Friday, November 18, 2011

op ed review 11/20

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether ObamaCare is constitutional, granting certiorari in a case brought by 26 states shortly after that law was enacted in March of last year. In so doing, it will be ruling upon the very nature of our federal union. The Constitution limits federal power by granting Congress authority in certain defined areas, such as the regulation of interstate and foreign commerce. Those powers not specifically vested in the federal government by the Constitution or, as stated in the 10th Amendment, "prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." The court will now determine whether those words still have meaning.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204323904577038232724779286.html

The South, once solidly Democratic, is more solidly Republican than ever after the 2011 elections. In 2008, Mr. Obama was propelled to the White House in large part with breakthrough victories in such states as Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, but all three states now have Republican-led legislatures, with the GOP’s biggest gains in the 2010 elections.

http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/15/elections-give-gop-a-solid-hold-on-south/

According to the 2011 Military Times Poll of active-duty subscribers, confidence in the overall job performance of the Commander-in-Chief has plummeted from 70% to 25%.

http://bigpeace.com/edonnelly/2011/11/15/poll-troops-losing-confidence-in-obama-commander-in-chief/

Newt Gingrich has taken the lead in PPP's national polling. He's at 28% to 25% for Herman Cain and 18% for Mitt Romney.

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2011/11/gingrich-takes-the-lead.html

Obama Nominee for Social Security Board Favors Rationing Health Care: “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open…..The social budget is limited.”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-nominee-social-security-board-favors-rationing-health-care_609011.html

When President Obama took office in January 2009, 14.6% of Americans were without health insurance. Abra-cadabra, presto-chango and it is now up to 17.3% or more than 50 million people who are without hospitalization insurance, according to Gallup..

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/46107

Another banner week for the Occupy movement. An occupier in Burlington shot himself to death. An innocent bystander was shot and killed after a fight in Occupy Oakland. Tuberculosis was linked to Occupy Atlanta. An Occupy Portland man was arrested for throwing a Molotov cocktail. And another Boston occupier was arrested for selling drugs to a cop in a bathroom. Yet the Occupy movement is still going strong. How will this all end?

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/11/conn-carroll-weve-seen-occupy-flick-alcatraz

So how is the Democrats’ answer to the Tea Party going? Five people at the Occupy L.A. encampment have been charged with separate crimes, including a man who allegedly exposed himself and commited a sex act in front of a child…….Ringworm Outbreak at Occupy Santa Cruz.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/11/occupy-la-five-charged-with-crimes.html

The Seattle City Council passed a unanimous resolution in support of Occupy Seattle. Meanwhile SeattlePI.com reported that Occupy Seattle has cost the city $529,000, mostly for police time

http://soundpolitics.com/archives/015136.html

The Treasury now pegs the cost of the bailout of GM, Chrysler Group and the auto finance companies at $79.6 billion.

http://detnews.com/article/20111114/AUTO01/111140434/U.S.-boosts-estimate-of-auto-bailout-losses-to-$23.6B#ixzz1dydhvO2b

President Obama said that the United States has gotten a "little bit lazy" when it comes to bringing in new businesses in to the states.

http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/11/13/president-obama-us-gotten-bit-lazy-attracting-businesses

Harry Reid doesn’t think federal regulations hurt business. “My Republican friends are yet to bring a single piece of evidence that the regulations they hate so much have the economic harm they claim…..That’s because there isn’t any."

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2011/11/16/harry_reid_doesnt_think_regulations_slow_economic_growth

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is disappointed with the Obama administration's decision to delay construction of TransCanada Corp.'s $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. The delay is designed not to ruffle environmentalists feathers before next year's election. Harper says Canada will start selling more of its energy products to Asia instead.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2011/November/Canada-Looks-to-Asia-after-Oil-Pipeline-Delay-/

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops opened a new front in their fight against abortion and same-sex marriage on Monday, recasting their opposition as a struggle for “religious liberty” against a government and a culture that are infringing on the church’s rights.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/us/bishops-renew-fight-on-abortion-and-gay-marriage.html?_r=1

Gay marriage backers want to make Washington the seventh state to legalize marriage of gay and lesbian couples, and they think 2012 is their year.

http://www.kirotv.com/ap/ap/legislative/new-effort-to-legalize-gay-marriage-in-washington/nFcbh/

Pro-gay activists have launched a boycott of an Iowa baker who declined to create a wedding cake for a lesbian couple based on her religious beliefs.

http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/christian-baker-faces-boycott-for-refusing-to-make-lesbian-cake.html

A federal judge has ruled that schools can bar students from wearing American flags on their shirts on Cinco de Mayo, if it is done to avoid “substantial disruption.”

