?_r=1&hp

President Obama was swept into office by a tidal wave of support from a diverse coalition comprised of white Democrats, women, independents, Hispanics, Jews and African-Americans. Amid the din of "Yes, we can!" chants, it seemed that nothing could bring the history-making President down. But now, with his policies largely unpopular and his inability to goose economic growth increasingly apparent, Obama's once powerful political coalition is imploding

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/columnists/tantaros/index.html

Well, that was fast. Just a few weeks ago, the Gulf oil spill was a turning point for America. It was precisely the providential prodding Americans needed to wean ourselves from the diabolic goo that runs our cars, heats our homes, and forms the plastic that makes the G.I. Joe with the kung-fu grip possible….. the anointed consciences of American life combusted with frustration and rage…..But now it increasingly appears that “the worst environmental disaster in American history” wasn’t all that bad.

http://article.nationalreview.com/438908/a-crisis-gone-to-waste/jonah-goldberg

Somewhere lurking in the hot, putrid halls of Congress this summer is a union bailout bill of epic proportions and long-term ramifications….Likely to surpass the touted $165 billion it is estimated to cost, the Create Jobs and Save Benefits Act (S. 3157) was introduced on March 23rd by Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and is designed to bailout unions’ underfunded pension funds by transferring the liability of those funds onto the backs of the taxpayers…In sum, Democrats need the bailout desperately and Republicans should shun it like the plague.

http://biggovernment.com/laborunionreport/2010/07/30/why-democrats-are-pushing-the-165-billion-union-pension-bailout/

Boy Scouts celebrated their 100-year anniversary at their National Jamboree in Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia this week. President Obama decided not to attend, so he could instead tape his appearance on The View. That's too bad. For a century, Boy Scouts of America has been a top organization that cultivates young leaders by teaching them patriotism, morals, and responsibility. It’s a group the president should want to promote.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/boy-scouts-100

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

John Koster’s first ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMOHKpsP4yI

The website of the Boy Scout National Jamboree. (Your editor’s son recently became an Eagle Scout)

http://www.bsajamboree.org/

The State Auditor finds problems in the Seattle Public Schools, here’s the report:

http://www.sao.wa.gov/findings/1003871.pdf

The Obama “Change it back!” tshirt:

http://www.bufftees.com/barack-obama-change-it-back-t-shirt/

Or how about a “Chairman Maobama” tshirt?

http://www.mikechurch.com/zenshop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=152

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LATE NITE

Jay Leno: Because of Arizona’s new law, a lot of immigrants have fled the state and returned to their homeland, Los Angeles ….Congress’ approval rating has hit an all-time low of 11 percent. To give you an idea of how bad that is, the BP oil spill is at 12 percent…..Continental announced a new feature called “self boarding.” There’s no ticket agent taking your boarding pass anymore, and you scan it yourself as you board the plane. It’s part of Continental’s “Terrorists Fly Hassel-free” program.…A 104-year-old woman who called herself the world’s oldest member of Twitter, has died. Her last tweet: “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”

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HUMOR

“Faced with years of disaster-level ratings, MSNBC has announced it will change its name to MPTV, Microsoft Progressive Television (the Microsoft name was kept because, well you don’t want to upset Microsoft). Along with the name change is a more family friendly TV lineup. For example in the late morning there will be a block of game shows, the most promising of which is based on the health care bill and called Take the Money or Let Granny Die. Another daytime show is designed to compete with programs like The People’s Court; it’s called Arrest President Bush, every day a regular person gets to charge former President Bush or someone from his administration with a crime…Made just for MPTV is a new version of the popular CSI series, Called CSI Small Town, it follows a crime scene investigation team as they work in small Red State towns. Well at least what matches their vision of Red State towns. Follow these investigators as the search for answers in towns where everyone sits on their front porches clinging to their guns and religion…”

http://bigjournalism.com/jdunetz/2010/07/30/not-a-real-news-network-anyway-msnbc-announces-name-and-format-change-welcome-to-mptv/#more-101193

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WISE WORDS

"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt."

-Thomas Jefferson

op ed review 7/25

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

President Obama's job approval rating has dropped to his worst net score ever, and American voters say by a 39 - 36 percent margin that they would vote for an UNNAMED Republican rather than President Obama in 2012.

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1478

Approval of Obama drops to 28 percent in new Arizona poll

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_5e04d913-6975-53ae-8ac2-e26ef55339b7.html

CBS News poll: Only 13% think Obama’s economic policies have helped them

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/13/opinion/polls/main6675137.shtml

A GALLUP poll places Sarah Palin above all other likely Republican candidates with regard to popularity and favorability. This contradicts another GALLUP poll released in November of 2009 where Huckabee was in the lead with 71% and Palin tied with Romney for second place at 65%.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/07/sarah_rising.html

Eleven percent of Americans now say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/141512/Congress-Ranks-Last-Confidence-Institutions.aspx

Maybe this is part of the reason: during a nine month period Congress spent $604,000 on bottled water.

http://www.aolnews.com/house-money/article/congress-spent-604000-on-bottled-water-397000-on-catering/19541719

Registered voters by an 8-point margin say they'd prefer to see the Republicans take control of Congress.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/2010_Elections/poll-2010-elections-confidence-in-obama-drops/story?id=11146584

The financial reform bill expected to clear Congress this week is chock-full of provisions that have little to do with the financial crisis but cater to the long-standing agendas of labor unions and other Democratic interest groups.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/14/finance-bill-favors-interests-of-unions-activists/

