op ed review 9/25
A new poll finds support for President Obama evaporating, so that “even” Sarah Palin trails him by only five points, 49-44. More significant is that, by a margin of 49 percent to 36 percent, respondents said they definitely plan to vote against Obama. What is more, by 52 percent to 38 percent, voters think Obama will lose, no matter who the GOP nominee.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/09/shock-poll.php
Less than half of Americans say Obama has been a better president than Bush.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/09/24/2011-09-24_pollweb.html
President Obama will propose $1.5 trillion in new taxes.
Oh and it would appear that there are $3 in tax hikes for every $1 in spending cuts...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/18/obama-call-broad-tax-increases/
Unbelievable photo: President Barack “It’s all about me” Obama breaks diplomatic protocol and makes a fool out of himself. No, this is not photoshopped.
And yet another humorous gaffe by President Obama, overlooked by most media for whatever reason. Obama hails America's historic building of “the Intercontinental Railroad”
Michelle Obama dropped in on a DNC fundraiser this week, her left wrist dripping with diamonds. “an astonishing $42,150 worth of bracelets”
Bankrupt Solyndra’s CEO and CFO, have invoked their Fifth Amendment right not to self-incriminate themselves at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing about how their company squandered $535 million in taxpayer money. Oh, and the law firms representing them are major Democratic Party donors.
The failure of federally backed solar energy startup Solyndra has cast a shadow over the renewable-energy industry, spurring congressional hearings and investigations by the FBI and Treasury Department. Some lawmakers are now asking whether the federal government should be backing energy projects at all when taxpayer money is ultimately at stake.
“Fraud case targets grants awarded by ‘one of President Obama’s closest friends’”
America could have enough oil resources to meet today’s oil demand levels in the future for decades without importing from unfriendly foreign countries. That is the conclusion of a new report from the National Petroleum Council. The report also finds that America has huge volumes of natural gas that can meet decades of demand.
http://bigpeace.com/ier/2011/09/21/america-can-be-an-energy-superpower/
Meanwhile the Dept of Energy is paying student teams $100K each to build toy solar homes.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/solar-decathlons-rainy-start_594112.html
We can’t even get to ours anymore, meanwhile China is about to take the first step towards building its own space station.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c863c828-e37c-11e0-8f47-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1Yc3YuPO6
Remember the supreme court Kelo decision? allowing the city of New London CT to force the Kelos and their neighbors to sell their houses to the city on the premise that a developer would build something that would generate more taxes? The project went belly up and the result is the city lost residents and revenue. Now one of the state justices has apologized to the Kelos.
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/42613
Pornographic magazine publisher Larry Flynt offered $1 million on Thursday to anyone with proof of "an illicit sexual liaison" involving leading Republican presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/23/us-campaign-perry-flynt-idUSTRE78M0PY20110923?feedType=RSS
Republican Rob McKenna leads Jay Inslee 46-39 in the 2012 Washington gubernatorial race. McKenna is trying to become the first GOP candidate to win a governor’s race since John Spellman in 1980.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2011/09/19/poll-mckenna-leads-inslee/
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will lead GOP efforts to raise the money needed to defeat President Obama.
A couple in San Juan Capistrano, CA, have been fined $300 for holding Bible studies for their friends at their home, and they face the potential for additional fines of $500 for each study held, according to a legal team taking their case to court.
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=345073#ixzz1YGHlbkjd
An honors student in Fort Worth, Texas, was sent to the principal’s office and punished for telling a classmate that he believes homosexuality is wrong.
Billionaire Warren Buffett will host a fundraiser for President Obama next month in Chicago at $35,800-a-ticket. Note the picture of Obama giving Buffet an award.
Warren Buffett may be a committed liberal Democrat, but his father, Howard Buffett, was a four-term Republican member of Congress (1943-49 and 51-53), a John Bircher who fought FDR and warned that the expansion of government was eroding individual liberty.
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/buffett-vs-buffett
President Obama is coming to Seattle this weekend. “The stopover does not include any free public events…..There are two private events, however, and if you went to both, they could cost you $43,300 to see the man who promised us Change but on this trip is insisting on checks or credit cards.”
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/09/obama_eattle_viit_int_intended.php
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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Rex Murphy, Canadian National Post
As the bad economic news continues to emanate from the United States — with a double-dip recession now all but certain — a reckoning is overdue. American journalism will have to look back at the period starting with Barrack Obama’s rise, his assumption of the presidency and his conduct in it to the present, and ask itself how it came to cast aside so many of its vital functions. In the main, the establishment American media abandoned its critical faculties during the Obama campaign — and it hasn’t reclaimed them since.