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/13/court-backs-high-school-in-flap-over-american-flag-t-shirts/#ixzz1diFdIRBI

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Thomas Sowell:

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said that a good catchphrase could stop thinking for 50 years. One of the often-repeated catchphrases of our time — “It’s the economy, stupid!” — has already stopped thinking in some quarters for a couple of decades.

There is no question that the state of the economy can affect elections. But there is also no iron law that all elections will be decided by the state of the economy. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt was reelected for an unprecedented third term after two terms in which unemployment was in double digits for eight consecutive years.

We may lament the number of people who are unemployed or who are on food stamps today. But those who give the Obama administration credit for coming to their rescue when they didn’t have a job are likely to greatly outnumber those who blame the administration for their not having a job in the first place. An expansion of the welfare state in hard times seems to have been the secret of FDR’s great political success in the midst of economic disaster. An economic study published in a scholarly journal in 2004 concluded that the Roosevelt administration’s policies prolonged the Great Depression by several years. But few people read economic studies.

This economy has been sputtering along through most of the Obama administration, with the unemployment rate hovering around 9 percent. But none of that means that Barack Obama is going to lose the 2012 election.

Even polls that show “any Republican” with more public support than Obama do not mean that Obama will lose.

The president is not going to run against “any Republican.” He is going to run against some specific Republican, and that Republican can expect to be attacked, denounced, and denigrated for months on end before the November 2012 elections — not only by the Democrats, but also by the media, which is heavily pro-Democrat.

We have already seen how unsubstantiated allegations from women with questionable histories have dropped Herman Cain from front-runner status to third place in just a couple of weeks. In short, it takes a candidate to beat a candidate, and everything depends on what kind of candidate that is. The smart money inside the Beltway says that the Republicans need to pick a moderate candidate who can appeal to independent voters, not just to the conservative voters who turn out to vote in Republican primaries. Those who think this way say that you have to “reach out” to Hispanics, the elderly, and other constituencies.

What is remarkable is how seldom the smart-money folks look at what has actually been happening in presidential elections. Ronald Reagan won two landslide elections when he ran as Ronald Reagan. Vice President George H. W. Bush then won when he ran as if he were another Ronald Reagan, with his famous statement, “Read my lips, no new taxes.”

But after Bush 41 was elected and turned “kinder and gentler” — to everyone except the taxpayers — he lost to an unknown governor from a small state. Other Republican presidential candidates who went the “moderate” route — Bob Dole and John McCain — also came across as neither fish nor fowl and went down to defeat.

Now the smart money inside the Beltway is saying that Mitt Romney, who is nothing if not versatile in his positions, is the Republicans’ best hope for replacing Obama. If conservative Republicans split their votes among a number of conservative candidates in the primaries, that can mean ending up with a presidential candidate in the Bob Dole–John McCain mold — and risking a Bob Dole–John McCain result in the next election.

The question now is whether the conservative Republican candidates who have enjoyed their successive and short-lived boomlets — Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Herman Cain — are prepared to stay in the primary race to the bitter end, or whether their conservative principles will move them to withdraw and throw their support to another conservative candidate. There has probably never been a time in the history of this country when we more urgently needed to get a president out of the White House, before he ruined the country.

But will the conservative Republican candidates let that guide them?

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/283178/will-gop-blow-it-thomas-sowell

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"The bipartisan debt panel to nowhere is exactly where K Street lobbyists want it to be: hopelessly deadlocked. ... Instead, we are witnessing another obscene special-interest splurge to preserve the status quo. All in the name of 'reform,' of course. The only thing 'super' about the so-called budget control super committee is the size of lobbying muscle exerted on its members……Moreover, all 12 super committee members have been contacted by foreign lobbyists, eager to secure targeted exemptions, loopholes and protectionism. ... [Last] week, the Seattle Times disclosed that [super committee co-chair Patty] Murray held a two-day staff retreat at heavyweight lobbying outfit Strategies 360, which was founded by Democratic political operative Ron Dotzauer. The group donated meeting space to Murray's team and skirted ethics rules by offering similar deals to nonprofits. ... According to OpenSecrets.org, Strategies 360 has conducted $985,000 worth of lobbying targeting more than a dozen government agencies this year. A spokesman for the senator ... sniffed that the report was a 'non-story.''"