As the midterm election season approaches, new road signs are popping up everywhere – twenty million dollars worth of signs touting "The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act" and reminding passers-by that the program is "Putting America Back to Work."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/signs-stimulus/story?id=11163180

The administration is focusing on helping its Hollywood pals make even more money. The Department of Homeland Security has been tasked with policing websites trafficking in illegal movie downloads.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/07/obama_team_rewards_hollywood_d.html

Decisions on which car dealerships to close as part of the auto industry bailout were based in part on race and gender, according to a report by Troubled Asset Relief Program Special Inspector General.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/07/race_played_role_in_obama_car.html

Obamacare includes a requirement for an obesity rating for every American “Must Be Included in Stimulus-Mandated Electronic Health Records, Says HHS”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/69436

At a time when President Obama is cancelling NASA space programs, Russia will earmark 800 million dollars to kick off construction of a new space launch center.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.b3b18fac1279470f409a3a2fc6b63d5c.c31&show_article=1

“Obama’s Dog Flies to Vacation on Separate Jet”

http://michellemalkin.com/2010/07/17/obamas-dog/

Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a six-figure Massachusetts tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Rhode Island.

http://bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view.bg?articleid=1269698

House investigators have laid out a series of ethics accusations against one of the most senior Democrat members of Congress, presenting his party with a new complication in advance of the fall elections.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703467304575383510984644090.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories

Dino Rossi, Clint Didier, and Paul Akers have signed the Contract from America, promoted by many national Tea Party groups. The contract commits the signer to support each of its ten agenda items, work to bring each agenda item to a vote during the first year, and pledge to advocate on behalf of individual liberty, limited government, and economic freedom.

http://www.thecontract.org/

A group of Washington taxpayers filed a lawsuit to invalidate Gov. Gregoire’s climate change executive order as unconstitutional. ”If the governor wants to pass laws, she’s in the wrong branch of government.”

http://www.effwa.org/main/article.php?article_id=3194

A group of Christian students was allegedly ordered to stop praying outside the U.S. Supreme Court building on May 5 because a court police officer told them it was against the law

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/07/15/students-ordered-stop-praying-outside-supreme-court-building/

“Obama Moves Away From 'Freedom of Religion' Toward 'Freedom of Worship'”. The distinction is important.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/07/23/randy-sly-obama-clinton-freedom-religion-freedom-worship-fort-hood/

Two more women have surface claiming that Al Gore abused them.

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/exclusive_al_gore_sex_scandal_two_new_female_accusers_assault/celebrity/69024

If you want proof that President Obama's Executive Order on taxpayer-funded abortion was a sham, look no further than Pennsylvania, says House Republican Leader John Boehner. Boehner and other Republicans point to reports that the Health and Human Services Department is giving Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new high-risk insurance pool that will cover any abortion that is legal in the state.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/69384

The Kenyan president wants a new constitution, one that opens the door to abortion on demand. President Obama is willing to use U.S. taxpayer dollars to persuade voters in Kenya to approve the updated governing document, which would loosen regulations designed to protect the unborn, establish Muslim family courts and create a right to homosexual marriage.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/16/the-kenya-connection/

A federal report indicates that the runaway Toyota problem was mainly driver error, not a manufacturing or design issue. So when do the official government and media apologies begin?

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/540388/201007141854/Sudden-Exaggeration.aspx

Union officials are working in concert with their allies in the Obama Administration to implement an electronic version of "card check" that would jeopardize voter confidentiality and open the way for coercive anti-democratic tactics, according to free market groups.

http://spectator.org/blog/2010/07/16/electronic-card-check-could-be

Rep. Michele Bachmann filed paperwork on Thursday to create the House Tea Party Caucus, formalizing the movement within the federal government. The caucus will “promote American’s call for fiscal responsibility, adherence to the Constitution, and limited government.”

http://minnesotaindependent.com/61550/bachmann-founds-and-chairs-new-house-tea-party-caucus

If the Democrats lose the House, they may very well lose not just that sword but also the shield that has prevented inquiring Congressmen from investigating the shenanigans of the Obama administration and its minions in Congress.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/07/the_democrats_worst_nightmare.html

China, powered by years of rapid economic growth, is now the world's biggest energy consumer, knocking the U.S. off a perch it held for more than a century.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703720504575376712353150310.html

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Bruce Walker

The American Thinker 7/20

Republican victory at the polls is only the start of the fight for conservatives.

The Republican Party has a real chance, because of the unusually good composition of the 2012 and 2014 Senate elections, to acquire something that Republicans have never had before: a filibuster-proof Senate. It is probable that Republicans will actually gain House seats in the 2012 elections, because Republican state government gains in 2010 may, for the first time in a very long time, mean that the redistricting process before the 2012 election will actually favor Republicans, increasing their House numbers by twenty seats or more. If a conservative Republican wins the White House in 2012, the Republicans will be able -- for the first time ever -- to actually enact their agenda over the united opposition of every Democrat.

Does Republican victory mean conservative victory? Of course not! That is why it is so important for conservatives to vote in primary elections, attend party caucus meetings, and otherwise push the Republican Party, every day and in every way, toward limited government, traditional Judeo-Christian moral values, states' rights, lower taxes and other conservative positions….The two keys to a real revolution are fairly straightforward: (1) select conservative candidates and conservative leaders in the Republican Party, and next (2) ensure that Republicans have the muscle to enact, in a brief period, long lasting and revolutionary changes.

