op ed review 1/1/12
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
Speaking from her $4 million Hawaii vacation, Mrs. Obama wants to know: Do any of President Obama’s supporters have $3 to spare for his reelection? The obscene juxtaposition of the first lady on a $4 million vacation while asking what would have to be middle to low income earners for three bucks – is yet another example of lack of perspective the Obamas seem to be gaining while in power. And they blow $4 million – mostly taxpayers’ money – on a vacation, while wondering if the small people can come up with $3.
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/12/30/4m-vacation-michelle-seeks-3-backers/
Well what else would one wear on a $4m break? From $2,000 dress to $1,000 skirt, Michelle Obama's lavish Hawaii wardrobe revealed
The Obama’s invited Associated Press photographers along capture their trip to Target and stage photo ops at PetSmart and Best Buy. Then the press was shooed away so they could enjoy a $260 meal at one of Honolulu’s best restaurants.
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/12/29/middle-class-warriors-dine-260/
It takes three cars to collect Prince Philip after major heart surgery, it takes forty cars to take President Obama to golf.
Just 55.3 percent of Americans between 16 and 29 have jobs.
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/30/have-the-youth-given-up-on-obama/
Is this what President Obama means by “spread the wealth around”? Your home value may be down, but “Delinquent borrowers facing foreclosure are learning that they can stay in their homes for years, as long as they're willing to put up a fight….the average time it takes to process a foreclosure has climbed to 674 days from 253 days just four years ago…”
http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/28/real_estate/foreclosure/index.htm
When asked an open-ended question by Gallup about which man living in the world today they admire most and whom their second choice would be, 32 percent of Americans surveyed this month would not name anyone, thus falling into a category that Gallup describes as "None/No opinion." President Barack Obama came in second to "None/No opinion" with 17 percent.
La Pierre: “Obama administration officials are deliberately keeping gun owners in the dark about the president’s gun-control agenda as we head into next year’s national election, because administration officials know that when NRA members and gun owners show up at the polls en masse, anti-gun candidates lose. The Obama campaign’s strategy goes like this: Neutralize gun owners and NRA members as a political force in the upcoming national election by pretending to be pro-gun or at least not focused on pushing a gun-control agenda.”
Democrats on Tuesday lamented Sen. Ben Nelson's decision to retire rather than seek a third term in Nebraska, fearing the move could give Republicans a crucial victory in their effort to reclaim control of the chamber next year.
According to a new book, Four-star general-turned-CIA director David Petraeus almost resigned as Afghanistan war commander over President Barack Obama's decision to quickly draw down surge forces. Petraeus decided that resigning would be a "selfish, grandstanding move with huge political ramifications"
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111229/NEWS/111229644
Washington State’s minimum wage is the highest in nation.
http://oregonbusinessreport.com/2011/12/chart-or-wa-minimum-wage-boost-leads-nation/
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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Dr. Milton Wolf (President Obama’s cousin) 12/28
There’s something profoundly tragic about the failed presidency of Barack Obama. He was supposed to be a new kind of president, a man who embodied hope and would transcend petty politics and even race. Instead, we’re left with a downgraded America that is stagnating under the weight of its bloated government. As tragic as that alone is, even this is but a mere symptom of Mr. Obama’s larger fundamental failure: He simply does not trust the Americans who entrusted him with the presidency.
Most presidents, we believe, ascend to the Oval Office, but for the 44th president, the reverse seems true. Whatever majesty the White House can muster must rise to the grandiosity of Barack Obama. “We are the ones we have been waiting for,” said the man who writes autobiographies and later would claim to control the rise of the oceans.
As recently as this month, the food-stamp president of 13 million unemployed Americans declared himself the fourth-most-accomplished president in the history of the United States, eclipsing, in his own mind, President Reagan and even our nation’s father, George Washington. That in only three years. Barack the Magnificent won’t allow trivialities like $15 trillion debts or historic national credit downgrades dissuade him. Mr. Obama may care deeply for America, but he believes in only one thing: Barack Obama. And you are not Barack Obama.
Where once the American flag was hailed universally as the ultimate symbol of freedom, we who live under it have slowly but surely surrendered our liberties to an insatiable government. Consider our decline in just the past two generations. Our grandfathers, who stood against evil and shed their blood to stop it, never would have tolerated their own government becoming so totalitarian that it would dictate to them what car they should drive, what (if any) health insurance they should choose or even what light bulb they should buy.
Has our generation been worthy of earlier Americans’ sacrifices? Or have we surrendered their hard-fought victories in return for false promises of a big-government utopia that never materializes? Look no further than the politicians we elect. We have chosen as our president a man who believes we are unworthy, not of the previous generations’ sacrifices, but rather unworthy of freedom itself.
