op ed review 1/29
Under Obama, Price of Gas Has Jumped 83 Percent, Ground Beef 24 Percent, Bacon 22 Percent
President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address again rated at an 8th grade comprehension level on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test — the third lowest score of any State of the Union address since 1934.
Fact check on SOTU: Obama pushes plans that flopped before
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120125/D9SFO48G0.html
Who’s greedy? President Obama and his wife Michelle gave less than 1% of the $1.2 million they earned from 2000 through 2004 to charities. Mitt Romney gave 15%, which amounted to millions of dollars.
Joe Biden gave $369 to charity.
36 Obama aides owe $833,000 in back taxes. How embarrassing this must be for President Obama, whose major speech theme so far this campaign season has been that every single American, no matter how rich, should pay their "fair share" of taxes.
http://news.investors.com/Article/599002/201201260818/obama-white-house-staff-back-taxes.htm
Obama Says Abortion "Enables Our Daughters" to "Fulfill Their Dreams"...
The Oregonian says that abortion has made our society more “healthy.”
Gallup poll showing that American's "satisfaction with the size and power of the federal government is at a record low 29%.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71647.html
Riding a surge of sentiment against Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich soared to a runaway victory in South Carolina’s primary Saturday, solidifying himself as the chief conservative alternative to Mr. Romney and fundamentally rewriting the dynamics of the race as it heads deeper into the calendar
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/21/gingrich-wins-south-carolinas-gop-primary/
Fighting to curry favor with Florida’s large pool of Hispanic voters, Gingrich called for a guest-worker program for most illegal immigrants, but his campaign could not say whether those people would be on a path to citizenship — the key question in the immigration debate.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/25/romney-gingrich-flip-flopper-self-deportation/
Nancy Pelosi on a Gingrich presidency: "That Will Never Happen…..There is something I know….."
Mr Gingrich challenged Mrs. Pelosi to “put up or shut up.” “I have no idea what she’s talking about, I don’t think she has any idea what she’s talking about. But bring it on.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/25/gingrich-pelosi-comments-hysterical/
Fewer Americans bought new homes in December, making 2011 the worst sales year on record.
http://news.yahoo.com/us-home-sales-fell-dec-finish-dismal-2011-151418003.html
The Agriculture Department is slated to loan an Oregon biorefinery $232.5 million for a project expected to create 65 jobs and support 38 others. That’s $2.5 M per job.
After 30 years of giving passengers spiritual words to reflect on while they eat their meals, Alaska Airlines is retiring the prayer cards from their meal trays. Airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan says the decision was made after hearing some customers complain.
http://www.katu.com/news/local/Alaska-Airlines-retiring-meal-tray-prayer-cards-138066938.html
Shaun Casey, the religious affairs adviser to presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008, says that the demise of religious society in the United States is a good thing. “I, frankly, am glad American civil religion is dying,” said Casey, who is an “associate professor of Christian Ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary” ???
Members of the Occupy Wall Street movement urinated on a cross, desecrated a church and threw Bibles at police officers in separate incidents over the weekend.
http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/occupiers-urinate-on-cross-throw-bibles.html
Resistance to gay marriage in Washington crumbles, with the acquiescence of even a few republicans.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2017335099_joni26.html
A 15-year-old Wisconsin boy who wrote an op-ed opposing gay adoptions was censored, threatened with suspension and called ignorant by the superintendent of the Shawano School District, according to an attorney representing the child.
Madonna is “bringing gay to the Super Bowl.”
Ariz. Gov. Brewer had a 'terrible encounter' with President Obama: “I want our borders secured. I want our nation protected. He wants amnesty. We'll never going to agree on that. So I don't know why he was surprised by my book. He evidently is and thin-skinned in regards to it..”
Photo of Gov Brewer poking finger at President Obama.
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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Joe Curl, Washington Times, 1/23
There is one person — one American among the 300 million of us — who is not to blame for the state of the union. Everyone else, each of you, in some small or large way, bears some share of the blame, but not this guy. Not one little bit.
This guy is Barack Obama. He is not the least bit to blame for the dismal state of the U.S. economy. George W. Bush is, for sure, and that evil Dick Cheney, oh, no doubt. House Speaker John A. Boehner — evil, too — is, of course, to blame. But guess what? So is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and every Democrat in the House and Senate.
Now, President Truman made it very clear: The buck stops with him. No passing the buck for that guy. But Mr. Obama blames everyone but himself. Mr. Bush, he says, left the nation in a ditch, a deep ditch, and he’s been digging out since he took office. And Congress? Those guys are just plain awful, he says. So mean. Wah, they won’t do anything I want done! Mr. Obama feels so sure about it that he’s basing his re-election campaign on bashing Capitol Hill.