Conservatives are doing an outstanding job in gaining strong control of the Republican Party. Not a single Republican House member supported the stimulus package or ObamaCare. The primary season so far has been an almost unbroken string of more conservative Republicans pushing out less conservative Republicans. Rubio pushed Crist out of the Republican Party. Toomey did the same to Specter. Perry defeated Hutchison in Texas. Utah's veteran Senator Bennett was denied re-nomination. While conservatives have not jelled around a presidential nominee yet, that is because until the dust of 2010 settles, no one can know who the strongest candidates will be.

Will Republicans win the muscle to pass laws over the objection of the entire Democratic Party? Only if every conservative grasps that this is the first chance that conservatives have had since the New Deal to roll back secular nanny-statism -- and that it may be the last chance, too. ObamaCare, for example, will only be repealed if Republicans do not need a single Democrat vote in Congress. If ObamaCare is not repealed soon, then it will become one of those indestructible "entitlement" programs which gobble up huge chunks of the economy.

Conservatives should also enact, in narrow window of real power, reforms that dramatically devolve control over education back to families and which encourage the rapid growth of small business, which is not only the economic dynamo of American enterprise, but also the only counterweight to the corporate fascism Obama is trying to force on America. There are several critical reforms which, if passed in a single session of Congress (assuming the GOP has the numbers), would permanently move our republic back on the course of ordered liberty, modest governance, and moral society. It would be extraordinarily simple to prevent Democrats from repealing these reforms: while Republicans have never had this carte blanche power, Democrats have only held this sort of power for a few brief years, separated by several decades.

I know some conservatives do not trust the Republican Party. I too, think too many Republican elected officials are in this for the game, and not the principles. But we have no power to change the warped structure of federal power without using elected officials. We do not, and should not want, to live in a democracy. If conservatives control the Republican caucuses in Congress -- if House and Senate Republican leaders are true conservatives -- then conservatives can get their agenda passed. (Witness how relatively inept Democrat leaders, because they controlled the White House and the leadership positions, passed very unpopular legislation.)

I care little for the private motives of particular elected officials, which are secrets known only to God, than I care for what they actually do, and if Republicans gain this temporary superpower, a million watchful, knowing conservative eyes will examine what these politicians actually do. If we can, for one brief Congress, enact a true conservative agenda, we will have won, very likely, forever. Worth the risk, I would say.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/07/conservatives_and_republican_v.html

Another good read by Jonah Goldberg:

I'm beginning to wonder if the political moment is much, much, more significant than most of us realize. The rules may have changed in ways no one would have predicted two years ago. And perhaps 10 years from now we'll look back on this moment and it will all seem so obvious. In 2008, American liberalism seemed poised for its comeback. The pendulum of Arthur Schlesinger's "cycle of history" was swinging back toward a new progressive era. Obama would be the liberal Reagan. Now that all looks preposterous.

http://townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2010/07/16/when_did_the_rules_change/page/full

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"The charge of racism leveled by liberal organizations, whether black or white, is now regarded as the politically motivated falsehood that it is. It is rightly seen, along with its six siblings -- sexism, xenophobia, intolerance, bigotry, homophobia and 'Islamophobia' -- as the Left's way of avoiding argument by demeaning its opponents."

-Dennis Prager

"The race card. So useful to play when you're losing an argument. Democrats don't leave home without it."

-Jack Kelly

"There is not now, nor has there ever been, anything post-racial about Barack Obama, except for the people who voted for him in the mistaken belief that he shared their desire to be post-racial. When he leaves office, especially if it is after one term, he will leave this country more racially polarized than before. Hopefully, he may also leave the voters wiser, though sadder, after they learn from painful experience that you can't judge politicians by their rhetoric, or ignore their past because of your hopes for the future."

-Thomas Sowell

"Barack Obama will not be on the ballot in November. Neither will George W. Bush be in the White House. You can be certain, though, that the Democratic National Committee will do everything it can to remind you of how unhappy you were when GWB was in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Obama will not be running, but if the GOP does its job properly the November election will be a referendum on Obama's policies.”

-Rich Galen

"By balancing a stern demand for constitutional, limited government with a strong, positive, active commitment to voluntary betterment, the Republican Party can stand confidently to ask for the privilege of leading America back to our greatness and our goodness."

-Tony Blankley

"As much as I would like pharmaceutical companies to rot in hell for their support of ObamaCare, I might need their drugs someday. Now, drug prices will not only have to incorporate R&D costs, but also the cost of paying for trial lawyers' Ferraris. (Perhaps that should be listed as a side effect: 'Caution! Improper use may cause nausea, dizziness, shortness of breath, and six new houses for John Edwards.')"

-Ann Coulter

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BOOKS, FILM

“The Obama Diaries” by Laura Ingraham. “….readers will see past the carefully constructed Obama facade to the administration’s true plans to "remake America."

http://www.amazon.com/Obama-Diaries-Laura-Ingraham/dp/1439197512

The surprise box-office boom for the cartoon "Despicable Me" is making it clear again to Hollywood this summer that family films are the most likely to be top-grossing films. It happens over and over again. And still the "executives" are caught off guard.

http://townhall.com/columnists/BrentBozell/2010/07/23/hollywood_shocked_as_family_films_flourish/page/full

Although the prospect of Meryl Streep playing Margaret Thatcher may have pleased some admirers of the Conservative former prime minister, her children have been horrified to discover more about the film. “They think it sounds like some Left-wing fantasy…..”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/7895160/Margaret-Thatchers-family-are-appalled-at-Meryl-Streep-film.html

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LEFTIST WATCH

How the Left thinks: Former White House “green jobs” adviser Anthony Van Jones said it was time to stop worrying about budget deficits and pressure Washington to take more money from American businesses to fund larger social and infrastructure projects. “This is a rich country. We have plenty of money, and if you don’t believe me, ask Haliburton,” Jones told a group of progressive bloggers and activists at the Netroots Nation convention Friday. “There’s plenty of money out there.”