-Michelle Malkin

“The great media toaster isn’t broken, exactly, but it doesn’t work like it once did. By all accounts, Herman Cain should be toast now, served hot, a bit scorched around the edges and left unbuttered. But try as they might, his tormentors have not yet had him for breakfast……The real story here is that racial politics is dead, if the left will allow it. You might think that the prospect, unlikely as it still may be, of a black challenger, nominated by a white conservative party, against a black incumbent president, would be an occasion for cheers, or at least applause. Here’s evidence that the bad old days are swiftly fading into the past. But Mr. Cain is the wrong kind of black man. Some Democrats sneer that the Republicans only found a black man who “knows his place,” employing an insult from an earlier time and place. The emergence of Mr. Cain as a credible conservative candidate undercuts the liberal canard that the Republican Party is a hopelessly racist party. That was the sub-text of the Democratic campaign four years ago and reprising that for 2012 was nearly all the hope Barack Obama had. Herman Cain’s escape from the toaster, even if temporary, changed that.”

-Wes Pruden

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THIS IS IMPORTANT: READ IT AGAIN!

At the close of business on Tuesday, the debt of the federal government exceeded $15 trillion for the first time--

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/fed-now-largest-owner-us-gov-t-debt-surpassing-china

Here is why it’s a problem:

U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000

Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000

New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000

National debt: $15,000,000,000,000

Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000

Now let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget.

Annual family income: $21,700

Money the family spent: $38,200

New debt on the credit card: $16,500

Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710

Total budget cuts: $385

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BOOKS

The time has come to the set the record straight. Conservatives have the only real and lasting solutions to the 10 major problems facing our nation. These solutions are clearly and persuasively explained in the all-new “Right-Wing Handbook: Demolishing Ten Lies of the Left!”

http://rightwinghandbook.com/

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GLOBALONEY

Where did green-energy money go? Straight to campaign donors. Read about it in Peter Schwiezer’s new book “Throw Them All Out”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/11/13/how-obama-s-alternative-energy-programs-became-green-graft.html

President John F. Kennedy’s nephew, Robert Kennedy, Jr., netted a $1.4 billion bailout for his company, BrightSource, through a loan guarantee issued by a former employee-turned Department of Energy official.

http://biggovernment.com/whall/2011/11/16/robert-kennedy-jr-s-green-company-scored-1-4-billion-taxpayer-bailout/

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LEFTIST WATCH

A Massachusetts law professor has created a campus firestorm with an email to colleagues that declares it would be "shameful" to send care packages to U.S. troops "who have gone overseas to kill other human beings."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/14/massachusetts-law-professor-calls-care-packages-for-us-troops-shameful/

One of the nation's largest labor unions gave an early endorsement to Pres. Obama Wednesday, the SEIU.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/16/endorsing-obama-seiu-says-president-for-99/

Two dozen “patriotic millionaires” traveled to the national’s capital on Wednesday to demand that Congress raise taxes on wealthy Americans. The Daily Caller attended their press conference with an iPad, which displayed the Treasury Department’s donation page, to find out if any of the “patriotic millionaires” were willing to put their money where their mouth is. They didn’t.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/11/17/patriotic-millionaires-demand-higher-taxes-but-unwilling-to-pay-up-video/#ixzz1dyfkk0q9

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ISLAM

A Canadian man charged with murdering his three daughters in an honour killings has said he would do it again, even if they came back to life 100 times. Mohammad Shafia, 58, cursed his daughters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, saying they were 'treacherous' as he likened them to prostitutes during a conversation that was recorded by police.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2061842/Man-murdered-treacherous-daughter-honour-killing-said-hed-100-times.html

Radical Muslim Cleric Anjem Choudary, most infamous for saying Shariah law will take over America, is calling Christmas the 'pathway to hell' and urged his followers to boycott it.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2011/11/14/radical_muslim_cleric_christmas_the_pathway_to_hell

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THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Gov. Rick Perry stated at the outset of his presidential campaign that he is running for president based on his principles and leadership accomplishments, not his oratorical skills. By focusing on Perry’s debate missteps, the media is deliberately ignoring his record and charisma. Six months ago, a top conservative leader privately said, “Rick is a great leader. But he’s not a great debater. And he knows it. The question would be whether he overcomes it.”

http://dailycaller.com/2011/11/12/perry-can-win-if-leadership-trumps-debates/

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry turned in his strongest debate performance of the campaign Saturday, though former House Speaker Newt Gingrich stole the show by schooling debate moderators on terrorist assassinations and refusing their efforts to get him to criticize frontrunner Mitt Romney.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/perry-gingrich-standout-gop-debate

In his first negative TV ad of his presidential campaign, Texas Gov. Perry is using the "s" word against President Obama-socialism. "Obama's socialist policies are bankrupting America. We must stop him now," says Perry in his fourth ad of his presidential campaign.

http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/11/16/new-perry-ad-uses-s-word-calls-obama-policies-socialist