The sum total of Mr. Obama’s political philosophy, the unifying theme of his presidency, amounts to this: You cannot be trusted to live as a free American.
President Obama’s first major legislative action, the failed $787 stimulus, revealed his fundamental distrust of free Americans. A president who actually trusts his people would stand aside as they freely chose how to invest their capital and their labor. Mr. Obama, on the other hand, simply doesn’t believe you are smart enough to know what’s best for you. He commandeered nearly $1 trillion dollars from the taxpayers and redirected it as he saw fit. That he squandered billions on crony boondoggles such as the Solyndra solar-panel company or laughable efforts to measure the malt-liquor habits of Buffalonians and the like is evidence merely of his incompetence. That he trusted only himself to allocate taxpayers’ money in the first place - even if he had had the capacity to do so brilliantly - is evidence of a much larger offense: This president distrusts his subjects.
Obamacare is a modern-day monument to government arrogance. So untrustworthy are Americans that they cannot be allowed to decide for themselves whether to purchase health insurance or, if so, how much. Likewise, physicians are too untrustworthy to provide you with care without first consulting the government’s “best practices” guidelines. Obamacare would solve both.
Untrustworthy bankers would become angelic under the restrictions of Dodd-Frank. Untrustworthy bloggers would fall in line under the Stop Online Piracy Act. Untrustworthy manufacturers would create the only jobs worth having under the dictates of the National Labor Relations Board. And untrustworthy energy consumers would act responsibly only under the restrictions of “cap and trade” or at least a dictatorial Environmental Protection Agency.
For statists like Mr. Obama, no matter how bloated our government has become, America is forever just one legislative act away from utopia, if only those untrustworthy Americans would just get in line. The man who ran on hope has instead embraced a tragic pessimism that views all free Americans with disdain as either incompetent rubes in need of his salvation or unrighteous villains in need of his rules. Either way, Mr. Obama embraces a command-and-control government and rejects American freedom.
Mr. Obama’s distrust of Americans is his fatal flaw, and Republicans would be wise to exploit it fully. The GOP should resist the temptation simply to become a cleverer version of autocrats who pull the same powerful levers of government but in different directions. Instead, they should become the party that embraces liberty. If the 2012 election is between Republicans and Democrats or even between conservatives and liberals, Republicans might win. But if the election is instead between a bloated, ineffectual government that distrusts its subjects and Americans who still yearn to breathe free, Republicans will win. Only then will voters have a dramatic choice between a party that trusts Americans to be free and a party that does not.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/28/in-obama-he-trusts/
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ISLAM
Turns out the Santa killer in Texas was a Muslim.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/12/27/3619671/dads-text-message-referred-to.html
An Iranian woman whose sentence of death by stoning for adultery provoked an international outcry could be executed by hanging instead, the country's judicial authorities have indicated.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/26/sakineh-mohammadi-ashtiani-hang-iran?intcmp=239
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BOOKS
“Throw them all Out” by Peter Schweizer “….also offers a complete rundown of the actual extent of Barack Obama's "stimulus" program, which he characterizes as the biggest political payoff since the heyday of Boss Tweed. Reading this will make your blood boil. It should be a major topic of discussion in next year's campaign”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/throw_em_all_outand_good_riddance.html#ixzz1hqYBwuDz
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LEFTIST WATCH
In a Christmas break message to his party, Communist Party USA vice chair Jarvis Tyner has confirmed the vital importance of the build up to the 2012 elections to “set the stage for a new progressive era and for a socialist transformation.” Tyner draws clear right/left battle lines and the communist’s commitment to Party ‘friend’ President Barack Obama and to the Democratic Party cause.
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GLOBALONEY
Long viewed as a remedy for the world's dependence on fossil fuels, the solar industry is dimming as makers of panels used to harness the sun continue to fall by the wayside.
Seattle City Light's current residential marginal rate (its highest) is $0.0956 / kWh. Your $600 solar unit generates $4.78 worth of electricity a year.. Your $600 solar unit will pay for itself in only 125 years (sustainably today!)
http://soundpolitics.com/archives/015194.html
“The Obama administration defended its (Solyndra)actions based on an ideological attachment to “green energy,” a liberal faith bordering on mania. The administration pleaded not guilty by reason of sincerity; the environmental cause is so pressing, so dire, that its well-intentioned failure should be excused.”