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/24/van-jones-stop-worrying-about-the-deficit-the-government-can-just-take-more-money-from-rich-companies/

On her Bravo TV show Tuesday night, left-wing comedian Kathy Griffin referred to Sen. Scott Brown's two daughters as "prostitutes," and a CNN reporter apparently thought it hysterical.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-hadro/2010/07/14/cnn-reporter-dana-bash-laughs-kathy-griffin-calls-scott-brown-s-daughter#ixzz0tm118RXk

Visitors entering the Sacramento County Public Law Library will see a work of art that features a Bible with a label stripped across the cover that reads: "Warning! May Impair Judgment."

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/16/2893995/artwork-at-sacramento-county-law.html

Michael Moore Condemns American Taxpayers as War Criminals

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mtapson/2010/07/14/osama-and-me-michael-moore-condemns-american-taxpayers-as-war-criminals/

Roseanne Barr claimed on her blog July 8 that Republicans are avid kiddie porn viewers who like to have sex with young children.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/alana-goodman/2010/07/12/roseanne-barr-republicans-cherish-freedom-have-sex-small-children

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NEWS FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD

The creator of a now-defunct "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day" page on Facebook fears she may be targeted for death now that the cartoonist who launched the online campaign has been placed on an execution list by a radical Yemeni-American cleric. The 27-year-old Facebook page creator told FoxNews.com that she was visited at her home last week by Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials who advised her to remove her page and not to talk to reporters.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/07/12/death-threats-rattle-everybody-draw-muhammad-day-advocate/

Jihad monkeys?? Taliban terrorists have a secret weapon to destroy the infidel American enemy — monkey marksmen. According to The People’s Daily in China, the Taliban in Afghanistan is “training monkeys to use weapons to attack American troops.”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/jihad_monkey_isWrAfNEsKRjb7nhl9lMpJ

“A wise friend of mine once opined that Islam's entire quarrel with the West rests on its fear that Western values will undermine Islam's control over its women and, with that, its control over the men who benefit from a system that subjugates one half of the population to the control of the other half.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/07/sex_and_state_power.html

A video has surfaced of New Black Panther Party head Malik Zulu Shabazz praising Osama Bin Laden in 2002 for “not bowing down” to America.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/new-black-panther-president-praises-bin-laden-in-2002/

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GLOBALONEY

Environmentalists think we must stop using air conditioning to save the planet.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/09/AR2010070902341_pf.html

Efforts to make environmentalism its own sort of religion have been underway for some time now. But the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has sparked a new push to take what has been traditionally a political phenomenon, the American environmentalist movement, and make it part of the religious spectrum.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2010/07/14/new-media-craze-eco-theology-using-oil-spill-religion-promote-green-agend#ixzz0tgDz7TPr

“Sound Transit's Claims About Light Rail's Environmental Benefits Are More Than a Little Dubious”

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2010/07/light_rail_not_as_green_as_sou.php

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ACTIVISM

Home Depot thinks it’s smart marketing to support gay rights activities.

http://action.afa.net/item.aspx?id=2147496231

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ARTICLES

“In the latest stop on his “Recovery Summer” tour, rock star President Barack Obama landed in Holland, Michigan Thursday, insulted its congressman, handed American stimulus dollars to a Korean corporation, and proclaimed Obamanomics a success even as Michigan has lost 94,000 jobs since his Recovery Act was enacted.

All in all, another day in the life of an increasingly unpopular president who seems to be living in an alternative universe.”

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100715/MIVIEW/100715001/1467/opinion01/He-camehe-sawhe-insulted

Fred Barnes: “When I'm talking to people from outside Washington, one question inevitably comes up: Why is the media so liberal? The question often reflects a suspicion that members of the press get together and decide on a story line that favors liberals and Democrats and denigrates conservatives and Republicans. My response has usually been to say, yes, there's liberal bias in the media, but there's no conspiracy. The liberal tilt is an accident of nature. The media disproportionately attracts people from a liberal arts background who tend, quite innocently, to be politically liberal…Now, after learning I'd been targeted for a smear attack by a member of an online clique of liberal journalists, I'm inclined to amend my response.….hundreds of journalists have gotten together in an online listserv called JournoList, to promote liberalism and liberal politicians at the expense of traditional journalism.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704684604575381083191313448.html

New euphemism for illegal alien: “displaced foreign traveler”

http://blogs.redding.com/bross/archives/2010/07/is-that-what-th.html

With the official formation of a congressional Tea Party Caucus, Rep. Michele Bachmann has thrust an existential question before House Republican leaders: Are you in or are you out? Indiana’s Mike Pence, chairman of the Republican Conference, was adamant. “You betcha,” he said, deploying a Minnesota catchphrase. But Minority Leader John Boehner won’t have his name on the caucus list. And Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor and his chief deputy, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California — known as “Young Guns” for the GOP — are undecided. Indeed, the tea party movement is a loaded political weapon for Republicans heading into the midterm elections. Until now, they have had the luxury of enjoying the benefits of tea party enthusiasm without having to actually declare membership. But now that Bachmann has brought the tea party inside the Capitol, House Republican leaders and rank-and-file members may have to choose whether to join the institutionalized movement.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39944.html#ixzz0uEERoUj1