Much of the Obama coverage was orchestrated sychophancy. They glided past his pretensions — when did a presidential candidate before “address the world” from the Brandenberg Gate in Berlin? They ignored his arrogance — “You’re likeable enough, Hillary.” And they averted their eyes from his every gaffe — such as the admission that he didn’t speak “Austrian.”
The media walked right past the decades-long association of Obama with the weird and racist pastor Jermiah Wright. In the midst of the brief stormlet over the issue, one CNN host — inexplicably — decided that CNN was going to be a “Wright-free zone.” He could have hung out a sign: “No bad news about Obama here.”
The media trashed Hillary. They burned Republicans. They ransacked Sarah Palin and her family. But Obama, the cool, the detached, the oracular Obama — he strolled to the presidency.
Palin, in particular, stands out as Obama’s opposite in the media’s eyes. As much as they genuflected to the one, they felt the need to turn rotweiler toward the other. If Obama was sacred , classy, intellectual and cosmopolitan, why then Palin must be malevolent, trashy, dumb and pure backwoods-ignorant.
Every doubt they hid from themselves about Obama, every potential embarrassment they tucked under the blanket of their superior sensibilities, they furiously over-compensated for by their remorseless hounding of Palin — from utterly trivial e-mails, to blogger Andrew Sullivan’s weird speculations about Palin’s womb, musings that put the Obama “Birther” fantasies into a realm near sanity. (We are now seeing an echo of that — with a new book promoting all sorts of unconfirmed gossip about Palin, including her alleged sexual dalliance with a basketball star.)
As a result, the press gave the great American republic an untried, unknown and, it is becoming more and more frighteningly clear, incompetent figure as President. Under Obama, America’s foreign policies are a mixture of confusion and costly impotence. It is increasingly bypassed or derided; the great approach to the Muslim world, symbolized by the Cairo speech, is in tatters. Its debt and deficits are a weight on the entire global economy. And the office of presidency is less and less a symbol of strength.
To the degree the press neglected its function as watchdog and turned cupbearer to a styrofoam demigod, it is a partner in the flaws and failures of what is turning out to be one of the most miserable performances in the modern history of the American presidency.
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FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"Washington has repeated nearly every economic policy mistake of the 1930s in recent years, so why not repeat one of the bigger blunders of the 1960s too? We refer to President Obama's proposal [Monday] for a new 'Buffett Rule' to raise taxes on Americans earning more than $1 million a year. ... There's one small problem: The entire Buffett Rule premise is false.... In 2008, the last year for which such data are available, the IRS reports that those who made more than $1 million in adjusted gross income paid an average income tax rate of 23.3%....... [N]early all millionaires….paid a rate that is more than twice the 8.9% average rate paid by those earning between $50,000 and $100,000, and more than three times the 7.2% average rate paid by those earning less than $50,000. ... [T]he real point of Mr. Obama's Buffett Rule and his latest deficit proposal isn't tax justice or good tax policy. It is all about re-election politics. Down in the polls and facing a sullen liberal base, Mr. Obama wants to rally the left behind him, and nothing fires them up like the pretense that government is sticking it to the rich. Mr. Obama is picking a tax fight that he apparently believes will carry him to re-election next year."
-The Wall Street Journal
"[W]hile interest in the Constitution is growing, few Americans actually know much about what it says. And that has serious downsides. It means that many Americans don't really understand the rights the Constitution protects or the powers it grants. For example, in 2009, Oklahoma tested its high school students on their knowledge of civics -- including basic ideas about the U.S. Constitution. They failed miserably. Only 28% knew that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and just 26% identified the Bill of Rights correctly. ... American adults -- including those serving in politics -- fare no better when it comes to their knowledge of the Constitution. In early 2011, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute surveyed adults and college students to assess their civic knowledge. They discovered that ordinary Americans actually scored higher on their knowledge of the Constitution than the elected officials surveyed. ... Citizens who do not understand their rights -- or the limitations of government -- can neither defend those rights nor participate meaningfully in the political process."
-Rebecca Hagelin
"Has Obama ever grown even a potted plant, much less a business, a bank, a hospital or any of the numerous other institutions whose decisions he wants to control and override?"
-Thomas Sowell
"Obama is like the guy in the bar who says, 'I'll stand drinks for everyone in the house,' and then adds, 'Those guys over there are going to pay for them.'"