But with the president delivering his State of the Union speech to Congress Tuesday night, let’s pause here to take as hard look at the real state of America, by the numbers, using only cold, hard facts.
The unemployment rate when Mr. Obama was elected was 6.8 percent; today it is 8.5 percent — at least that’s the official number. In reality, the Financial Times writes, “if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 percent.”
In addition, there are now fewer payroll jobs in America than there were in 2000 — 12 years ago — and now, 40 percent of those jobs are considered “low paying,” up 10 percent from when President Reagan took office. The number of self-employed has dropped 2 million to 14.5 million in just six years.
Regular gasoline per gallon cost $1.68 in January 2009. Today, it’s $3.39 — that’s a 102 percent increase in just three years. (By the way, if you’re keeping score at home, gas was $1.40 a gallon when George W. Bush took office in 2001, $1.68 when he left office — a 20 percent increase.)
Electricity bills have also skyrocketed, with households now paying a record $1,420 annually on average, up some $300.
Some 48 percent of all Americans — 146.4 million — are considered by the Census Bureau either as “low-income” or living in poverty, up 4 million from when Mr. Obama took office; 57 percent of all children in America now live in such homes.
Since December 2008, a month before Mr. Obama took office, food-stamp use has increased 46 percent. Total spending has more than doubled in just four years to a record high of $75 billion. In 2011, more than 46 million people — about one in seven Americans — got food stamps. That’s 14 million more than when Mr. Obama took office.
Median household income has dropped nearly 7 percent in the last six years, taking inflation into account. What’s more, nearly 20 percent of males age 25 to 34 now live with their parents.
Low- and middle-income Americans 65 and older now hold more than $10,000 in credit card debt, up 26 percent since 2005. The average age of the American car is 10 years; in 1990, it was 6.5 years old (by the way, in 1985, Americans bought 11 million cars; in 2009, less than half that, 5.4 million).
On the macro side, America’s annual budget has jumped to $3.8 trillion — and yet the United States brings in only about $2.1 trillion in revenue. The U.S. trade deficit for 2011 was $558 billion. America’s total public debt stands at $15.23 trillion; in January 2009, the debt was $10.62 trillion. Mr. Obama is on pace to borrow $6.2 trillion in just one term — more debt than was amassed by all presidents from Washington through Bill Clinton combined. The debt is rising by $4.2 billion every day — $175 million per hour, nearly $3 million per minute.
So, America, that is the State of Your Union. But remember, Mr. Obama had not one thing to do with it. So don’t blame him when you go to the polls. Blame everyone else, especially yourself.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/22/curl-the-truly-dismal-state-of-the-union/
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FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"Newt Gingrich routed Mitt Romney in South Carolina because he routed the media first. A Public Policy Polling survey of likely South Carolina primary voters completed on Friday revealed that 77 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion of the media. Among the most conservative South Carolina primary voters, fully 89 percent had an unfavorable opinion of the media. The same poll showed Gingrich beating Romney in the primary, 37 percent to 28 percent -- fairly close to the actual outcome. Conservatives not only resent the liberal media for trying to pick the Republican nominee ... but they also resent Republican politicians who, once elected, spend their careers appeasing the media while abandoning conservative principles. ... Conservatives want a president whose attitude toward the media matches the attitude Gingrich has shown in recent debates. A president with that kind of attitude, they hope, might actually govern as a conservative."
-Terence P. Jeffrey
“In a world where words have meaning, Mitt Romney is not the "moderate" in this race. He is the most conservative candidate still standing, with the possible exception of Rick Santorum, who is bad on illegal immigration…..Romney is "moderate" only in demeanor -- which is just another word game. His positions are more conservative than Gingrich's, but he doesn't scare people like Gingrich does. Ronald Reagan and Jesse Helms were moderate in demeanor, too. No one would call them political moderates. Romney is the most electable candidate not only because it will be nearly impossible for the media to demonize this self-made Mormon square, devoted to his wife and church, but precisely because he is the most conservative candidate. Conservatism is an electable quality. Hotheaded arrogance is neither conservative nor attractive to voters.
-Ann Coulter
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ISLAM
Final results on Saturday showed that Islamist parties won nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament in Egypt's first elections since the ouster of authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120121/D9SDIG480.html
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GLOBALONEY
“The Coup De Grace for Global Warming Catastrophe?”