Many were the chuckles this week when television and radio opinionator Glenn Beck announced that he was launching his very own institution of higher learning, Beck University. The school doesn't have any buildings, but it does have a starter slate of courses, one each on Faith, Hope and Charity. Lectures on these topics will be delivered online at Mr. Beck's website, some by actual professors with actual academic credentials. Mr. Beck even has a crest for his college….nestled elegantly in a laurel device and decorated with a buffalo, a quill, a bust of George Washington and a Latin inscription urging revolution against tyrants and submission to God.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111704575354752300974096.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

Our media do not seem to be interested in the curious matter of why the Russian agents accused of trying to acquire sensitive nuclear information from the U.S. Government were so quickly released. Why were they were sent back to Moscow less than two weeks after they were arrested?

http://www.aim.org/aim-column/the-russian-agents-obama-and-the-cover-up/

Democrat Voter Fraud is Far More Widespread Than You Think

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/25349

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Dedicated to the US Marine Corps, must see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sam4lq2WHos

It’s time for Sen. Patty Murray to find a real job.

http://www.makemurrayworry.com/

Brilliant satire:

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2010/07/the-two-randy-vicars.html

You're a Liberal/Progressive if You Believe…

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0710/ahlert071410.php3

Following the Obama corruption.

http://emergingcorruption.com/

Just what it says

http://jezebel.com/5593684/watch-a-bunch-of-dogs-eating-ice-cream

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LATE NITE

Jay Leno: Happy birthday to former Sen. Bob Dole. He’s 175 years old today. ….Have you guys seen this show “White House Apprentice?” It’s a lot like the other “Apprentice,” but on this one, when the boss fires you, he offers you your job back a day later……Lindsay Lohan went to jail today. But sadly, her parents are still on the loose……..According to a study by the Brookings institution, Washington D.C. has the highest concentration of smart people in the United States. Lets see; we have a mess in the Gulf, we have a dysfunctional Homeland Security, and we are $13 trillion in debt. Imagine how bad it would be if these people weren't geniuses……A new study says that having a cat makes you 40 percent less likely to die of a heart attack. Not that the cat would care one way or the other.

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WISE WORDS

"[W]hen all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another."

-Thomas Jefferson

op ed review 7/11

Editor’s note: No OER next week; on vacation, aloha!

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Conservatives are more than twice as likely as liberals to express very strong patriotism, according to a new USA Today/Gallup poll in which 48 percent of conservatives said they were “extremely patriotic,” but only 19 percent of liberals made that claim.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/68975

Democrat pollsters James Carville and Stan Greenberg have found that 55 percent of likely voters think “socialist” is a reasonably accurate way of describing Obama.

http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/230874/55-percent-likely-voters-find-socialist-accurate-label-obama

For the first time since Obama took the oath, his support among independents has fallen below 40%.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/07/independents-abandoning-obama-gallup-poll.html

The Obama administration sued to stop Arizona's new immigration law.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/6/obama-administration-sues-arizona-immigration-law/

Voters by a two-to-one margin oppose the Justice Department’s decision to challenge the legality of Arizona’s new immigration law in federal court. Sixty-one percent (61%), in fact, favor passage of a law like Arizona’s in their own state, up six points from two months ago.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/immigration/56_oppose_justice_department_challenge_of_arizona_law_61_favor_similar_law_in_their_state

Zogby finds the same thing:

http://www.olearyreport.com/media/pdf/Zogby%20Poll%20-%20AZ%20Immigration%20Law%20-%2007.08.10.pdf

Tony West, the lead attorney in the Obama administration’s lawsuit against the State of Arizona, made his name by defending terrorists after 9/11.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/doj-lawyers-history-of-defending-americas-enemies-97945914.html

Retirees and other residents from all over the country were among those who donated nearly $500,000 to help Arizona defend its immigration enforcement law, with most chipping in $100 or less.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iIgRH03YwjRU7T-qizFzla-bE6hgD9GR35NO0

You can donate to Arizona’s border defense fund here:

http://www.keepazsafe.com/

President Obama intends to bypass Congress and appoint Dr. Donald Berwick to head Medicare and Medicaid -- filling the job while Congress is in recess to get around Republican opposition that threatened to derail Berwick's confirmation.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/06/president-medicare-medicaid-post-senate-approval/

In 2008, Berwick said wealthy individuals must redistribute their wealth to those less fortunate for health care funding. Also during this speech, he said he opposes free markets and favors rationing of healthcare.

http://blog.eyeblast.tv/2010/07/flashback-donald-berwick-we-must-redistribute-wealth/

“Over the span of two days, the network morning shows have given just 20 seconds of coverage to the recess appointment of Donald Berwick. In contrast, Good Morning America, Today and Early Show devoted 52 minutes of coverage to every detail of Lindsay Lohan's sentencing.”

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2010/07/08/morning-shows-devote-48-minutes-lindsay-lohan-scant-20-seconds-appoi

Charles Bolden, head of NASA, tells Al Jazeera that the "foremost" task President Obama has given him is "to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world…to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering." Thus, NASA's primary mission is no longer to enhance American science and engineering or to explore space, but to boost the self-esteem of "predominantly Muslim nations." Exploring space didn't even make the top three things Obama wants Bolden to accomplish.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/07/026682.php

Charles Krauthammer: "This is a new height in fatuousness…..NASA was established to get America into space and to keep us there. This idea to feel good about their past and to make achievements is the worst combination of group therapy, psychobabble, imperial condescension and adolescent diplomacy."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2010/07/05/krauthammer-rips-nasa-chief-declaration-improve-relations-muslim-world#ixzz0suf7ApXJ

Byron York documents the results of some Lexis Nexis searching. Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program in the New York Times: 0. Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program in the Washington Post: 0. Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program on NBC Nightly News: 0. Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program on ABC World News: 0. Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program on CBS Evening News: 0.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2010/07/07/examiners-byron-york-nasa-muslim-outreach-story-has-not-made-cut

Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer's edge over Republican challenger Carly Fiorina has dwindled to 3 points as she seeks re-election in November, with more Californians now holding an unfavorable view of the three-term senator.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6662JP20100708?type=politicsNews

Sarah Palin's political action committee, Sarah PAC, has produced its first web video of the season, called "Mama Grizzlies."

