op ed review 12/11
President Obama declared that republican supply-side economics is a failure.
"an administration official conceded the White House had no actual data to back up the president's assertion..."
The Washington Post fact checker: “ three Pinocchio’s for Obama’s Kansas speech.”
Remember Fast & Furious? Now the DEA is laundering drug money for Mexican drug cartels.
President Obama made GQ magazine's list of "The 25 Least Influential People Alive," along with Tiger Woods's ex-caddie, the prosecutor who couldn't convict Casey Anthony, and MTV tart Tila Tequila. Obama "should be the most transformational figure of the century," GQ carped, "Instead, he wields all the power of a substitute teacher at night school."
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/now-its-obama-irrelevant/238921
President Obama’s uphill battle to re-election is getting steeper. A report released today by the centrist think-tank Third Way showed that more than 825,000 voters in eight key battleground states have fled the Democratic Party since Obama won election in 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/voters-flee-democratic-party-in-key-swing-states/
Remember the Food Stamp Lobsters and Porterhouse Steaks that supposedly impoverished-to-near-starvation wards of the state purchased in Michigan using food stamps? In September came the report of Food Stamp Big Macs, Tacos, Pizzas And Fast Food Of Your Choosing, as the Obama administration OK’d using food stamps for purchases at fast food joints. This came a month after the Obama administration vetoed plans by New York State to outlaw using food stamps to buy sodas.
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/47416
Sesame Street Muppet Touts Entitlements: 'I Get A Free Breakfast And Lunch'...
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/sesame-street-muppet-pitches-government-dependence-free-food-school
The latest new federal entitlement: In the last decade, Medicare has spent more than $240 million of taxpayer money on “Male Vacuum Erection Systems,” and will surpass a quarter of a billion dollars this year for costs since 2001. And these are only the costs for external devices, which don’t include implantable devices or Viagra.
A Seattle woman who is receiving welfare assistance from Washington State also happens to live in a waterfront house on Lake Washington worth more than a million dollars.
The average US household lost $21,261 of net worth this summer, the largest decline in family wealth in nearly three years. The drop in the third quarter, tied to falling home values and a cratering stock market, is the second straight quarter of eroding wealth.
The House on Thursday approved legislation Republicans said was aimed at ensuring the EPA cannot regulate so-called "farm dust."
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/198217-farm-dust-bill-approved-in-house
Staffers with Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) have been on a binge of embarrassing behavior including insults lobbed by legislative aides at the Congressman himself and accounts of on-the-job drinking, all broadcast for the world to see on via Twitter. 'Dear taxpayers - I hope you don't mind that I'm watching YouTube clips of Nirvana at my government job. Thanks, you're the best'...
Immigrant-rights groups and liberal members of Congress have called on the Obama administration to halt deportations until a broad new immigration law can be passed to legalize most illegal immigrants.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/3/us-lawmakers-push-better-treatment-illegal-immigra/
Even in a far-left city such as San Francisco no one listens to progressive talk radio anymore. Green 960 will be replaced by a conservative talker KNEW, and KNEW’s old spot on the dial 910 AM will be relaunched as KKSF AM, another conservative talker. Both stations are owned by Clear Channel, which was obviously tired of bleeding money on the previous failed enterprise.
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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Steve McCann 12/8
I just returned from the belly of the beast, Washington, D.C. There is not a more parochial or insular city in the country. While there, I had a conversation with two members of what can be described only as the Republican establishment, one in the print media and the other a K Street lobbyist. In short order, the conversation turned to Newt Gingrich and his surge to the top of the ladder.
There is no one more reviled in Washington than Newt. If anyone believes he is part of the establishment, he or she is mistaken. In fact, it would not be a terribly great stretch to say some in the Republican wing of the governing class would prefer to see Obama re-elected than Newt in the Oval Office. However, the vast majority of this class are now in a panic as the preordained choice, Mitt Romney, is truly threatened by the rabble in flyover country constantly looking for anyone but Romney. These people have settled, so it seems, on Gingrich. The increasing volume of commentary of the Beltway insiders and attendant vitriol toward Newt has become a near-hysterical tidal wave rehashing and embellishing Newt's supposed failings and personal "baggage."