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/01/the-coup-de-grace-for-global-warming-catastrophe.php
Some Chevrolet dealers are turning down Volts that General Motors wants to ship to them, a potential stumbling block as GM looks to accelerate sales of the plug-in hybrid.
http://www.autonews.com/article/20120123/RETAIL07/301239977#ixzz1kJIfqFNh
It appeared to provide incontrovertible proof that global warming was accelerating faster than even the most doom-laden scientists had predicted. There was considerable alarm when the word’s most authoritative atlas printed a map which showed that Greenland was rapidly turning green. However, experts from around the globe pointed out that the cataclysmic chart had no scientific support and was contradicted by all of the most recent satellite images. Now the Scottish map-makers responsible for the disappearance of 115,830 square miles of polar ice have admitted publicly they were wrong.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/odd/map_makers_admit_greenland_gaffe_1_2077854
More than 400 people jammed into a Portland hotel ballroom Wednesday night to hear a panel of global warming skeptics assert that manmade increases in greenhouse gases are not driving climate change.
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2012/01/presentation_by_global_warming.html
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ACTIVISM
This past Sunday was Sanctity of Life Day, and pro-life advocates, as is their custom, took to the streets of Washington, DC, and other cities to affirm life and protest the slaughter of more than one million innocents each year. The march drew at least 100,000, but the Leftmedia once again ignored it. "For the fifth year in a row, there was no story in the [New York] Times print edition on the annual March for Life. ... The Times is far more eager to publicize protests in support of liberal causes, no matter how puny. When four protesters marched in support of the doomed Dream Act to grant amnesty to illegal immigrant students, the Times marked the occasion with a 780-word story." The NYT has a special standing feature on its blog, The Caucus, to document 'Happenings in Washington' and not even that included a reference to the March."
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THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE
On Saturday, as Newt Gingrich won a startling victory in the South Carolina Republican primary, many voters chose him for reasons that had little to do with his ideas, his hyper-complex proposals to fix immigration or Social Security. Many voters said they liked the scrap in the former House speaker’s personality — his willingness to seek confrontations with his GOP rivals and the news media. That, they said, was what the GOP would need in the race against President Obama this fall.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2012/01/21/gIQAOorrGQ_story.html
“Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has defeated the national media in South Carolina by a margin of 54 percent to 14 percent, according to a survey conducted by a Democratic polling firm.”
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/gingrich-beats-media-south-carolina-54-14
Newt Gingrich made history last night. He’s the first presidential candidate to use an ex-wife’s allegation that he requested an “open marriage” to vault to an astonishing, campaign-saving primary victory. As soon as Gingrich responded to CNN moderator John King’s obnoxious question about the charge at the beginning of Thursday night’s debate with a rousing denunciation of the media, it was all over. The candidates, staffers, the reporters all could have headed to Florida just as soon as the audience sat down from its standing ovation…
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/why_gingrich_and_gop_pols_fears_715Men9k32QChZiR59QDoO
Larry Elder: The Republican re-embrace of former Speaker Newt Gingrich says a lot about whom he sees as his opponent -- and it isn't just President Barack Obama. It's the media. If not for major media's embrace, Obama would still be sitting in the Senate, perhaps mulling another run for the presidency. A UCLA economist-political scientist recently tried to measure how the liberal media bias influences the way people vote. He concluded that this bias gives the Democrat candidate 8 to 10 percentage points. Republicans understand this. So does Gingrich -- on a very deep level.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/01/26/newt_declares_war_on_media_112911.html
Sowell: The Republican candidates' circular firing squad now seems to be using machine guns. Whoever the eventual "last man standing" turns out to be, he may not be standing very tall or very steadily on his feet — and he may be a pushover for Barack Obama in the general election, thanks to fellow Republicans……Poisoning the well of political discourse may be one of the reasons why we see such unsatisfactory sets of candidates for political office in both parties, not only this year but in previous election years as well. Many able and decent people are understandably reluctant to subject themselves and their families to a mud-slinging contest or to media "gotcha" questions. The creeping acceptance of such practices is hardly a justification, but is itself part of the degeneration of our times.
http://news.investors.com/Article/598900/201201251736/gop-infighting-helps-obama.htm
Tyrell: William Jefferson Gingrich “How long have I been saying it? At least for 15 years, but in private, I have been aware of it longer. Newt Gingrich is conservatism's Bill Clinton, but without the charm….Newt and Bill are, of course, 1960s-generation narcissists, and they share the same problems: waywardness and deviancy. Newt, like Bill, has a proclivity for girl-hopping. It's not as egregious as Bill's, but then Newt is not as drop-dead beautiful…..Newt up against the Prophet Obama would be a painful thing to watch. He might be deft with one-liners, but it would be futile. There are independent and other uncommitted voters to be cultivated in 2012 — all would be unmoved by Newt's juggling of conservative shibboleths.”