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/07/palin-pushes-mama-grizzly-meme/59349/

Here’s the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsUVL6ciK-c

“….the effect (of the video) reinforced the notion that she remains perhaps the most electric force in the Republican Party, and suggested she is taking steps to professionalize her approach and solidify her role as the conservative movement's most prized endorser and fundraiser.” http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39519.html#ixzz0tCEh7BiG

President Obama may get liberal Elena Kagan on the Supreme Court, but conservative swing-voter Anthony Kennedy says he's not going anywhere anytime soon. Justice Kennedy, who turns 74 this month, has told relatives and friends he plans to stay on the high court for at least three more years - through the end of Obama's first term, sources said.
The Democratic Party is moving faster and more aggressively than in previous election years to dig up dirt about Republican challengers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/06/AR2010070605271.html

Only Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has collected more money from lobbyists than Sen. Patty Murray since 2005.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012287293_murray06m.html

A Justice Department official who quit his job over the handling of a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party says the DOJ instructed attorneys in the civil rights division to ignore cases that involve black defendants and white victims.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/06/ex-official-accuses-justice-department-racial-bias-black-panther-case/

Your tax dollars at work. The Department of Health and Human Services will incinerate $260 million worth of H1N1 vaccines that expired Wednesday.

http://gawker.com/5577219/with-swine-flu-over-maybe-government-to-destroy-40-million-expired-vaccines

More tax dollars at work: President Obama announced that the Department of Energy has awarded $2 billion dollars to two solar panel companies to create about 5,000 jobs. This works out to about $392,000 per job, and “…the majority are expected to be temporary positions in…construction”

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/03/obama-announces-plan-to-spend-billions-on-creating-a-few-thousand-solar-energy-jobs/#ixzz0tDD2NDhH

During Senator Robert Byrd's funeral while everyone else was tearfully avoiding Byrd's association with the Ku Klux Klan, Bill Clinton lauded the deceased senator by way of mentioning his "brief" involvement with the KKK and actually found a way to portray Byrd's Klansmanship as an example of moral fiber.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/07/a_clinton_entendre_eulogy.html

In Britain, hating Israel has become a valid criminal defense.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=180523

A new analysis of the U.S. economy shows that since 2007, the private sector has lost 10.5 million jobs while the public sector has added 720,000 jobs, creating a "death spiral" for the nation's economy.

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=173169

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Michelle Malkin 6/7

Open-Borders DOJ vs. America: The federal government sues to stop enforcement of its own laws.

The Obama administration’s lawsuit against Arizona, officially unveiled on Tuesday, is an affront to all law-abiding Americans. It is a threatening salvo aimed at all local, county, or state governments that dare to take control of the immigration chaos in their own backyards. And it is being driven by open-borders extremists who have dedicated their political careers to subverting homeland-security policies in the name of “compassion” and “diversity.”

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, headed by assistant attorney general Thomas E. Perez, took the lead in prepping the legal brief against Arizona. The son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Perez is a far-left lawyer and activist who worked for the late mass-illegal-alien-amnesty champion Sen. Ted Kennedy and served in the Clinton administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ). While holding down a key government position there, one in which he was entrusted to abide by the rule of law, Perez volunteered for CASA de Maryland — a notorious illegal-alien advocacy group funded through a combination of taxpayer-subsidized grants and radical-liberal philanthropy, including billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Institute (not to mention more than $1 million showered on the group by Venezuelan thug Hugo Chávez’s regime-owned oil company, CITGO).

Perez rose from CASA de Maryland volunteer to president of the group’s board of directors. Under the guise of enhancing the “multicultural” experience, he crusaded for an ever-expanding set of illegal-alien benefits ranging from in-state tuition discounts at public colleges to driver’s licenses. CASA de Maryland opposes enforcement of deportation orders, has protested post-9/11 coordination of local, state, and national criminal databases, and produced a “know your rights” propaganda pamphlet for illegal aliens depicting federal immigration agents as armed bullies making babies cry…….As a former Maryland resident, I got to see Perez’s militant friends and colleagues in action. I watched CASA de Maryland president Gustavo Torres (who met with President Obama last week) complain that motor-vehicle-administration officials have “absolutely no right to ask for people’s Social Security number or immigration status to get a driver’s license.” I stood among CASA de Maryland grievance-mongers who shouted, “No license, no justice! No justice, no peace!” while playing the race card against naturalized Americans and legal immigrants who opposed the illegal-alien welfare state…..

Perez, Attorney General Eric Holder, and the rest of the open-borders DOJ team have invoked a “preemption” doctrine based on the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause to attack Arizona’s anti-illegal-immigration measure and oppose local and state enforcement of federal immigration laws. Never mind that the Arizona law was drafted scrupulously to comply with all federal statutes and the Constitution.

You gotta love Obama’s fair-weather friends of the Constitution. When a state acts to do the job the feds won’t do, Obama’s legal eagles run to the Founding Fathers for protection. When, on the other hand, left-wing cities across the country pass illegal-alien sanctuary policies that flagrantly defy national immigration laws and hamper cross-jurisdiction enforcement, the newfound federal preemption advocates are nowhere in sight.

