op ed review 10/6
''When did you stop beating your wife?'' That's essentially what Politico foisted on Herman Cain. Herman Cain is accused of sexually harassing two women, though no direct nor specific accusations are made, nor are facts presented to support it.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/10/when_did_you_stop_beating.html
Is there an agenda here? Since the scandal broke, Politico published 90 online stories about Cain in 5 days.
“Cain Gets the Clarence Thomas Treatment”
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/10/31/herman-cain-clarence-thomas-sexual-harrassment/
Herman Cain still draws the most support nationally for the Republican nomination.
In spite of the sexual harassment accusations, the Cain campaign raised $250,000 in online donations in one day.
Rush Limbaugh: “…..After all of these years, none of us should be surprised and I still am: Look at how quickly what is known as the ‘mainstream media’ goes for the ugliest racial stereotypes they can to attack a black conservative.”
“Disregard what you read in the liberal press: there's a chance that Herman Cain will emerge stronger from his little “sex scandal” than he was before. The reason liberals think otherwise is that they don’t understand the psychology of Republican voters.”
Voters in 12 key swing states are substantially more likely to feel that a generic "Republican candidate" for president would do a better job than President Obama of handling the federal deficit and debt, and are slightly more likely to prefer the Republican on the issue of unemployment.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/150599/GOP-Candidate-Beats-Obama-Swing-States-Jobs-Deficit.aspx
Democrats will start attacking the Republican majority in the House with radio ads airing in 25 Republican-held districts.
The Obama administration announced its objection to adding President Franklin Roosevelt's D-Day prayer to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/daily-dispatch/obama-admin-opposes-prayer-at-wwii-memorial.html
Study: ‘Cash for Clunkers’ was a lemon
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2011/11/02/study-cash-for-clunkers-was-a-lemon/
“U.S. Approaches $15 Trillion Debt Limit”
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/u-s-approaches-15-trillion-debt-limit/
Republican AG Rob McKenna leads 43.9 to 38.4 for Governor in Washington State. The poll also found that only 37 percent of Washington voters approve of Obamacare, while 47 percent disapprove.
A towering bronze statue of President Ronald Reagan was unveiled Tuesday, as the last of four statues marking the president’s centennial was dedicated at the airport of his namesake. The statue at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport stands 9 feet tall and portrays the suited president mid-step as he welcomes travelers to the original airport terminal.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/1/reagan-statue-unveiled-national-airport/
Mississippi will vote Nov. 8 whether to amend its state constitution to protect the civil rights of all “persons,” defined to “include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof.” Abortion would be effectively defined as murder. “Just about every elected official in Mississippi, black or white and Democrat or Republican, is for Amendment 26,” says one unsympathetic pol pleading anonymity. Indeed, both candidates for governor, Phil Bryant, the Republican, and Johnny DuPree, the Democrat, support Amendment 26. So do 20 of the leading politicians in the state, including all elected constitutional officers. “Curiously, few Mississippians bring up the subject to a Washington visitor in conversations in coffee shops, shopping malls and on the town squares across the state where people gather. Everybody wants to talk about Barack Obama and the prospects to replace him, and most of the happy talk is about Herman Cain. This is not your grandfather’s Mississippi….”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/1/pruden-a-little-cloud-in-mississippi/
You just can’t make this up. In Connecticut, Democrats are trying to add to the list of ever expanding constitutional rights, the right to free diapers. Dan Malloy, governor of the Nutmeg State has decreed Diaper Need Awareness Day with no sign that he recognizes how ludicrous a decree this is. Connecticut Congresswoman DeLauro has introduced a Diaper Act, stating she thinks a program to provide free diapers to the poor will stimulate the economy.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/10/self-reliance_for_dunces.html?utm_source=co2hog
And congressional democrats want to make free diapers an entitlement. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced legislation that would allow federal block grants that states now use to subsidize child-care services to also allow for the purchase of diapers and "diapering supplies."
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/191371-senate-dem-seeks-federal-funding-for-diapers
Cuba announced it will allow real estate to be bought and sold for the first time in 50 years.
