op ed review 7/15
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
The national debt has increased by more than $64,000 per
federal taxpayer since Barack Obama was inaugurated president.
“Americans Will Work More than 6 Months to Pay Cost of Gov't
in 2012”
Two-thirds of likely voters say President Obama has
kept his 2008 campaign promise to change America — but it’s changed for the
worse, according to a sizable majority. A new poll for The Hill found 56
percent of likely voters believe Obama’s first term has transformed the nation
in a negative way, compared to 35 percent who believe the country has changed
for the better under his leadership.
Voters continue to support across-the-board federal spending
cuts to help solve the federal budget crisis.…the highest level of support
since Rasmussen Reports first asked the question in August 2011.
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision to uphold Arizona’s law allowing
police to check the immigration status of those they detain, an overwhelming
majority of Americans say they want to see their own states enact the same
kinds of laws. Support was high across
most demographics, including self-identified Republicans and independents, and
even Hispanics favored the policy by a 55 percent to 41 percent
Karl Rove: “Elections
are about numbers, and right now the president's are bad……According to exit
polls, 44.8 million Republicans showed up to vote in 2004 while only 41.4
million did in 2008. Almost all those 3.4 million Republicans who stayed home
have been energized by Mr. Obama's agenda and are now eager to vote against him….”
President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services
released an official policy directive undermining the welfare reform law of
1996. The new policy guts the federal work requirements that have been the
foundation of that law — one of the most successful domestic policy reforms in
the 20th century. “The result is the end of welfare reform as we know it.”
Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered
leaving their practices over Obamacare, according to a survey released by the
Doctor Patient Medical Association.
The Obama administration is using Spanish language soap
operas to push food stamps…….”presents a semi-dramatic scenario involving characters
convincing others to get on food stamps, or explaining how much healthier it is
to be on food stamps.”
“It wasn’t quite a game changer, but Mitt Romney finally
gave voters a moment of magic in his NAACP convention speech this Wednesday.
For once, style and content rose to the occasion. He even earned himself a
standing ovation from a civil rights lobby – a big win for a Republican
candidate. It was never going to be an easy gig. “If you want a president who
will make things better for the African-American community, you are looking at
him,” he said. “You take a look.” “Take a look.” It was cocky, cheeky, maybe
even a little rude. But it’s also making a YouTube sensation.”
Presbyterians debated for more than three hours on whether
to change their definition of marriage. In the end, they preserved the traditional
meaning, upholding a ban on officiating gay weddings.
Supporters of gay marriage in Washington say they have raised more than $2M
to oppose R74 in November.
Preserve Marriage Washington, which collected the signatures
to get R-74 on the ballot, has only raised $135,000.
You may want to donate:
President Obama says
Venezuelan President Hugo
Chávez doesn’t pose a
"serious" national security threat to the United States.
Mitt Romney responded to President Obama's comments
on Hugo Chavez with this statement: “….a stunning and shocking comment by the
President…….Hugo Chavez has provided safe haven to drug kingpins, encouraged
regional terrorist organizations that threaten our allies like Colombia, has
strengthened military ties with Iran and helped it evade sanctions, and has
allowed a Hezbollah presence within his country's borders. And he is seeking to
lead – together with the Castros – a destabilizing, anti-democratic, and
anti-American ‘Bolivarian Revolution’ across Latin America.
President Obama's remarks continue a pattern of weakness in his foreign policy,
one that has emboldened adversaries and diminished U.S. influence in every region of
the world. As president, I will speak clearly and resolutely on the challenges
we face so that both our allies and our adversaries will know where we stand.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/romney-obamas-chavez-statement-stunning-and-shocking_648423.html
An Arizona
man was sentenced to 60 days in jail,
given a $12,180 fine and granted three years probation for holding a Bible
study in his home. City officials claim that he’s running an operation “without
the required permits.”
Jane Pitt, mother of
actor Brad Pitt, has been scared into silence by the hate-filled, vulgar and
even violent reaction to her public assertion that Barack Obama is “a liberal
who supports the killing of unborn babies and same-sex marriage.” Pitt has even
been the subject of death threats following her letter to the editor of Missouri’s Springfield
News-Leader in which she asserted failure to vote for Republican presumptive
presidential candidate Mitt Romney constituted a vote for Obama.