The Obama DOJ’s lawsuit against Arizona is sabotage of the people’s will and the government’s fundamental responsibility to provide for the common defense. No border enforcement, no security. No security, no peace.

http://article.nationalreview.com/437692/open-borders-doj-vs-america/michelle-malkin?page=2

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"President Obama likes to say 'if we could put a man on the moon' we can do anything, from socializing medicine to abandoning fossil fuels. That's nonsense on stilts for a host of reasons. But it's also ironic, given that we can't even put a man on the moon anymore. Not when NASA's foremost priority is boosting the self-esteem of children and Muslims."

-Jonah Goldberg

"Mr. Obama's plan has been to increase spending to new, and what he hopes will be permanent, heights. Then as the public and financial markets begin to fret about deficits and debt, he'll claim that the debt is 'unsustainable' and that the only 'responsible' policy is to raise taxes. ... We think the last thing the U.S. economy needs at the moment…is the big tax increase that will hit on January 1 with the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. ... Democrats have rigged the rules so that merely stopping a tax increase will be scored to increase the deficit. These are the same Democrats who haven't 'paid for' trillions of spending in the last four years, but watch them soon denounce Republicans as fiscally irresponsible merely for trying to stop a tax increase. Orwell would love modern Washington."

-The Wall Street Journal

"As I've noted many times over the years when debating both Democrats and Republicans who fall back on empty phrases to justify putting the amnesty cart before the enforcement horse, we are not a 'nation of immigrants.' This is both a factual error and a warm-and-fuzzy non sequitur. Eighty-five percent of the residents currently in the United States were born here. Yes, we are almost all descendants of immigrants. But we are not a 'nation of immigrants.' "

-Michelle Malkin

"It's time to call Obama what he is: The Great Jobs Killer. With his massive spending and tax hikes -- rewarding big government and big unions, while punishing taxpayers and business owners -- Obama has killed jobs, he has killed motivation to create new jobs, he has killed the motivation to invest in new businesses, or expand old ones. With all this killing, Obama should be given the top spot on the FBI's Most Wanted List."

-Wayne Allyn Root

"The U.S. Mint released a new depiction of Abe Lincoln on the U.S. penny Monday. It shows Abe as a boy sitting on a log and studying a textbook. The Teachers Union is furious at the U.S. mint for advertising that you can get a better education without them."

-Argus Hamilton

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BOOKS, FILM

“The Battle: How the Fight between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America's Future” by Arthur C. Brooks. From the forward by Newt Gingrich: “…..there is a fundamental disagreement about America’s future between a socialist, redistributionist minority (the 30% coalition) and a massive free enterprise, work ethic, opportunity oriented majority (the 70% majority). For years I have spoken and written that “we are the majority”. It is a concept I learned from Ronald Reagan in the 1970s. Now Brooks provides the ammunition to factually explain why the 70% should govern America as a reflection of our legitimate majority status. Second, there is an elite system of power which enables the 30% coalition to dominate the 70% majority. There are the seeds of an extraordinary history book buried in a few paragraphs of The Battle. How did the coalition of word users come to so thoroughly dominate the coalition of workers and doers? How did the elites on academic campuses come to define legitimacy for the news media, the Hollywood system, the Courts, and the bureaucracy? Brooks makes clear that the dominance of the hard left in these worlds is a fact. He sets the stage for someone (maybe another AEI scholar) to develop the historic explanation of how this usurpation of the people by the elite came to be. Third, this is a conflict over values in which those who represent redistributionist, left wing materialism have stolen the language of morality while those who favor freedom, individual opportunity, the right to pursue happiness and personal liberty have been maneuvered into a series of banal and ultimately unattractive positions in the public debate. Brooks’ outline of a morally dominant culture of freedom shaming the materialistic, statist, coercive culture of redistribution is as important for our generation as Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom was for the Reagan-Thatcher generation. What makes The Battle so important is its unique combination of intellectual clarity and the best succinct analysis of the values of the American people I have ever read.”

http://www.amazon.com/Battle-between-Enterprise-Government-Americas/dp/0465019382/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278631558&sr=8-1

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LEFTIST WATCH

A rare leftie who’s not afraid to say what he thinks: “It’s July 4th, my least favorite holiday…I’m talking about the mindless patriotic bubble bath we’re all supposed to soak in all weekend long. Well, not me. My heart does not beat faster at the strains of the Star Spangled Banner, much less at the sight of F-16s flying overhead to kick off the show. You see, I don’t believe in patriotism…”

http://www.progressive.org/wx070310.html

More from “The Progressive” "On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blesse[d]…..Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?"

Forget the death penalty for terrorists. Now even life without parole may violate their "human rights." So, at least, ruled the Paris-based European Court of Human Rights, which has barred the extradition of four Islamist radicals to the United States for trial. The reason: The four face the possibility of a life sentence in a federal supermax prison -- where inmates are confined to their cells for 23 hours a day. And that, says the court, may constitute psychological torture.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/what_terrorists_deserve_jXQXKxAro9dUyt00A4AjKN

The California NAACP has endorsed recreational use of marijuana.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=1073898

San Francisco could soon have what is believed to be the country's first ban on the sale of all pets except fish. That includes dogs, cats, hamsters, mice, rats, chinchillas, guinea pigs, birds, snakes, lizards and nearly every other critter, or, as the commission calls them, companion animals.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/07/08/MN9L1EAT90.DTL

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NEWS FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD

“Iran Launches Holy War on Haircuts”

http://abcnews.go.com/International/iran-launches-holy-war-haircuts/story?id=11095053

Leaders of the global Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir have called on Australian Muslims to spurn secular democracy and Western notions of moderate Islam and join the struggle for a transnational Islamic state. British Hizb ut-Tahrir leader Burhan Hanif told participants at a conference in western Sydney that democracy is "haram" (forbidden) for Muslims, whose political engagement should be based purely on Islamic law."

http://www.news.com.au/national/islamist-leader-burhan-hanif-tells-aussie-muslims-told-to-shun-democracy/story-e6frfkvr-1225887784755

On July 11, Hizb ut-Tahrir America will hold its second annual "Global Campaign for Khilafah" in a Chicago suburb to call for an end to capitalism and the establishment of an Islamic state ruled by sharia law.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=1081734

Demonstrating a cluelessness beyond anything previously imagined, Iranian President Ahmadinejad announced that he will save the American people from the dictator Obama.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/07/iran_says_they_will_rescue_ame.html

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ACTIVISM

New Media leaders and conservative voices from Judge Andrew J. Napolitano to radio talk-show host Herman Cain will be gathering to inspire and teach participants how to navigate the New Media frontier. Join us in Las Vegas on July 23-24 for RightOnline 2010. You can register for RightOnline and find more information about the conference, including an agenda and an ever-expanding list of speakers.

http://rightonline.com/

After a meeting with gay and lesbian activists, NBC's "Today" show said it is changing the rules for its annual wedding contest to allow homosexual "couples" to apply for a wedding ceremony conducted on morning TV.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38156203/ns/today-today_weddings/

Tell NBC what you think of this idea:

http://secure.afa.net/afa/activism/TakeAction.asp?id=375

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ARTICLES

President Obama said earlier this year that the health-care bill that Congress passed three months ago is "essentially identical" to the Massachusetts universal coverage plan that then-Gov. Mitt Romney signed into law in 2006. No one but Mr. Romney disagrees. As events are now unfolding, the Massachusetts plan couldn't be a more damning indictment of ObamaCare. The state's universal health-care prototype is growing more dysfunctional by the day, which is the inevitable result of a health system dominated by politics.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704324304575306861120760580.html

“The notion of American exceptionalism — that America is a unique nation on Earth, if not in all history — is in decline, at least among much of the country's self-appointed chattering classes. And it is they who write the lion's share of books, magazines, newspaper editorials and blogs. That idea leads directly to the idea that America itself is in decline. It's a dangerous notion, not just on the country's 234th birthday, but for the long-term health and strength of the Republic itself. We must rescue American exceptionalism if we are to preserve the bright future that our nation has earned and, indeed, deserves.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/07/04/2010-07-04_bring_back_the_old_glory_its_time_to_rescue_the_idea_that_america_is_exceptional.html#ixzz0tDCbtP5n

Welcome to the second half of the year. And welcome to the ugly countdown to across-the-board tax increases that your friends in the Obama administration long insisted would only affect "the rich." Come Jan. 1, income tax rates for everyone will rise, reminds Americans for Tax Reform. The 10 percent bracket becomes the 15 percent bracket. The 25s become the 28s; the 28s become the 31s; the 33s become the 36es; and those who now pay taxes at the 35 percent rate will, next New Year's Day, have to pay them at a rate of 39.6 percent.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_688748.html

John Stossel: “Tort lawyers lie. They say their product liability suits are good for us. But their lawsuits rarely make our lives better. They make lawyers and a few of their clients better off -- but for the majority of us, they make life much worse.”

http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/2010/07/07/parasitic_tort_lawyers/page/full

Ann Coulter's recent column "Bill Kristol Must Resign" may have officially kicked off the next great schism within the conservative movement. At issue is the war in Afghanistan -- and, more specifically, whether Republicans should support President Obama's approach to a conflict that has now lasted for Americans far longer than World War II. Mocking neoconservatives, Coulter wrote: "Bill Kristol [editor of The Weekly Standard] and Liz Cheney have demanded that [Michael] Steele resign as head of the RNC for saying Afghanistan is now Obama's war -- and a badly thought-out one at that.”

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/08/ann-coulter-vs-bill-kristol-beginnings-of-a-conservative-schis/

Mexico is a mystery to most Americans -- and not unjustifiably. Millions of Mexican citizens have fled north to the United States to escape poverty, crime, and all the akin problems associated with such deprivation. That's about all their hosts know about the land to the south that produces such misery. The image of Mexico that both countries prefer to emphasize focuses on the luxury of its multi-billion dollar resort industry -- a nation of blue tequila and bronzed beauties. Convenient but false.

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/09/mexico-unmasked

Voters in Australia and Britain have had their fill of out-of-control multiculturalism.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/politicians-finally-hear-the-people-say-enough/story-e6frg6zo-1225887310346

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Obama job approval trend since 2009:

http://www.pollster.com/polls/us/jobapproval-obama.php

Money for nothing: spread the wealth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RojRPQq2-Q

The Opera Company of Philadelphia surprises visitors to the Reading Terminal Market with “Flash Brindisi”

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

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LATE NITE

Jay Leno: The U.S. government is saying that Arizona’s immigration law is unconstitutional. Legally, there’s only one entity that can determine who can come work in this country, and that’s Wal-Mart……According to Newsweek, Osama bin Laden is a big fan of World Cup soccer, and he likes to watch it from his cave. Why can’t we find him? How many caves have a satellite dish?

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WISE WORDS

"An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation."

-John Marshall