China said it successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft on Tuesday to carry out a key docking mission, taking its next step towards the goal of building its first space station by 2020. (And it won’t be an international effort)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8861692/China-launches-unmanned-spacecraft.html
The state Court of Appeals affirmed Monday that Seattle's gun ban in parks is illegal, more than a year after a King County judge sided with gun-rights advocates and the city appealed.
_______________________________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Randall Hoven, American Thinker, 10/21
In the 60s, the federal government was involved in: A Cold War with the Soviet Union, leading to what some called an "arms race." A hot war in Vietnam, where we had more than 500,000 troops at one time. A War on Poverty, in fact the whole "New Frontier" movement. A manned space program, to the point of men walking on the moon. Building the interstate highway system. All that was done on 18% of Gross Domestic Product (1961-70 average) - well under $200 billion per year. Defense spending accounted for almost half of that.
Today we have no Cold War; the Berlin Wall came down over two decades ago. We are at "war," apparently, only in Afghanistan, where we have 100,000 troops….. We no longer have a manned space program; no men have walked on the moon in almost four decades. The interstate highway system as originally planned was completed almost two decades ago.
Yet today the federal government consumes over 25% of GDP - almost $4 trillion per year. Defense spending accounts for only 20% of that, or less than half the percentage that JFK and LBJ had. Even adjusting for inflation, the federal government in 2011 spends triple what it did in the 60s.
In 1960 there was no Department of Education. No Department of Energy. No Department of Housing and Urban Development. No Department of Transportation. No Department of Veterans Affairs. No Drug Czar. No Environmental Protection Agency. No Occupational Safety and Health Administration. No Medicare. No Medicaid. No Department of Homeland Security. You want to know what those things cost us today?
Education: $79.4 B. Energy: $44.6 B. HUD: $60.8 B. Transportation: $79.5 B. Veterans: $141.1 B.
Drug Czar: $15 B. EPA: $11.1B. OSHA: $0.5 B. Medicare: $494.3 B. Medicaid (non-Medicare "health care services"): $347.0 B. DHS: $48.1 B.
The total amount of spending for that list of agencies is over $1.3 trillion. Over one third of today's federal budget is consumed by departments that did not even exist on the day John Kennedy was assassinated. I was alive then, and I'm not that old. I remember life without an Education Department, for example. We somehow learned the times-table and how to diagram sentences without the "help" of the federal government, and also without mandatory teacher certification. The guys who put men on the moon all went to grade school before even the first New Math, much less the Education Department.
The National Endowment for the Arts is another federal agency that did not exist until 1965. Tell me, was there art in this country prior to 1965? Did art in this country get better after 1965?
There was no Medicare or Medicaid until 1965. Were grandmas dying in gutters then? Not as I recall. In fact, I remember my grandma getting a house call from a doctor. Remember house calls? (My grandma was not rich, and might even have qualified as "poor.") Yet life expectancy in the US increased from about 49 in 1900 to 70 in 1965 -- all before Medicare/Medicaid. In 1965, total spending on health care was 5.9% of GDP. Today it is pushing 20% and rising. Medicare and Medicaid, programs that did not exist in 1964, now dominate the federal budget.
Believe it or not, kids, some things can exist without the federal government funding them.
In 1969, men first walked on the moon. They planted the US flag there. Here is how Charles Bolden, Obama's head of NASA, described NASA's mission in a 2010 interview with Al Jazeera.
"When I became the NASA administrator, or before I became the NASA administrator, [Obama] charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math. He wanted me to expand our international relationships. And third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering."
In 40 years we went from walking on the moon to making Muslim nations feel good about themselves. And for the first time in her adult life, Michelle Obama is proud of her country.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/10/back_to_1969.html
_______________________________________________________________________________
FROM OTHER COLUMNS
“Herman Cain doesn’t look like Jack the Ripper, but Scotland Yard never pursued Mr. Ripper with the passion of the newspapers and television networks so hot after Mr. Cain. This was once a serious country with serious newspapers, back in the day when they were edited by serious editors and a man had the right to confront an accuser before she was allowed to destroy his reputation, career and even his life. The Republican establishment clearly wishes Herman Cain would go away, and let Mitt Romney, whoever he is or turns out to be, get on with the coronation. But the natives in the grassy reeds and roots are restless, and the Republican establishment has yet to figure out how to deal with peasants newly empowered by Facebook, YouTube, tweets and other novelties and toys of the Internet. A new Rasmussen poll of Republican voters nationwide, taken Wednesday night, shows Mr. Cain leading Mitt Romney 26 percent to 23 percent, and he has opened a wider lead in South Carolina, in a poll taken two days after Politico set off the carnival of allusion and implication. He’s not dead yet….”