Socialized medicine:
Nearly 12,000 patients die needlessly in UK hospitals every year due to
blunders by staff, researchers warn. They say that doctors and nurses routinely
misdiagnose illnesses, fail to treat patients quickly enough or give them the
wrong dose of drug.
_______________________________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Arthur Herman 7/12
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Those were Abe Lincoln’s words in his first inaugural in
1861, as America
was running headlong into civil war. Now
we’re a house divided again and another civil war is coming, with the 2012
election as its Gettysburg.
Call it America’s
coming civil war between the Makers and the Takers.
On one side are those who create wealth, America’s
private sector–the very ones targeted by President Obama’s tax hikes announced
Monday. On the other are the public employee unions; left-leaning
intelligentsia who see the growth of government as index of progress; and the
millions of Americans now dependent on government through a growing network of
government transfer payments, from Medicaid and Social Security to college
loans and corporate bailouts and handouts (think GM and Solyndra).
Over the past century America’s private sector has been
the source of productivity, innovation, creativity, and growth–and gave us the
iPhone and iPad. The public sector has been the engine of entitlement,
stagnation, and decline -- and gave us Detroit
and the South Bronx. The private sector built
the strongest economy in the world. It
armed the free world in World War Two, and then in the three decades after the
war turned America
into the most prosperous society history had ever seen. It revived America in the Reagan
and Clinton years, and thanks to the Bush tax cuts brought this country back
from economic collapse after 9/11.
In those same years a growing public sector, by contrast,
turned Europe into a cesspool of debt, stalled economies, and chronic social
dysfunction that’s set the streets of Athens
-- and perhaps other European capitals--on fire. That’s where we’re headed,
too, more rapidly than we like to think.
That public sector–state, local, and federal -- now consumes
40% of GDP, compared to 33% just twelve years ago. It’s brought us to the point
where 48% of Americans are now on some form of government handout, from 44%
when Obama took office–almost a fifth more than during the Reagan years. And
too many of them have been programmed to believe they have no future unless the
government takes more from the Makers -- precisely what Obama promised on
Monday. So we know which side Obama and the Democratic party are on. Like John
Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, ObamaCare has been a wakeup call to what’s at
stake–just as the turbulent events in Wisconsin
showed how far Democrats are willing to go to win.
We’re not Greece
yet -- or on the brink of Bull Run. But it’s
time for Romney and Republicans to make clear which side they’re on -- and to
make it clear there can’t be government transfer payments, from Medicaid to
Social Security, without a strong vibrant private sector to pay for them. They
don’t have to stoop to the Democrats’ tactics. They just have to give our free
market, private sector economy the robust defense it deserves.
A country where more Americans go on Social Security
disability than get jobs-- as happened last month--can’t stand. Lincoln hoped in 1861
that the “angels of our better nature” would pull us back from catastrophe. He
was wrong. Let’s hope in 2012 those angels still hover -- and can make a house
divided whole once more.
_____________________________________________________________________________
FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"Justice Roberts apparently forgot that his first duty
is not to protect the 'image' of the court but to protect the Constitution, of
which the court is the primary steward. Whether or not he intended to, Justice
Roberts breathed new life, for now, into the Great Destroyer, making November
that much more important. If the tea party was taking a brief nap -- as some
have suggested (but I don't believe) -- the federal government has awoken it
with an ear-piercing alarm that will not quit ringing before Election Day. ...
[L]et's truly reflect on America's
Constitution and its liberty and redouble our resolve and commitment to
recapturing both."
-David
Limbaugh
"Given how many more Americans define themselves as
conservative rather than as liberal, let alone than as left, how does one
explain the success of left-wing policies? One answer is the appeal of
entitlements and a desire to be taken care of. It takes a strong-willed citizen
to vote against receiving free benefits. But an even greater explanation is the
saturation of Western society by left-wing hate directed at the right. The
left's demonization, personal vilification, and mockery of its opponents have
been the most powerful tools in the left-wing arsenal for a century. Since
Stalin labeled Leon Trotsky -- the man who was the father of Russian
Bolshevism! -- a 'fascist,' the Left has labeled its ideological opponents
evil. And when you control nearly all of the news media and schools, that
labeling works. The liberal media even succeeded in blaming the right wing for
the assassination of President John F. Kennedy even though his assassin, Lee
Harvey Oswald, was a pro-Soviet, pro-Castro communist. Similarly, just one day
after a deranged man, Jared Loughner, attempted to kill Congresswoman Gabrielle
Giffords and murdered six people in the process, The New York Times columnist
Paul Krugman wrote that it was right-wing hate that had provoked Loughner....
