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