-Michael Barone
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BOOKS
A new book about Barack Obama, whose Pulitzer-prize winning author received extensive co-operation from the White House, portrays the American president as indecisive, out of his depth and facing insubordination from advisers.
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LEFTIST WATCH
The ACLU is sending letters and filing lawsuits around the country seeking to prevent schools from using Internet filters. They claim their campaign is designed to end the blocking of “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender” activist group sites, but in reality it will allow school children to access to pornographic websites.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46356
Michael Moore says if you’re a patriotic American, you should be willing to wait in a longer line for healthcare.
Michael Moore threatens the rich:
Liberal activists and academics displeased with the Obama administration’s handling of several issues popular with progressives say they are seeking candidates willing to mount a primary challenge against President Obama next year.
Only about 300 protesters, mostly college kids and aging hippies, showed up near the Stock Exchange for yesterday’s anti-Wall Street rally — far fewer than the 20,000 that organizers of the so-called global “Day of Rage” had predicted.
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GLOBALONEY
China shut down a solar-panel factory Monday after hundreds of angry residents staged days of violent protests over pollution, the second such incident in as many months.
“For those who have a wish to hear the grating sound of a man distempered and frustrated that the cause for which he has given at least a decade of his time, the “greatest moral challenge of our time,” is lost, I recommend listening to Al Gore as he was captured during an address at an Aspen global warming conference two weeks ago. It is a revelation….You hear him on the tape near rage, repeatedly shouting “bulls–t” over the arguments of his critics. He raves about conspiracy — a rebirth of the tactics of the dreaded tobacco industry of a few decades back. He blames “media manipulation” for the refusal of people to take up his gloomy summons. He hisses at “volcanoes and sunspots” as having much or anything to do with climate. “Bulls–!” he cries over and over — perhaps it’s the methane content that has him mesmerized with the word…….It is not a pretty display. The question the sorry little rant calls up is whether, in its way, this temper fit was a signal that the great global warming crusade, that has had such a sweet run for the last decade or more, is finally over. Has it run, so to speak, out of gas?”
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/08/20/rex-murphy-global-warming-runs-out-of-gas/
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THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE
Texas Gov. Rick Perry leads former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the GOP presidential nomination, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, in what is becoming a battle between the candidate who excites more Republicans and the one who shows stronger appeal among swing voters.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2011-09-19/republican-poll-gop-perry-romney/50467944/1
“Is Perry blowing it? “Mitt Romney is an incredibly vulnerable Republican candidate, from his numerous policy reversals to his championing of the Massachusetts health care law that served as the basis from Obamacare. But for him to lose, somebody else has to beat him. And like Tim Pawlenty before him, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is blowing his chances to exploit Romney’s weaknesses….”
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/perry-blowing-it
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) says he would consider putting the liberal congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) in his Cabinet if he wins the presidency in 2012. Paul said his libertarian political philosophy helps him connect with some on the far left — including Kucinich, who shares Paul’s general anti-war stance.
Gov. Perry’s support for Israel’s right to build new settlements and a possible end of US aid to the Palestinian Authority not only break with the Obama administration’s policies, but goes even further than George W. Bush’s Middle East approach.
The rest of the story on Gov. Perry’s short-lived 2007 order requiring girls to be vaccinated against HPV. “She was 31, and her last wish was to save girls from cervical cancer. Now, four years after her death, Heather Burcham is making headlines and saving lives again - this time, in the middle of Gov. Rick Perry’s Republican presidential campaign.
When viewers turned on their TV sets to watch the Fox News-Google GOP presidential debate on Thursday night, they expected to see an extended back-and-forth between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry that would cement their star status. What they got instead was a second tier of candidates that consistently outshone them, leaving the Republican Party questioning the mettle and messages of its frontrunners
During Thursday night's Republican presidential debate, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum all took shots at Rick Perry's record on illegal immigration. Bachmann said that Texas's law allowing in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants acted like a "magnet" for illegal immigrants. Perry's response was forceful and personal. "I don't think you have a heart," Perry told his critics. "If you say that we should not educate children who come into our state for no other reason than that they've been brought there through no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart," Perry said. "We need to be educating these children because they will become a drag on our society. I think that's what Texans wanted to do. Out of 181 members of the Texas legislature when this issue came up [there were] only four dissenting votes. This was a state issue. Texas voted on it. And I still support it today."