Krugman made it all up. But what matters to most of those who speak for the
left is not truth. It is destroying the good name of its opponents. That is the
modus operandi of the left. It works."
-Dennis
Prager
"With Barack Obama at the helm, and David Axelrod
charting the course against Mitt Romney, this nation is about to set sail into
a poisonous sea of class envy and hatred. 'Bain' Capital will be 'Bane'
Capital, as in evil. 'Venture capital' will be 'vulture capital.' This
November's election might boil down to a fundamental debate between the merits
of markets vs. central planning and wealth redistribution; at the least, that's
where the rhetoric is taking us. If I were advising Mitt Romney, I'd tell him
to bone up not only on the good he did at Bain Capital ... but on Hayek,
Friedman, Hazlitt, Mises, Laffer, and, most of all, Marx. He might Google the
word 'agitprop,' since he will be precisely such a target. And if Romney does
this right, he has [the] chance not only to win Americans' vote but to educate
them about the wondrous free-market system that has made their nation the
greatest marvel in human history -- and which they won't learn about from Obama
and Axelrod."
-Paul
Kengor
___________________________________________________________________________
GLOBALONEY
Americans sweltering
in the recent record-breaking heatwave may not believe it - but it seems that
our ancestors suffered through much hotter summers in times gone by, several of
them within the last 2,000 years. A large team of scientists making a
comprehensive study of data from tree rings say that in fact global
temperatures have been on a falling trend for the past 2,000 years and they
have often been noticeably higher than they are today - despite the absence of
any significant amounts of human-released carbon dioxide in the atmosphere back
then.
____________________________________________________________________________
ISLAM
Prominent Muslim clerics in Egypt have begun to call for the
demolition of Egypt’s Great Pyramids—or, in the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali
bin Said al-Rabi‘i, those “symbols of paganism.” Most recently, Bahrain’s
“Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs” and President of National Unity, Abd al-Latif
al-Mahmoud, called on Egypt’s
new president to “destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what the Sahabi Amr bin
al-As could not.” This is a reference to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad’s
companion, Amr bin al-As and his Arabian tribesmen, who invaded and conquered Egypt circa
641. Under al-As and subsequent Muslim rule, many Egyptian antiquities were
destroyed as relics of infidelity. According to early Muslim writers, the great
Library of Alexandria itself—deemed a repository of pagan knowledge
contradicting the Koran—was destroyed under bin al-As’s reign and in compliance
with Caliph Omar’s command.
Bizarre Story:
Celebrity photographer in the UK kicked by Muslim woman she tried
to help, then arrested for “racially aggravated assault.”
“Taliban shoot woman 9 times in public execution as men
cheer” Officials in Afghanistan, where the amateur
video was filmed, believe the woman was executed because two Taliban commanders
had a dispute over her. "In order
to save face," they accused her of adultery. Then they "faked a court to decide about
the fate of this woman and in one hour, they executed the woman.”
The supreme leader of Egypt’s
Muslim Brotherhood – and of its president elect Mohammed Morsi – has called for
jihad on Israel.
___________________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
DNC Chair describes herself as “pretty happy” with the
ongoing economic recovery.
__________________________________________________________________________
BOOKS, FILM
In an interview with The Daily Caller, author Brad Thor
remembered the late conservative activist Andrew Breitbart and urged people to
take his place in the battle of ideas. “We may have lost a general, but the war
goes on,” Thor said. “He left big shoes to fill. We all need to step up; we all
are Andrew Breitbart, and it is our duty. That man’s family shared him with us,
and we owe it to them — we owe it to the country –to all step up.” “The general
falls. The battle’s not over.”
