op ed review 6/19
Twenty-eight months after Congress passed President Obama’s signature economic stimulus law, and nearly one year after he declared the summer of 2010 to be “Recovery Summer,” 1.9 million fewer people are employed.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/after-28-months-stimulus-spending-19-mil
President Obama joked about 'shovel-ready projects. "Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected.”
The “misery index”, the sum of unemployment and inflation, is at the highest point in 28 years. “…a nausea-inducing 12.7—9.1 percent for unemployment and 3.6 percent for annualized inflation—a number not seen since 1983.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43441924
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that individuals have standing to challenge federal laws as violations of state sovereignty under the 10th Amendment. “This decision is as radical in the direction of liberty as the New Deal was radical in the direction of socialism.”
http://arizonateaparty.ning.com/profiles/blogs/goldwater-institute
For the third week in a row, a generic Republican candidate leads President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election matchup.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney continues to lead the race for the Republican nomination, but Michele Bachmann has surged into second place following her Monday night entry into the campaign.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, sent President Obama a letter Tuesday afternoon warning him that the operation in Libya will be violating the War Powers Resolution by this Sunday, which marks the 90th day of U.S. military involvement in the country.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the state's controversial collective-bargaining law Tuesday, ruling that a lower-court judge who put the law on hold improperly interfered with the legislature.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303848104576386122936205978.html?
Texas Gov. Rick Perry opened the door a little wider to a presidential bid on Tuesday by telling Fox News Channel that he is “giving it the appropriate thought.” “Six weeks ago, this was not on my radar screen,” Mr. Perry told the cable network during a trip to New York. He said he’s considering it now because his wife, Anita, and others urged him to think about it.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/06/14/gov-perry-on-2012-giving-it-appropriate-thought/
Gov. Perry ventured far from his home state on Sunday to address a largely Hispanic group at an anti-abortion rally in Los Angeles.
The co-chairmen of President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility, say that that the US faces “the most predictable economic crisis in history” within the next two years. The tipping point "will come when the rating agencies find out we have no plan" to seriously address federal spending and the national debt.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/former-sen-simpson-tipping-point-will-co
When adding in all of the money owed to cover future liabilities in entitlement programs the US is actually in worse financial shape than Greece and other debt-laden European countries, Pimco's Bill Gross told CNBC Monday. Taken together, Gross puts the total at "nearly $100 trillion……”That's much more than Greece, that's much more than almost any other developed country. We've got a problem and we have to get after it quickly."
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43378973
Rep. Anthony Weiner’s decision to resign brings a scandal that consumed Washington for several weeks to an end. Score another one for conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart.
http://nationaljournal.com/the-man-behind-weiner-s-resignation-20110616
According a front page story in the New York Times’s Week in Review, disgraced Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner was a victim of a newly “puritanical” climate in Washington. “When it comes to scandal, boys will be boys.”
Republican Reagan Dunn Launches Campaign for Washington State Attorney General – Says McKenna Will Lead Way in 2012
Acting on a new state law, the Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal has condemned a controversial Mexican-American studies courses and warned the district could lose a portion of its state funding if it does not comply with the law within 60 days. Auditors reported “Texts and other materials for the junior-level courses referenced White people as "oppressors" and "oppressing" Latino people.”
A bill encouraging the use of natural-gas-powered vehicles will give the EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases while rewarding the Democratic left's patron saint, George Soros.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/575282/201106141750/A-Bill-To-Make-Soros-Richer.htm
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) saw her net worth rise 62 percent last year, cementing her status as one of the wealthiest members of Congress.
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/166599-pelosis-net-worth-rises-62-percent-
Armed agents of the U.S. Department of Education bashed their way into a California man’s house and held him and his children while they apparently searched for evidence of alleged student loan fraud involving his estranged wife. “Why does the U.S. Department of Education need a SWAT squad?”
http://morningjournal.com/articles/2011/06/12/opinion/mj4661809.txt?viewmode=fullstory
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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Investor’s Business Daily 6/14
“Government Greed”
Sen. Dick Durbin, the Illinois Democrat, is behind yet another attempt to collect taxes on Internet retail sales. Lawmakers' desperate pursuit of other people's money never ends. Durbin's bill, called the Main Street Fairness Act, would let the 44 states that levy a sales tax collect revenues on Web sales even when the seller has no physical presence in the buyer's state.
The bill will supposedly fix the "unfair advantage" that Web retailers have "over Main Street bricks-and-mortar businesses" that are required to charge sales taxes, Durbin says. Such a policy would be a departure from the way Internet sales have been conducted in the past, a process that has been validated by the Supreme Court. Because it's in reality nothing more than a modern version of mail-order sales, e-commerce has been treated in the same way catalog sales were handled in the days when Americans shopped at Sears and J.C. Penney via the U.S. Postal Service.
Durbin's effort is not the first. The political class has been trying to get its hands on Web sales since it became clear it was a growing industry. The greed has been seething for some time.
Lawmakers have been watching large amounts of cash exchange hands without them being in the middle of the transactions. They are not content to sit on the sidelines while they can force their way into relationships in which they aren't welcome. Simply put, they can't resist getting their hands on money they neither earned nor were given.