Dick Morris: “As the debates accumulate, it becomes more and more evident that Newt Gingrich’s intellect, experience, articulateness and depth of knowledge elevate him to the top of the GOP field. Anyone should be happy to pay admission to watch him duel with President Obama in debate! He’s not as charismatic as Herman Cain or as smooth as Mitt Romney, but boy, does he have a brain!...”

http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/dick-morris/193805-is-newt-electable-hell-yes

Before conservatives hail Newt as the GOP’s savior, Ten things to consider.. Gingrich, of course, has an impressive political résumé, particularly his 1994 Contract with America. But he also has, to borrow Tim Pawlenty’s term, some significant “clunkers” in his record that conservatives may want to consider before settling on Gingrich as the man of the hour.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/print/283240

Ann Coulter has decided it’s got to be Romney……..criticizing "Johnny-come-lately conservative purists." "Where were they when we were running John McCain? For Pete's sake, Romney is a million times better than McCain. Romney speaks absolutely beautifully, he's been magnificent in the debates." she said.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/ann-coulter-romney-magnificant

Ann: “Win with Romney or lose with anyone else”

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/11/ann-coulter-win.html

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ARTICLES

Ever since I moved to the inner city one thing has puzzled me more than any other, and that is how my low-income neighbors get by. Assuming they aren't doing anything illegal, how do they afford their homes, their meals, their gadgets, their cars? Few seem to work, even part time, for they are home in the morning when I leave for work, home if I stop by for lunch, and home when I return in the evening. They can't work the graveyard shift, for they keep me up half the night with their raucous music. I am left to conclude that they seldom, if ever work. Therefore, their funds must come from elsewhere. And none of them strike me as a trust fund baby. THEN A SOCIAL WORKER friend clued me in. Many of the poor also collect federal disability benefits in the form of Supplemental Security Insurance, or "crazy money" as it is known on the streets, since one must "act crazy" to receive it. Oftentimes several people in the same household -- adults and children -- collect checks. This surprised me, since I had never for a moment guessed that my neighbors were disabled…

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/11/17/the-new-welfare-swindle

Largely out of the media spotlight, the federal government operates a network of financial subsidy programs that benefit big banks by putting taxpayer money at risk. And President Obama, that self-styled populist scourge of Wall Street, is increasing this racket of private profit and public risk that Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) aptly dubbed "venture socialism." In its latest act of venture socialism, the Obama administration has offered a novel taxpayer backstop to General Electric, the multinational industrial conglomerate that is famously close to this administration, and that spends more on federal lobbying than any other company.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/big-banks-binge-bush-obama-venture-socialism

When it comes to education, the Republican field of presidential candidates has a unified stance: Get the federal government out of schools. How they'd do that varies. Take the Education Department. Reps. Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul along with Texas Gov. Rick Perry want to shut it down altogether, while Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich want to shrink it. Offering student loans? Herman Cain says the department should get out of that business. And then there's the Bush-era education accountability law, No Child Left Behind. Perry calls it a "direct assault on federalism," while former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman

http://news.yahoo.com/gop-hopefuls-limit-federal-role-education-082152439.html

Washington Post in 1994: “Paula Jones Suit a 'Soap Opera'”; Washington Post in 2011: “Lingering Questions About Cain Must Be Answered”

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2011/11/14/wapo-1994-paula-jones-suit-soap-opera-wapo-2011-lingering-questions-mu#ixzz1djCcxqJZ

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ACTIVISM

Late last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and force to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. If passed by the full Senate, the so-called "Respect for Marriage Act" (S. 598) will repeal DOMA: States laws protecting marriage as between "one man, one woman" will become null and void - including the 31 states who have voted on constitutional amendments. The military will be thrown into complete chaos and disarray, as Department of Defense leaders try to figure out housing, benefits, and "same-sex spouse" sensitivity training regimens. Churches will come under fire from radical homosexual activists. Ministers and churches will be sued for "religious discrimination" for refusing to perform or allow gay "marriages." Public schools will be forced to indoctrinate our children, teaching them that homosexual marriage is both natural and acceptable.

http://www.votervoice.net/core.aspx?APP=GAC&AID=365&issueid=26588&SiteID=-1

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

What’s China up to?

http://gizmodo.com/5859081/why-is-china-building-these-gigantic-structures-in-the-middle-of-the-desert

Chicks with Guns”“a playful yet perturbing visual essay on the statistic that some 20 million women in America own guns.” (Perturbing to a liberal maybe….)

http://lightbox.time.com/2011/11/14/chicks-with-guns/#ixzz1dnuqk52W

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WISE WORDS

"The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic."

-John F. Kennedy

"[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

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