Can Americans discern between the “dreams” of President
Obama and those of the Founding Fathers? The makers of the upcoming documentary
film “2016: Obama’s America”
hope so. “I’ve got a strong desire to defend against the changes in our
culture, our life, our laws, our freedom. We now have someone in office who has
professed a desire for change, and this has disturbed me,” producer Gerald R.
Molen tells Inside the Beltway.
“Barack Obama's Brother to Make Film Debut in Anti-Obama
Documentary”…..”D’Souza seems most curious to know why the half-brother of the
most powerful man on the planet lives in poverty and without any financial help
from President Obama.”
____________________________________________________________________________
ELECTION
All the latest polls show President Obama is losing …well,
everyone. He’s down 13 points with voters ages 18 to 25, nearly half of whom
think he’s done a mediocre job…..The healthy young don’t really care about
health care, but they do care about jobs — and nearly 2 million 20- to
24-year-olds are unemployed….. Nationwide, his approval rating among blacks is
down nine points to 77 percent while Mr. Romney’s has doubled to 18 percent. White
support is down six points from November 2008 to just 38 percent, according to
a Gallup poll
in June. Despite his nonstop class warfare, Mr. Obama has dropped most among
less-affluent whites, down nine points with whites who make $60,000 or less per
year……“President Obama does not currently have enough white support to win
re-election even if he retains his minority base from 2008,” Real Clear
Politics’ David Paul Kuhn wrote late last month. “Today, fewer whites back
Obama than any Democratic candidate since Walter Mondale. Romney does not need
to emulate Ronald Reagan to win. Should he match Reagan’s share of the white
vote in 1984 — presuming all else remains constant since 2008 — Romney would
rout Obama.”
Pollster Pat Caddell: “The Supreme Court’s Obamacare-affirming decision--which
can be summed up as “Read John Roberts’ lips, it’s a tax”--has put a political
cudgel in the hands of Republicans. The cudgel, of course, is taxes. But a huge nail is also embedded in the
cudgel: the fundamental deceit of Obamacare. Yet in the week since the Court’s
decision, Republicans have yet to demonstrate that they truly grasp the
significance of this weapon--or that they can effectively wield it. Why? Some
Republicans are worried that the fight over Obamacare distracts from the issue of
the economy. What these Republicans fail to realize is that healthcare and the
economy are inextricably linked; Americans now realize that Obamacare was a
detour on the road to economic recovery, so to remind them of one is to remind
them of the other. And the two issues, compounded, are all the more powerful.”
Michael Gerson: “One
would think, given so much practice, that the Obama White House would have been
better prepared for last week’s wretched jobs report. Instead, we witnessed the
five stages of bad public relations. Delusion: It was a “step in the right
direction.” Dismissiveness: Don’t “read too much into any one monthly report.”
Grudging acceptance: “It’s still tough out there.” Cliche: “There are no quick
fixes.” Self-pity: “I suspect that most people in Cincinnati would acknowledge that I’ve tried
real hard.” I suspect that most people in Cincinnati
and elsewhere would prefer an economic strategy that consists of something more
than blame shifting and the systematic lowering of expectations.”
Top national Democratic operative Charles Halloran has been
retained by a new George Soros-backed super-PAC to target Congressman Allen
West for defeat this November. West is said to be at the top of Nancy Pelosi’s
hit list…..left wing billionaire George Soros is among those who committed to a
$5 million war chest to defeat West.
He’s one of the good guys. Donate to Rep Allen West here:
A parade entry
portraying President Barack Obama and using the term “Obamanation” has made
some angry, and others upset at the negative attention. It happened in the
city’s annual Fourth of July parade. The float showed a person dressed as
President Obama with one sign that read “Huntsville Welcomes Obama’s Farewell
Tour?” On the back, another sign said, “Ask about our assault gun plan. Call
Eric Holder.”
___________________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
The United Nations is deliberating over a treaty that will
place comprehensive limits on the international weapons trade. The language of
the draft agreement is so expansive it wouldn’t take an Obama-appointed judge
very long to extend the treaty to cover the domestic firearms market as well.
If American jurists continue to be enamored by the popular trend to consider
international precedence when making U.S. rulings, you can kiss the
Second Amendment goodbye.