The pot of gold for lawmakers is the $10.1 billion in uncollected e-commerce sales tax revenue they say they're missing this year. They act as if the money is rightfully theirs and not the hard-earned salaries and wages of the public that's buying online out from under the hand of the state.
While politicians are plotting their next act of larceny, one well-known company is refusing to yield. Amazon.com has pulled a distribution center out of Texas because State Comptroller Susan Combs sent the company a $269 million bill for unpaid sales taxes. The Web retailer, with $34 billion in yearly sales, has clearly indicated that it will continue to walk away from states that are trying to muscle in on its business.
Should Durbin's bill become law, the exodus is likely to grow beyond Amazon's flight from Texas. And it won't be an escape from one state to another, but more a withdrawal from the country.
It's easy to imagine that Amazon and others would do business offshore to avoid a tax that should not be levied. In an age in which jobs are hard to come by, pushing Amazon out of the country wouldn't be wise. Unlike most of the poor policy ideas that are hammered into law in Washington, an e-commerce sales tax is not a solely Democratic ambition. GOP Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming is in part responsible for Durbin's bill. Which makes us wonder: Who will protect consumers from this beast? Who will represent their interests?
Lawmakers excuse their envious ways by employing the poverty defense. They claim that states are in deep fiscal trouble, putting them in dire need of new revenue, a need that can be met only by draining taxpayers ever drier. But who put the states' affairs in such a poor position? The fact that they spent themselves into the miserable holes they are in doesn't generate a lot of sympathy. Neither does the fact that they refuse to call off their schemes to loot other people's wallets when times are easier.
It should be painfully clear to all that lawmakers are a covetous group. Their greed knows no bounds. Their lack of respect for the taxpayers whom they plunder knows no depths.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=575364&p=1
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FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"In the course of any given year, Congress votes on taxes, medical care, military spending, foreign aid, agriculture, labor, international trade, airlines, housing, insurance, courts, natural resources, and much more. There are professionals who have spent their entire adult lives specializing in just one of these fields. The idea that Congress can be competent in all these areas simultaneously is staggering. Yet, far from pulling back -- as banks or other private enterprises must, if they don't want to be ruined financially by operating beyond the range of their competence -- Congress is constantly expanding further into more fields. Having spent years ruining the housing markets with their interference, leading to a housing meltdown that has taken the whole economy down with it, politicians have now moved on into micro-managing automobile companies and medical care. They are not going to stop unless they get stopped. And that is not going to happen until the voters recognize the fact that political rhetoric is no substitute for competence."
-Thomas Sowell
"We are in the midst of a once-in-a-generation debate about the nature of the welfare state (entitlement versus safety net) and, indeed, of the social contract between citizen and state (e.g., whether Congress can mandate -- compel -- you to purchase whatever it wills). Let's finish that debate. Start with Obama's abysmal stewardship, root it in his out-of-touch social-democratic ideology, and win. That would create the strongest mandate for conservative governance since the Reagan era."
-Charles Krauthammer
"The problem is that Weinergate goes to the heart of the Democrats' cultural liberalism. Try as they might to disown him, he embodies the party's moral rot. Mr. Weiner is a progressive crusader. He has championed almost every secular leftist cause. ... The result has been a coarsening of our culture, the breakdown of the family and the disintegration of a moral consensus. Mr. Weiner is simply a product of modern liberalism -- self-absorbed narcissism combined with an obsession for sexual gratification."
-Jeffrey T. Kuhner
"Take the 'tea parties,' which have been accused of racism by the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus, mainstream media outlets and entertainer-activists such as Janeane Garofalo, who proclaimed they are 'about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.' So, after nearly two years of 'experts' telling us that the typical tea party member is two holes in a white sheet shy of being a Klansman, guess who is arguably the most popular tea party candidate for president? Herman Cain, a black businessman.
-Jonah Goldberg
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BOOKS, FILM
"Crimes Against Liberty," by David Limbaugh. “…..issues a damning indictment of President Barack Obama for encroaching upon and stripping us of our individual and sovereign rights. Laying out his case like he would a criminal complaint, Limbaugh presents the evidence—count-by-count—against Obama. From exploiting the financial crisis for political gain, to restricting our personal freedoms through invasive healthcare and “green” policies, to endangering America with his feckless diplomacy and reckless dismantlement of our national security systems, Limbaugh proves—beyond a reasonable doubt—that Obama is guilty of crimes against liberty. Comprehensive and compelling, this is Limbaugh’s most powerful book yet.”
Hannity interviews Steve Bannon (“The Undefeated”). “…she is an existential threat to the establishment.” Movie comes out July 15th.
http://www.mrctv.org/videos/steve-bannon-hannity
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GLOBALONEY
“U.N. climate propaganda exposed….Industry lobbyists behind ‘scientific’ claims in IPCC press release”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/17/un-climate-propaganda-exposed/print/
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LEFTIST WATCH
As President Obama shifts increasingly into reelection mode, he is feeling persistent anger and discontent from the left as well as the right. White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer was heckled and booed Friday at the annual Netroots Nation conference in Minnesota, a gathering of liberal activists from the online political community.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/17/obama-slammed-liberal-conference/
Within hours after Anthony Weiner announced his resignation from Congress, former MSNBC gabber Keith Olbermann suggested he may hire the soon-to-be-former New York lawmaker for a talk show on former Vice President Al Gore's fledgling television network, Current TV.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20072106-503544.html
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ISLAM
In the UK, “It's time to confront this taboo: First cousin marriages in Muslim communities are putting hundreds of children at risk..”