-Washington Times
Seattle has banned plastic shopping bags to save the planet. “Reusable grocery bags can be a breeding ground for dangerous food-borne bacteria and pose a serious risk to public health, according to a joint food-safety research report issued today by the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University in California.”
http://www.uanews.org/node/32521
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THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE
This election cycle has been very challenging for conservatives. Those of us on the political right would like to see the country move in the conservative direction. The citizens will be better off if it does. History proves this. It would be very disappointing if the political gains made by the Tea Party movement did not continue. But there are forces within the conservative movement itself which could hinder progress. If the Republican candidates spend all of their time tearing each other down, they will be using their energy for counterproductive purposes.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/m-the_forgotten_11th_commandment.html
Michelle Bachman: “Should I be fortunate enough to be elected by the American people to serve as president of the United States, I will have an ambitious agenda in the first 100 days that will send a signal to our country’s job creators and to the world that the days of socialist policies are over, that our free market is once again open for business and that we will once again lead the world as the true exceptional nation….My first act as president will be to repeal Obamacare and Dodd-Frank. No two pieces of legislation represent socialism and big government more than those, and both have greatly hindered the creation of jobs and capital necessary for economic recovery……I also will get government spending….In the first 100 days, I will submit legislation to repeal laws establishing the Departments of Education, Commerce and Energy and the Environmental Protection….I will honor the Constitution and send Congress a balanced budget in my first 100 days. If Congress passes an unbalanced budget, I will veto it.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/29/little-time-to-save-america/
Must read by Ann coulter:: “…..Only Michele Bachmann and Mitt Romney aren't trying to sneak through amnesty for illegal aliens…..That leaves us with Romney and Bachmann as the candidates with the strongest, most conservative positions on illegal immigration. As wonderful as Michele Bachmann is, 2012 isn't the year to be trying to make a congresswoman the first woman president.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48423
Mitt Romney has now jumped to his biggest lead ever over President Obama in a hypothetical Election 2012 matchup. It’s also the biggest lead a named Republican candidate has held over the incumbent in Rasmussen Reports surveying to date. The latest national telephone survey finds that 45% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the former Massachusetts governor, while 39% prefer the president.
In the Republican primary struggle to define the most reliably conservative presidential candidate, Mitt Romney has put his money where his mouth is. Romney has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Massachusetts conservative groups and to core Washington-based conservative think-tanks and publications, among them the Heritage Foundation research institute, the Federal Society legal interest group and a gala dinner for the National Review magazine website
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/romney-charity-used-for-1271078.html
Long-time supporters of National Review, the venerable conservative publication founded by the late William F. Buckley, have grown increasingly worried the outlet is becoming the house organ of the Republican establishment.
http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/23/inside-game/
Jonah Goldberg: Shrink from the left, shift to the right, in the fratricidal conservative fight. I’ve made a disturbing discovery: I am a member of the conservative “establishment.” I feel like Michael Douglas at the end of Falling Down: “I’m the bad guy?”
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/286697/establishment-moves-rightward-jonah-goldberg
The 2012 presidential race will be decided in a dozen swing states, and President Obama faces a hard road to victory in many of them.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/25/dozen-states-will-prive-pivotal-in-race-to-white-h/
The debates, coupled with the way cable TV and the Internet have amplified the distribution of information, have scrambled the race, fueled an unprecedented volatility and altered the attributes on which candidates are judged. One veteran Republican activist calls it a political version of American Idol.
http://www.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2011-12-27-campaign27_CV_U.htm?loc=interstitialskip
“7 Reasons Why Mitt Romney's Electability Is A Myth”
Krauthammer: "Embarrassing Candidates" Making Obama Look Presidential
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ARTICLES
If the individual states of our nation are a laboratory of democracy, then the states of Europe are the laboratory of socialism. What we are witness to in Greece, and eventually in Spain, Italy, and possibly France, is the painful death of the welfare state…..One of the first organs to fail is the socialized health care program. No matter its stated merits, a serious and impactful socialized medicine program is simply too expensive for any state to long sustain. The lesson here is for our nation to rid ourselves of ObamaCare entirely before it becomes embedded into the fabric of society, because it too will be rooted out by the forces of economics. It is easier to throw out the seed than uproot the plant, so the sooner this is done, the better. Anything less is a form a gross medical malpractice.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/european_health_care_economic_malpractice.html#ixzz1i8GQ5i6z
Chris Christie: "Let's be real clear. President Barack Obama came out to Iowa three years ago, and he talked to you about hope and change. Well, let me tell you, after three years of Obama, we are hopeless and changeless, and we need Mitt Romney to bring us back, to bring America back," Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) said in Iowa today at a Romney rally.
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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
Must see video, explains all.
D’oh! “Stunned Scottish couple unearth '800-year-old' stone head in their garden... and it looks like Homer Simpson.”
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HUMOR
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WISE WORDS
"There are two places only where socialism will work; In Heaven, where it is not needed, and in Hell, where they already have it."
-Winston Churchill
posted by gary at
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