Much of this stems from his days as House minority leader and later speaker, when he ruffled many feathers as his, at times, abrasive and assertive personality was on full display. Newt was relentless, with a near-imperious and dictatorial demeanor, in getting many of his and other conservative ideas into law, and he never failed to expound on whatever came to the forefront of his mind. One must realize that there are no more tender egos than those in Congress, in the Washington media, or in the upper reaches of the entrenched bureaucracy. They are all always the smartest in any room (regardless of party affiliation) and do not take kindly to being told otherwise or denigrated by someone who refused to become absorbed by and subservient to the dominant Washington culture.
Thus, many cannot fathom why Newt, of all people, would be in first place in the polls. Since last November, once the midterm elections were over, it was assumed by all sides that Romney would be the one standing at the end, once those fools in the Tea Party movement and other conservative groups, either fiscal or social, had their favorite choices dashed upon the rocks of incompetence, sleaze, ignorance, and innuendo. For the most part, that scenario has indeed come to pass -- except that those same fools are now turning to someone the establishment never thought possible: Newt Gingrich.
This election is no longer about Republicans vs. Democrats, but about the Governing Class vs. the rest of the country. The Republican base has been sold down the river every election cycle since 1988. They have, nontheless, supported whoever was nominated for president. The Bushes turned out to be simply enablers of Democratic economic and spending policies, at best slowing down but never reversing the course that has put the country today on the precipice of failure. The last GOP nominee was unwilling to take on his opponent in a no-holds-barred manner, while the Democrats continuously and successfully demeaned and slandered him. In either case, there was never any passion or commitment to conservative principles these nominees claimed to have during the primary process.
The Republican failures of the past 23 years culminated in the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and a dramatic acceleration toward national insolvency and societal upheaval.
The people who care about America are no longer willing to just settle for a candidate who is a mirror-image of all those who have been chosen since 1988. They want someone who is unafraid, willing to take the blows and deliver them with equal force, with a record of actual accomplishments and the tenacity so vital to reversing the course the nation is presently on. Barack Obama will have the better part of a billion dollars at his disposal to wage a scorched-earth campaign and to do or say anything to win re-election; the rank and file of the conservative movement know this and understand the need for a brawler to take on Obama's glass jaw.
Is Newt the ideal candidate? No. But of all those now on stage, he alone has exhibited those essential traits.
That is why, despite the best efforts of the media and the Democratic and Republican establishment, Newt is surging in the polls. I believe that Newt, or any other non-Romney candidate chosen, can win against Obama, who will be forced to defend his record by someone who will be unafraid to highlight it as well as make an issue of his character flaws and radical ideological make-up. It is not in Romney's or the Republican establishment's mindset to take off the gloves in the general election. Perhaps the Republican establishment will win in the end and Mitt Romney will be the nominee -- but it will not be without a fight, and the Republican sector of the governing class will be shaken to its core. If Romney secures the nomination and loses or wins the presidency and the nation does not experience a 180-degree course-reversal, then 2016 will mark the end of the Republican Party. These words were not greeted warmly by my two acquaintances, but as it has been often said: the times are a-changin. Those now safely ensconced within the Beltway are being sent a warning. It is not the deep emotional desire to choose Newt Gingrich that has changed the landscape of the nominating process in 2012, but what he represents -- a threat to the establishment.
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FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"[G]rowing local governments are crushing street vendors. The city of Atlanta, for example, has turned all street vending over to a monopoly contractor. In feudalist fashion, all existing vendors were told they must work for the monopoly or not vend at all. ... In Hialeah, Fla., if you operate a flower stand too close to a flower store or if you're not constantly moving, you can be arrested. ... Raul Martinez, the mayor when the law passed, defended the rule. 'You don't want to have everybody in the middle of the streets competing for space on the sidewalk without some sort of regulations. In the city of Hialeah, we're not overregulating anybody.' He says one purpose of the law is simple fairness: Street vendors don't pay property taxes. Brick-and-mortar stores must. ... Mayor Martinez argued that 'you create an unfair advantage when you allow that vendor selling in the front of a flower shop to sell the same flowers that the flower shop sells, and to sell them at a much reduced price. That's unfair competition.' ... If government destroys all the paths out of poverty, the welfare state will look like the only way to help the poor. Maybe, in addition to helping entrenched interests, that's the bureaucrats' goal."