“Afghanistan's booming car sales industry has been thrown into chaos by a growing aversion to the number "39," which almost overnight has become an unlikely synonym for pimp and a mark of shame. Drivers of cars with number plates containing 39, bought before the once-harmless double digits took on their new meaning, are mocked and taunted across Kabul.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110615/od_nm/us_afghanistan_number
“….Refusing to learn the language, the immigrants promise the destruction of the very country they are occupying. They receive welfare and free housing while vowing to remake Europe into a new world order Caliphate…..The monetary benefits are considered ''jizya,'' a tribute that infidels in Muslim-controlled countries must pay..”
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/37486
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton officially opened an exhibition about the scientific achievements of Muslim civilization at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=20110615103043
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ARTICLES
Seven Republican presidential candidates debated in New Hampshire. “As our US editor Toby Harnden observes, only one had any impact: Michele Bachmann.”
“Don't kid yourself: beating a seated President is NEVER a cakewalk. Knocking off Barack Hussein Obama won't be a snap either. He may raise as much as a billion dollars, the mainstream media will pull out all the stops to get him re-elected, and he has the power of the presidency to try to impact events….
Could Big Media look any dumber? The all-points-bulletin attention that national media organizations gave to the release last week of official e-mails from Sarah Palin's tenure as Alaska's governor sure backfired. Not only was Palin not discredited by the emails, but they exposed to the public a competent leader and a rather decent human being. Imagine the disappointment of The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and other outlets.
“Could they be more pitiful? The liberal media are literally dumpster-diving Sarah Palin now — combing through 24,000 pages of Palin’s e-mails during her time as governor…Leftist media…..have flown reporters to Juneau to sift through the e-mails, like breathless schoolchildren reading from the private diary of the girl they really hate….Even the Guardian — a newspaper from London, England, put four reporters on the file….”
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/06/14/deranged-about-sarah-palin
The trove of more than 13,000 emails…paints a picture of her as an idealistic, conscientious, humorous and humane woman slightly bemused by the world of politics. If anything, Mrs Palin seems likely to emerge from the scrutiny of the 24,000 pages, contained in six boxes and weighing 275 pounds, with her reputation considerably enhanced. It comes at a moment when the battle for the Republican nomination appears set to be transformed by the late entry of Governor Rick Perry of Texas, a social conservative and Palin ally who could almost immediately leap to the front of a currently lacklustre field. Sources close to Mr Perry have confirmed that he is “highly likely” to announce a presidential run in the coming days. Intriguingly, they have also hinted at a something they believe would increase immeasurably Mr Perry’s chances of winning the White House – an endorsement from Mrs Palin.
In the last four weeks Sarah Palin scored 959,000,000 Google hits, almost a billion.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/barracuda_snakecharmer_sarah_and_the_mob.html
On the other hand: “A Conservative Woman's Problem with Palin”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/conservative_womens_problem_with_palin.html
Former New York Giants wide receiver David Tyree -- best known for making a famous catch against his helmet during Super Bowl XLII -- spoke out against gay marriage Wednesday, claiming it is the first step towards "anarchy." Asked what he thought would happen if gay marriage was legalized across the US, Tyree said, "This will be the beginning of our country sliding toward, it's a strong word, but anarchy. "How can marriage be marriage for thousands of years and now all the sudden because a minority, an influential minority, has a push or agenda ... and totally reshapes something that was not founded in our country," he added.
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/david-tyree-gay-marriage-will-lead-to-anarchy-20110616-ncx
This is all you need to know about Obama’s economic program to understand why joblessness remains so persistent: The number one recommendation that the White House economic team and his jobs council – a council made up of the two top executives at GE and American Express- can come up with to jump start our economy is spending $2 billion on remedial training for our high school graduates.
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2011/06/16/the_obama_job_lies_pile_up/page/full/
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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
Tim Eyman: STATUS REPORT ON INITIATIVES -- THERE ARE 4 IN THE RUNNING FOR 2011
http://soundpolitics.com/archives/014877.html
Nice animal story:
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LATE NITE
Leno: According to a new report, only 12 percent of American high school students can pass a basic history test. That’s the lowest percentage since our country was founded in 1922…….President Obama said regarding the economy, "The sky is not falling." The poll numbers are falling, the market is falling, support for the war in Libya is falling, Anthony Weiner’s pants are falling, but the sky is fine……According to the latest survey on the economy, 48 percent of the people surveyed think we'll have a great depression. The other 52 percent think it will just be a pretty good depression……..According to the Wall Street Journal, economic experts now fear there may be a second recession. A second recession? When did the first one end?
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WISE WORDS
"If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy."
-Thomas Jefferson
posted by gary at
9:34 AM
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