-Wes Pruden
_________________________________________________________________________
BOOKS
Chuck Norris reviews "Seven Miracles That Saved America.” http://townhall.com/columnists/chucknorris/2011/10/18/8_miracles_that_saved_america
__________________________________________________________________________
ISLAM
A man was publicly beheaded in a Saudi Arabian parking lot for being a 'sorcerer'.
France's prime minister condemned an apparent arson attack that destroyed the offices of a satirical French newspaper that had "invited" the Prophet Muhammad as a guest editor this week.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Fire-at-French-newspaper-after-Muhammad-issue-2247866.php
US troops in Afghanistan are told never to spit or urinate in the direction of Mecca, lest they be seen as “culturally insensitive”. They’re told to be “guided by that magnetic north for Muslims as a matter of the most personal habits and hygiene, all in accordance with Shariah…..They are learning to act like Muslims.”
http://townhall.com/columnists/dianawest/2011/11/04/marines_warned_dont_spit_toward_mecca/page/full/
_________________________________________________________________________
GLOBALONEY
A wildlife scientist, whose report on dead polar bears in Arctic waters became a rallying call for climate change campaigners, will face a lie detector test as part of an investigation by federal agents
Amarillo TX broke the record for snow in October, previously set in 1911.
http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2011-10-27/amarillo-receives-record-breaking-snow-oct-27#
Two more “clean energy companies” which Barack Obama and Harry Reid have touted as creators of “green energy jobs” have joined Solyndra on the growing list of federal loan recipients facing financial turmoil and default. And a new poll indicates that voters don’t support the idea of agenda-driven federal loans to chosen corporations.
________________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
The fingerprints of the preeminent funder of the activist Left today, George Soros, are all over the anti-American “Occupy Wall Street” movement. The seventh-wealthiest person in America (net worth: $22 billion), Soros has publicly embraced Occupy Wall Street and financially supports a left-wing group that is funneling money to the movement.
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/11/04/occupy-wall-street-and-soros-fingerprints/
Those who think the Occupy Wall Street protesters are harmless should watch a chilling interview Michael Moore gave on CNN. “……capitalism is an evil system, set up to benefit the few at the expense of the many.” So what system do you want? Anderson asked. “No system right now that exists,” Moore said. “We’re going to create that system. This movement . . . is going to create a democratic economic system…”
http://www.newsmax.com/RonaldKessler/Occupy-Wall-Street-Obama/2011/10/31/id/416273
A disgusting mess was left at the Portland Multnomah County Courthouse in what police are calling a case of 'bio-vandalism.' According to police, a masked person who was caught on a surveillance camera walked by the doors and threw a container filled with urine and feces at the building.
http://www.katu.com/news/local/132836588.html
Video showing occupy Portland protestors vandalizing a war memorial and then dancing on it.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is quickly solidifying her reputation as one of the most spineless public officials in the country. After throwing her support behind the Occupy Oakland’s plan to “shut down the city” this week, Quan now seems surprised that the protest quickly spiraled into a violent riot that left eight people injured, dozens of businesses vandalized, and untold financial damage in cleanup cost and police overtime pay….the destruction hasn’t convinced Quan to kick the Occupiers out of the city parks. In fact, she’s now defending the movement…
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/11/04/oakland-occupy-wall-street-violence/#more-773449
_____________________________________________________________________________
THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE
Herman Cain is showing resilience in the face of allegations of sexual impropriety: More than half of potential Republican voters say the controversy is not serious, fewer than a quarter say it makes them less likely to support Cain, and he’s running essentially evenly with Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination.
Mitt Romney's steady 22-percent share in the Des Moines Register's polling looks like a sign of strength — or at least, viability — in Iowa, but the paper also flags some troublesome indicators: Evangelical voters stalled [Romney's] campaign here four years ago, and this survey shows they believe his social conservative bona fides are suspect. He’s at the bottom of their list, save for Jon Huntsman, who gets not a single vote.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/67156.html
Gov. Rick Perry is statistically tied with businessman Herman Cain among Republican presidential primary voters in his home state of Texas, with the rest of the GOP candidates well behind the leaders.