“Rick Perry came to Liberty University (also known as Christian Wingnut Central) in Virginia just this past week and, despite the fears of the Washington Post and others of the mainstream media resentfully tagging along, the republic still stands. Perry talked God to 10,000 weirdly normal university students -- no sex, drugs, or spittle in evidence -- and the only sign of apocalypse came from the press covering the event, their heads revolving Linda Blair-like as they listened to Perry and Liberty speakers serially thanking and praising God. God, can you believe it?....”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/09/rick_perry_and_the_wingnuts_for_jesus.html
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ARTICLES
When Ronald Reagan ran for re-election in 1984, his slogan was "Morning in America." For Barack Obama, it's more like midnight in a coal mine. The vultures are starting to circle. Former White House spokesman Bill Burton said that unless Obama can rally the Democratic base, which is disillusioned with him, "it's going to be impossible for the president to win." Democratic consultant James Carville had one word of advice for Obama: "Panic."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-chapman-obama-reelection,0,622512.column
“President Obama's "Buffett Tax" proposal to change the nation's tax laws may sound seductively reasonable. Ensuring that nobody earning over a million dollars a year pays a lower percentage than the middle class sounds like justice. The truth, however, is that -- no matter how well-packaged it may be -- Obama's proposal is a nasty bit of class warfare that will destroy jobs, drive investment out of the economy, and harm the middle class, and it is certain to raise far less revenue than predicted. Let's begin our discussion of this with the last part.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/09/obamas_recipe_for_tax_disaster.html
The Navy’s former top civilian has rocked the service in a military journal article by accusing officials of sinking the storied naval air branch into a sea of political correctness. Former Navy Secretary John Lehman, himself a former carrier-based aviator, wrote that the swagger and daring of yesterday’s culture has given way to a focus on integrating women and, this year, gays. Pilots constantly worry about anonymous complaints about salty language, while squadron commanders are awash in bureaucratic requirements for reports and statistics, he added.
“When the White House released its latest plan to stimulate – er, improve – the economy, everybody knew there would be a fresh round of spending to bail out government schools. But there’s another motive too: dues for the teachers unions. By my estimates, about three quarters of unionized teachers are represented by the National Education Association. Every member pays dues, including $166 per year that goes to the national union, according to a secret union document posted on PublicSchoolSpending.com.”
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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
Rick Perry’s new ad, “Obama: President Zero”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EL5Atp_vF0
Great new ad by the College Republicans: The young people in the ad look dissatisfied and pouty. Barack Obama's voice and the words "winning the future," from one of his old campaign speeches, echo in the background. "You're LOSING my future," says one young man.
http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-seize-waning-campus-obamamania-075604223.html
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HUMOR
….it’s spreading, this curse of Political Correctness. Perhaps you’ve noticed subtle changes in your community — the DPW no longer puts enough salt on the roads in the winter to properly melt the ice, supposedly to protect the “aquifer,” in reality to hamstring people who actually have real jobs and have to drive automobiles and trucks for a living.
Or downtown maybe you’ve seen that there are now more “recycling” containers than trash cans. Has your community “tipped?” Could you be living in the next Brookline? If more than half of the following statements apply to your hometown, you, too, could have trouble.
American flags no longer fly in front of any municipal buildings.
No Christmas trees on the Common — that battle was lost years ago.
The populace cowers in fear of the dreaded Trash Police, who check your bags on pickup day to make sure no piece of allegedly recyclable cardboard has made it into your city-sold trash bags.
A town road crew is tearing up a major thoroughfare in order to install a new lane — for bicycles.
It is a “sanctuary city” for illegal aliens.
The local Wal-Mart (constructed before the moonbats took over) has stopped selling ammunition, because the no-nonsense grannies at Town Meeting forbade it.
Your neighbor, who has no visible means of support, spends his mornings at the Starbucks posting edgy Facebook messages with links to Paul Krugman columns.
Diversity Day at Town Hall has become Diversity Week has become Diversity Month…….
"L.A. is considering a ban on both plastic AND paper grocery bags. Fine. If I ever go shopping in L.A., my bags will be made from the fur of animals I killed myself."
-former Senator Fred Thompson
"President Obama's speechwriter Jon Lovett resigned to pursue what he called a more fulfilling life in Los Angeles writing comedy. He helped write the stimulus bill, the health care law and the president's jobs plan. His work as a comedy writer in Washington is done."
-Argus Hamilton
"Government statistics show the U.S. economy created zero jobs in August. President Obama now says he's confident this month he can double that."
-Jay Leno
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WISE WORDS
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
-William Pitt
"Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone."
-Frederic Bastiat
"If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute."
-Thomas Paine
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