http://www.creators.com/opinion/r-emmett-tyrrell.html
Elliot Abrams: “In the increasingly rough Republican campaign, no candidate has wrapped himself in the mantle of Ronald Reagan more often than Newt Gingrich. “I worked with President Reagan to change things in Washington,” “we helped defeat the Soviet empire,” and “I helped lead the effort to defeat Communism in the Congress” are typical claims by the former speaker of the House. The claims are misleading at best. As a new member of Congress in the Reagan years — and I was an assistant secretary of state — Mr. Gingrich voted with the president regularly, but equally often spewed insulting rhetoric at Reagan, his top aides, and his policies to defeat Communism. Gingrich was voluble and certain in predicting that Reagan’s policies would fail, and in all of this he was dead wrong.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/289159/gingrich-and-reagan-elliott-abrams
Newt Explains the American Dream.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k0fOU4wBoM
Callista Gingrich discusses the importance of American Exceptionalism
http://youtu.be/r2lftjdHbSI
Lowry: If Romney can’t right himself and Gingrich goes on to win Florida, every major elected Republican in the country will panic. Every unlikely scenario to get another candidate in the race will be explored. Because whatever GOP primary voters in South Carolina think about his electability, Gingrich is currently radioactive among the general public.
"The possibility of Newt Gingrich being our nominee against Barack Obama, I think, is essentially handing the election over to Obama if it got to that point. And I think that's shared by a lot of folks in the Republican Party," said Tim Pawlenty.
Chuck Norris, Michael Reagan, Gov Rick Perry, Tim LaHaye endorse Newt Gingrich
Romney Picks Up Endorsement From Space Vets
http://space.flatoday.net/2012/01/romney-picks-up-endorsement-from-space.html
Romney gets endorsement of key Hispanic leader
http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2012/01/27/romney-announces-endorsement-key-hispanic-leader
“Despite Newt Gingrich’s momentum within the Republican Party, he would be a weaker contender than Mitt Romney in a general election contest against President Barack Obama, according to a Suffolk University/7NEWS (WSVN-Miami) poll of likely voters in Florida.”
http://www.suffolk.edu/50641.html
Mitt Romney, real conservative
Is Newt Gingrich a True Reagan Conservative? Michael Reagan says yes.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Gingrich-true-reagan-conservative/2012/01/27/id/425815
While Republican candidates are scrapping it out in South Carolina, the powerful re-election machine behind President Barack Obama has already set a pace of fundraising almost certain to shatter records for the sheer amount of money flowing into American politics. Obama's campaign, called Obama for America, and the Democratic National Committee, the governing body of the Democratic party, together brought in a staggering $220m in 2011. Though no definitive Republican challenger has yet emerged, that influx of cash should easily put Obama's team on course to beat the $750m they brought in during 2008's history-making election.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/21/obama-holds-three-fundraisers-campaign?newsfeed=true
How many conservatives would prefer a liberal president who is faithful to his wife over a conservative president with a mistress?
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ARTICLES
Walter Williams on education: “Education professors drum into students that they should not "drill and kill" or be the "sage on the stage" but instead be the "guide on the side" who "facilitates student discovery." This kind of harebrained thinking, coupled with multicultural nonsense, explains today's education. During his teacher education, Sand says, "teachers-to-be were forced to learn about this ethnic group, that impoverished group, this sexually anomalous group, that under-represented group, etc. -- all under the rubric of 'Culturally Responsive Education.' "
Dependency Nation?
http://news.investors.com/Article/598993/201201260805/entitlements-soar-under-president-obama.htm
VDH: The news media seem obsessed with the serial affairs of a younger Newt Gingrich back in the last century. The anger of his second of three wives mysteriously became national news on ABC’s Nightline on the eve of the South Carolina primary. Millions watched Mrs. Gingrich II complain that Newt and the present Mrs. Gingrich had done to her (while ill) just about the same thing that she and Newt had earlier done to Mrs. Gingrich I (while ill). Do these marital dramas involving our leaders matter that much?
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/289250/fidelity-and-presidency-victor-davis-hanson
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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
Free PDF download: “Born To Lie: From Birth Certificate to Health Care”
http://patriotdepot.com/born-to-lie-from-the-birth-certificate-to-health-care-free-pdf-download/
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WISE WORDS
"To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it."
-Thomas Jefferson
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11:12 AM
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