-John Stossel
"The secular virus has been spreading for years in public and private zones. Shopping malls, which would go broke without Christmas, try their best to attract Christmas shoppers without mentioning Christmas. Hence, we get generic 'happy holidays' and color schemes with blue and silver snowflakes cold enough to freeze the socks off Grandfather Frost. He's the former Soviet Union's made-up patron saint who took over giving gifts to children after the commissars bumped off St. Nicholas. It's rumored (just starting it now) that the Christmas-phobic ACLU tacks up portraits of Grandfather Frost in back offices to inspire them during that darned holiday season that Dare Not Tell Its Name. Driving the whole mess is the growing fear Not to Offend. The war on Christmas, part of the ongoing trend to eradicate anything Christian in the public square, is also driven by a profound misreading of the First Amendment, which says 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' To the ACLU and other pro-atheist groups, that means the government must be hostile to any public expressions of belief that offend atheists. That makes atheism the de facto official religion, something the Founders went out of their way to prevent."
-Robert Knight
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BOOKS
If a mad scientist were to repair to his laboratory to design a machine that would make white liberals uncomfortable, that machine would be Thomas Sowell, whose input is data and whose output is socioeconomic criticism in several grades, ranging from bemused observation to thorough debunking to high-test scorn—all of which are represented in “The Thomas Sowell Reader”.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/thomas-sowell-peerless-nerd/#.TuIDC0i6Rp4.twitter
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ISLAM
Many Afghan women find themselves suffering from violence and abuse, with virtually no legal protection. Recently, authorities sentenced Gulnaz, a 21 year old rape victim, to 12 years in prison for adultery. “I am obliged to marry him, even though I can’t look at him,” 19-year-old Gulnaz said about the man she claims raped her. Gulnaz has been in an Afghan prison cell for about two years. She says she only has one choice if she wants to bring dignity back to her family and tribe: She must marry the man who forced his way into her home, tied her up, and then raped her.
“Creeping Halal'': Britain's most popular sporting venues, pubs, schools, and hospitals are making ''secretively prepared'' halal meat (the meat of animals ritualistically slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law) without the public's knowledge.'' So prevalently was this tactic employed that some schoolchildren had no non-halal choices beyond a ''vegetarian option.''
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/creeping_halal.html
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LEFTIST WATCH
The New York Times has changed in 100 years: “Roosevelt’s Super-Socialism,” editorial published on September 30, 1913: “Theodore Roosevelt has now brought out and matured his doctrine of Socialism….Mr. Roosevelt achieves the redistribution of wealth in a simpler and easier way. He leaves the land, the mines, the factories, the railroads, the banks — all instruments of production and exchange — in the hands of their owners, but of the profits of their operation he takes whatever share the people at any given time may choose to appropriate for their common use. The people are going to say, we care not who owns and milks the cow, so long as we get our fill of the milk and cream. .”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9504E4D6113BE633A25753C3A96F9C946296D6CF
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/47534
The Illinois Humanities Council is a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities; It has posted an online fundraising auction with 12 items up for bid. Item 2 is dinner for six with Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, the unrepentant terrorists and former friends of Barack Obama.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/12/what-price-ayers.php
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GLOBALONEY
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.): “The message I have for climate deniers is this: you are endangering humankind.”
Bureaucrats at the UN Climate Summit in Durban have outlined plans for the most draconian, harebrained and madcap climate change treaty ever produced, under which the west would be mandated to respect “the rights of Mother Earth” by paying a “climate debt” which would act as a slush fund for bankrolling an all-powerful world government.
http://www.infowars.com/un-calls-for-eco-fascist-world-government-at-durban-summit/
A headmaster in the UK turned the school heating off on one of the coldest days of the year — to save the planet. “Pupils shivered in coats, hats and scarves as temperatures fell to just 1°C (34°F).”
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3980024/School-turns-heating-off-to-save-planet.html
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MEDIA BIAS
“The media maligned the Tea Party rallies as “racist” and provoking violence, but as far as I can tell no one was arrested — much less robbed, raped or murdered — at a Tea Party rally. John Nolte has documented 375 news accounts of anti-social and criminal activities by the Occupy crowd, a media darling and an arm of the Democratic Party that has been blessed by multimillionaires Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.”