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is not backing down from a statement he made to CNSNews.com on March 15 that Planned Parenthood is really about “planned genocide” because it targets black babies for abortions.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/herman-cain-wont-retract-planned-parenthood-planned-genocide
“Hi Tech Lynching is here again! Shades of Justice Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill. They're going to play the same sadistic power game they lost with Justice Thomas. Well, let 'em try, but now they are facing a revived conservative media. This is a trial of strength. When Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court he had few defenders. Today we have talk radio and the blogs.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/11/cain_versus_the_lynch_mob.html
______________________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
Lost in the press’s non-stop hunger for a lurid he-said-she-said regarding the allegations against GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain is a more basic look at the nature of sexual harassment claims in this country. As a recovering trial lawyer, I know first-hand how messy our legal system can be, but even I am shocked at the sorry modern state of sexual harassment law…..the state of sexual harassment law in this country……can best be described as a legal little shop of horrors. Our sexual harassment laws often undermine free speech. The claims themselves are incredibly easy to allege, incredibly difficult to defend, have been expanded to cover almost any type of speech and underscore the need for real and serious tort reform in this country. Earlier this week, conservative author and former lawyer Ann Coulter caused waves when she said that getting charged with sexual harassment in the 1990s was akin to being charged with witchcraft in the 1690s. As usual, Coulter is both shocking and absolutely correct at the same time.
People spending their free time camping out in protest of the wealthiest one percent share more in common with that top one percent than with the bottom one percent with whom they wish more to be shared in common. One needn’t rely on visuals of the protestors’ Cabela tents or iPhones….. The revelation is supposed to be counterintuitive—except that it isn’t. Movements speaking for the poor have always been led by the very rich. Whether it’s the guilt trip, free time, or self-importance fostered by opulence, the affluent have historically been behind attempts to tell other wealthy people how to use their money. Occupy Wall Street isn’t an outlier in this regard. It is in line with past cash-movements passing themselves off as mass-movements.
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/11/04/the-rich-kids-of-occupy-wall-street/
Nearly thirty years after her death, Ayn Rand’s novels continue to be wildly popular—"Atlas Shrugged" alone is selling more today than it did when it was first published in 1957 -- more than one million copies have sold since the 2008 elections. Especially among Tea Partiers, Ayn Rand is being hailed a prophet. How could she have anticipated, more than 50 years ago, a United States spinning out of financial control, plagued by soaring spending and crippling regulations? How could she have painted villains who seem ripped from today’s headlines?
Rewind to 1994. That year, the federal government declared war on an enemy — the racist lender — who officials claimed was to blame for differences in homeownership rates — and launched what would prove the costliest social crusade in U.S. history. At President Clinton's direction, no fewer than 10 federal agencies issued a chilling ultimatum to banks and mortgage lenders to ease credit for lower-income minorities or face investigations for lending discrimination and suffer the related adverse publicity…….compelling evidence that the crisis evolved chiefly from government mandates and threats to increase lending to applicants who could not afford them.
http://news.investors.com/Article/589858/201110310805/Housing-Crisis-Obama-Clinton-Subprime.htm
________________________________________________________________________________
NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
The brilliant Richard Epstein on PBS NewsHour. “A lot of PBS viewers went into shock watching this clip.”
http://coalitionoftheswilling.net/?p=16633
Herman Cain sings “Amazing Grace” at the National Press Club.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/67251.html
_____________________________________________________________________________
LATE NITE:
Leno: President Obama invited trick-or-treaters to the White House Saturday night and they had a very scary party. They sat in a circle, turned off all the lights and the kids read the president his poll numbers…..The economy is still hurting. Thirty percent of Americans are so disillusioned, they are thinking of moving back to Mexico.….Plans are under way in England to build a laser they say is powerful enough to tear apart the fabric of space. Well, what could go wrong there?
______________________________________________________________________________
WISE WORDS
"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
-George Orwell
"I think politicians and diapers have one thing in common -- they should both be changed regularly and for the same reason."
-Ronald Reagan
posted by gary at
8:44 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home