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

______________________________________________________________________________________

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

_______________________________________________________________________________

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

_____________________________________________________________________________________

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

____________________________________________________________________________________

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

__________________________________________________________________________________

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

__________________________________________________________________________________

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

__________________________________________________________________________________

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

_______________________________________________________________________________________

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

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

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