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/47332
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ACTIVISM
“As you may know, an effort has been launched by homosexuals and liberal legislators to redefine marriage in Washington State this coming legislative session. What you may not know, is what you can do about it. First, you can call your legislators through the legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000. Then, you can attend one of 13 "Stand for Marriage" meetings happening throughout Washington, in strategic legislative districts, to find out how you can be part of a grassroots effort to protect real marriage in Washington. These meeting locations have been chosen strategically because of the legislative districts involved.”
http://www.fpiw.org/about/family-policy-blog/community-meetings-stand-for-marriage!.html
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THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE
Newt Gingrich has increased his lead over Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican nomination, yet the former House speaker is weaker than Romney with the general electorate.
Gingrich has taken double-digit leads over his Republican rivals in three states, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“….here we are, and now it is time to figure out which of these two uninspiring candidates to choose from…..In normal times, Mitt would be perfect. He looks and acts like the president from Central Casting. He is self-assured and predictable. He is steady and competent, almost never makes mistakes and has valuable business experience…..Newt, on the other hand, runs on passion. He flies off after big ideas that border on the crazy. He makes terrible mistakes. He can be petty, petulant and is known for tantrums…. As Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention scolded, Newt must contend honestly with his “turbulent marital history” in order to win over evangelical voters, crucial in a GOP primary. Mitt, meanwhile, is a poster boy of dorky familial bliss….But the problem for Mitt is that these are not normal times. These are desperate times. We don’t need competence. We need a revolution. And this is where Newt shines. Tempestuous and uneven? Certainly. But Newt has a political soul. Sometimes he wanders off, but he has an internal political compass that ultimately hews to conservatism. He has lived his life yearning to be a great figure etched into history. For all of Mitt’s extraordinary accomplishments, he lacks any such political compass. He simply recalibrates his politics for whomever he seeks to serve. If it is the people of Massachusetts, then he is glad to trash Ronald Reagan and embrace abortion rights. The people of America? Then just a few little tinkers and adjustments and dial-twisting and - Presto! - he is all lined up to be your leader. America today is not an ailing company that needs a turnaround artist. It is the beacon of freedom to the world, and her flame is on the verge of flickering out. What we need is a debilitating default to cut us off from all this fantasy loan money that drives us deeper and deeper into cancerous debt every day. What we really need is a shock to the system that forces politicians in Washington to seriously set our priorities and drastically cuts spending. That is just the sort of ugly scenario Mitt Romney would be very good at avoiding. But we need someone to drive us straight into it…”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/6/newt-vs-mitt-a-study-in-contrasts/
Byron York: There's a deep and growing divide in the Republican world between those who are able to reconcile themselves with -- to wrap their heads around -- the possibility of Newt Gingrich becoming the GOP presidential nominee, and those who are not. It's becoming increasingly clear that it is Washington insiders who are having the most trouble imagining a Gingrich nomination, while Republicans outside Washington aren't having a problem. Of course it's the Washington insiders who have the most actual experience dealing with Gingrich…..
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/insider-outsider-divide-over-newt-gingrich/236596
Former Vice President Dan Quayle is endorsing Mitt Romney.
http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-ex-vp-dan-quayle-endorse-romney-211756692.html
Sen. Paul Rand: “Republicans would take a giant step backward by choosing Gingrich” http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20111209/OPINION01/312090025/Rand-Paul-Republicans-would-take-a-giant-step-backward-by-choosing-Gingrich
Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn says he “will have difficulty supporting (Gingrich) as president of the United States” based on his experience serving in the House during Gingrich’s years as speaker.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-coburn-gingrich-20111204,0,5948958.story
Former New Hampshire U.S. Sen. Bob Smith is endorsing Newt Gingrich for President.
http://unionleader.com/article/20111203/NEWS0605/712039989
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says she has dirt on Newt. “When the time is right. … I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff."
“Yes, he's imperfect. Who's not? But compare Gingrich to Obama. G has a Ph.D. in history (something the leftist media always forgets to tell us) and has written 20 books, some of them good ones, all expressing a deep understanding of the unique American experiment and the U.S. Constitution…..