Michael's 10 Rules For Using Your Anger As An Asset To
Winning: Logic is persuasive, anger
isn’t; Keep your eye on the prize at all times;
Less is more…..Fewer is better…..Don’t cannibalize the cause…..Don’t
argue with liberals.
“Hank Williams Jr. to Obama: Pack
your bags, take your teleprompter with
you…”
Lloyd Marcus: On July
4th, I co-hosted the Campaign To Defeat Obama Telethon. We raised funds to wage
campaigns in four states which Obama won last election: Wisconsin,
Ohio, Michigan,
and Nevada.
Our goal is to win those states, delivering 50 electoral votes to Mitt Romney.
Patriots across America
responded well, making the telethon a success. After the broadcast, a few of
our staff who were taking donations over the phones said they were shocked at
the number of hate-filled, emotion-driven, idiotic calls from Obama supporters.
Since Mitt Romney wrapped up the Republican nomination for
president a few weeks ago, the Democrats have been throwing everything but the
kitchen sink at him. In tens of millions of dollars of advertising and nonstop
campaigning by the president, Romney has taken an (unfair) beating over his
years at Bain Capital, his wealth, his tax bill, his wife's hobbies and more.
As one joke making its way around the Internet put it, “By now we are supposed
to be more angry about how Mitt Romney spends his money than we are about how
the president spends our money!”
___________________________________________________________________________
NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
The Romney campaign has released a new television
advertisement, "No Evidence," in which it flatly accuses President
Barack Obama of having "lied" in his campaign's attacks on Mitt
Romney for "outsourcing" jobs to foreign countries.
List of Obama’s lies.
Examples: "If you like your doctor or health care plan, you can keep it." "Since
I've been president, federal spending has risen at the lowest pace in
nearly 60 years….."
Top Ten Felons, Fugitives, and Shady Characters in Obama's
Life
Chart: The latest
estimate of the cost of Obamacare: $2.6
trillion dollars in its first decade.
Week’s best photos:
____________________________________________________________________________
Stella Paul:
Here are just a few
of the things I miss since America
entered the golden age of Hope and Change in January 2009: Optimism. Going for minutes, hours, even
days, without worrying about what weird insanity the government is dreaming up
next. Having money. The Border Patrol. Looking up at the moon and thinking, "America
- we own space!" Having a
president whose background isn't more closely guarded than the formula for Coke. Going on vacation without the TSA auditioning
me for "Stella Does Dallas".
Jobs. Not feeling like I have
to whisper, if I say something that's not completely, 100% complimentary about
our president. Listening to the latest
rant against Israel
at the UN, without wondering if it's coming from the American Ambassador. Feeling protected. Having a president who doesn't want to
fundamentally transform me. Getting a
doctor's appointment right away and not thinking, "That was nice while it
lasted. Having a president who would
never, ever bow to the Saudi king, the Chinese premier, the Japanese prime
minister and the mayor of Tampa. Gazing up at the sky and not wondering if
that's a bird or a drone. Snacking on
whatever I want, while the First Lady remains calm and indifferent. Having a
president who thinks it would be unimaginably crazy to bring the 9/11
conspirators to New York
for a civil trial. Privacy. Separation of State
and Media. College graduates with a
future in America, not China or Hong Kong. Having a president who inspires us to feel
that Americans are all in this game together.
A dollar that's worth 100 cents and isn't signed by a tax cheat. America's Triple-A rating. Having a president who doesn't seem needier
for attention than Paris Hilton. Strolling
through the mall without worrying about racially-motivated flash mobs. Looking at maps without trying to figure out
where I can run. Reading 1984
as an interesting work of fiction. Dignity. Pride
What do you miss?
____________________________________________________________________________
LATE NITE:
Leno: The White House
is now urging Americans not to "read too much" into last week’s jobs
report. In fact, they said it would be best if you didn’t read it at all……At a
democratic fundraiser in Seattle
earlier this week, Vice President Biden said that Romney's economic policies
were “George Bush on steroids" — as opposed to Obama's policies, which are
“Jimmy Carter on Ambien.”
____________________________________________________________________________
WISE WORDS
"Would it not be better to simplify the system of
taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass
through so many new hands."
-Thomas Jefferson
posted by gary at
12:11 PM
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