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/chelsea_clintons_baggage_no_not_them.html
“Romney is sending surrogates to attack Newt. One of them, John Sununu, has his nose out of joint ever since then Minority Whip Newt hung up on him when Chief of Staff Sununu called to inform him that President George H. W. Bush had surrendered on his Read my Lips promise not to raise taxes. It was the refusal to fall in line on that issue that placed Newt on my radar screen as a different kind of Republican.”
“Unlike the favorites before him, in Gingrich voters have someone steeped in critical policy matters, deeply interested in the problems the nation faces and effective at debating. But as a general-election candidate he is far more damaged than all of the other candidates combined. Most who know him expect Gingrich to soon perform a campaign-ending act of self-destruction, with his trademark recklessness…… “
http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/ab-stoddard/197981-newts-lead-wont-last
As one of the most polarizing figures in modern American politics, Newt Gingrich has racked up a huge inventory of pungent criticism of both his ideas and his character — much of it from his fellow conservatives
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/285198/newt-churchill-steven-f-hayward
Influential Iowa conservative Bob Vander Plaats says he thinks religious voters could still coalesce behind Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich despite his well-publicized history of marital infidelity. “The centerpiece of our faith is forgiveness,” Vander Plaats said during a discussion at a diner here on Wednesday.
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ARTICLES
A study on the viewing habits of Democrats and Republicans found that Dems like “sarcastic” media-savvy comedies and morally murky antiheroes and consistently don’t like shows “about working men doing their jobs under dangerous conditions.”
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/47473
“Plummer said what the commentators wouldn't say. Their dislike for Tim Tebow is not, as they would have us believe, about his throwing motion or his completion percentage; it's all about his open professions of faith and his goody-two shoes image. When it comes right down to it, we don't want heroes who are truly good. We want them to fail the occasional drug test or start a bar fight from time to time. It makes us feel better about ourselves.”
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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
If you’re a conservative or tea partier or libertarian or war veteran who lies awake at night wondering why there’s no band out there that really understands you, The Daily Caller has you covered. Meet Madison Rising. Named for Founding Father James Madison, they’re a “libertarian … pro-American … pro-constitution” rock band…Lead singer David Bray described the band as a “war drum for patriotism”: a constant and uninterrupted pro-American message.
http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/02/rock-band-madison-rising-puts-conservative-thought-to-music/
Astonishing accident involving eight Ferraris: 'world's most expensive car crash'
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POLITICS IN A NUTSHELL
The folks who are getting the free stuff don't like the folks who are paying for the free stuff, because the folks who are paying for the free stuff can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own stuff.
The folks who are paying for the free stuff want the free stuff to stop, and the folks who are getting the free stuff want even more free stuff on top of the free stuff they are already getting!
Now... The people who are forcing the people who pay for the free stuff have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff, that the people who are PAYING for the free stuff, are being mean, prejudiced, and racist.
So... The people who are GETTING the free stuff have been convinced they need to hate the people who are paying for the free stuff by the people who are forcing some people to pay for their free stuff, and giving them the free stuff in the first place.
We have let the free stuff giving go on for so long that there are now more people getting free stuff than paying for the free stuff.
Now understand this. All great democracies have committed financial suicide somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The reason? The voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in exchange for electing them.
The United States officially became a Republic in 1776, 235 years ago. The number of people now getting free stuff outnumbers the people paying for the free stuff. We have one chance to change that. In 2012. Failure to change that spells the end of the United States as we know it.
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WISE WORDS
"Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money."
-Margaret Thatcher
"For, more than just a day, Christmas is a state of mind. It is found throughout the year whenever faith overcomes doubt, hope conquers despair, and love triumphs over hate. It is present when men of any creed bring love and understanding to the hearts of their fellow man. The feeling is seen in the wondrous faces of children and in the hopeful eyes of the aged. It overflows the hearts of cheerful givers and the souls of the caring. And it is reflected in the brilliant colors, joyful sounds, and beauty of the winter season. Let us resolve to honor this spirit of Christmas and strive to keep it throughout the year."
-Ronald Reagan
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10:20 AM
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