op ed review 3/24
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) ruled out tax
increases in a future budget deal with President Obama, telling NBC’s David
Gregory that the president would “get nothing” from the GOP on taxes.
President Obama compares the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to
U.S.-Canada relations. But ABC, CBS, and
NBC failed to notice.
As the debut of Obamacare nears in less than 10 months,
officials responsible for implementing the complicated law are starting to warn
that it will be a mess.
Coming with Obamacare:
“group appointments” — seeing up to a dozen patients with similar
medical concerns all at once.
Teaching “intercultural communication.” A student at Florida Atlantic
University said he was suspended
from his Intercultural Communications class because he refused to step on
Jesus. Ryan Rotella, a junior from Coral Springs, said the incident began when
his professor, Dr. Deandre Poole, asked students in the class to write the word
“Jesus” on a piece of paper, fold it up, and step on it.
The media didn’t find it newsworthy that the professor is
also the Vice Chair of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party.
Vice President Joe Biden spent more than $1 million for two
nights in hotels in London and Paris, according to government documents.
Biden and his hefty entourage spent the night at two five-star hotels in early
February--one night at the Hyatt Regency London for a total of $459,338.65 and
another night at the Hotel Intercontinental Paris Le Grand for $585,000.50. “A
State Department official told ABC News that the costs are ´nothing out of the ordinary.´
“
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.): “They deserve to live in the White House,
they deserve to fly on a private plane… [but] this is a lifestyle that is one
of excess….We found out there are five chefs on Air Force One. There are two projectionists
who operate the White House movie theater. They regularly sleep at the White
House just in case the first family wants a really, really late show. I don’t
mean to be petty here, but can’t they just press the play button?”
The FAA will announce the temporary closure of 238 air traffic
control towers because of the sequester, but the agency is also planning to
hire “community planners” paid in excess of $100,000 – one at an airport slated
to for a possible tower closure. “Funding for the community planners is exempt
from sequestration, while funding for air traffic control towers are not
exempt…”
Is there a sequester? The US has quietly unblocked almost
$500 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority which had been frozen by
Congress for months.
Salmonella outbreaks. E. coli outbreaks. Millions of dollars
in economic losses. These are among the scenarios the Obama administration
warned about last month as it claimed the sequester would force the U.S.
Department of Agriculture to furlough meat inspectors. But while the
administration prepares to take that step, it continues to pursue a
"partnership" with the Mexican government to "raise
awareness" about food stamps among immigrants from that country.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded $2.7 million
to study why lesbians are at a higher “risk for hazardous drinking.” The study
aims to develop “culturally sensitive” strategies to prevent lesbians from
being drunks.
U.S is now less popular in the middle east than at the end of
the George W. Bush administration.
Sunday evening's episode of the History Channel's hit series
'The Bible' threw up an awkward coincidence when viewers noticed that Satan
bore a remarkable resemblance to President Obama. Twitter exploded into life
during the airing of the latest edition of the Mark Burnett-produced series
with most noting the striking similarities between the 44th President and the
devil played by actor Mehdi Ouzaani.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2295082/Why-does-devil-The-Bible-look-exactly-like-President-Obama.html#ixzz2NtzUON8v
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2295082/Why-does-devil-The-Bible-look-exactly-like-President-Obama.html#ixzz2NtzUON8v
Yet another new survey shows that Republicans know more
about politics and political history than Democrats. On eight of 13 questions
about politics, Republicans outscored Democrats by an average of 18 percentage
points, according to a new Pew survey titled “Partisan Differences in
Knowledge.”
PETA killed more than 1,600 cats and dogs at its Virginia headquarters
last year - almost 90% of the animals handed over to the charity's American
shelter.
“New data shows 48 Percent of First Children Born to Unwed
Mothers”
The Detroit News is busy talking up the possibility of Dr.
Benjamin Carson running as a Republican for the Senate from Michigan.
Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi both received Communion during
the Mass to celebrate the installation of Pope Francis in spite of their
pro-choice position on abortion. Some Catholics are not happy.
A recent study found that the number of working women who
believe that a career is as important as being a wife and mother has fallen 23
percent since the 1970s. “Apparently, women are growing more and more
uncomfortable with hardcore feminism and believe that it is out of alignment
with the views, values, and aspirations of ordinary women.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/03/feminist_leaders_compared_to_religious_right_leaders.html#ixzz2Nu3OxhaX
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Alicia Colon
3/19
I have collected unemployment three times in my life.
The first time was over 35 years ago and I had to file a claim at an
unemployment office in Manhattan.
I also had to go there every week to collect a check. The second time was in
1995 when I was laid off and replaced by the owner's wife. I then applied in
person but after that I only had to report by phone and punch in my responses.
The last time I filed was in 2008 when my newspaper folded and all I had to do
was file online.
It's no mystery to explain the huge numbers of
Americans filing for unemployment when it is becoming as easy as surfing the
net for social networks. Politicians are always trying to make it easy for
people to file for food stamps, Medicaid, HEAP, and other benefits not because
they give a whit for the needy but because they expect those entitled to keep
them in office…
A record number of Americans are now on food stamps.
When my six children were young and my family was barely surviving on one
income, I briefly took the leap and collected food stamps. At that time, the
stamps were issued in paper and I hated pulling the book out to pay for food so
I never recertified. I just made do with what we could afford and became a very
resourceful and creative cook. Now that shame factor has been removed and
liberal politicians have made sure that discreet EBT debit cards allow welfare
and food stamp recipients to purchase luxury food items and goods sans
embarrassment.
Here's a recent news release reporting on our
generous government: “The food stamp program, part of the
Department of Agriculture, is pleased to be distributing the greatest amount of
food stamps ever. About 46.514 million Americans received aid, up from 46.286
million in November, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in an
e-mail. Participation was 5.5 percent higher than a year earlier. No one should
go hungry in America.
FNS provides children and low-income people access to food, a healthful diet,
and nutrition education. We help nearly one in four people. Check out our
programs to see if we can help you or your family.”
Meanwhile the National Park Service - also part of
the Department of Agriculture - asks visitors "Please do not feed the
animals" because it may cause them to grow dependent and not take care and
fend for themselves.
Mitt Romney was absolutely right when he noted in a
fundraiser that 47% of the people would never vote for him. These are the
entitled who never heard what JFK asked Americans to do but care only about
what the government can do for them. His Democrat Party now only cares about
staying in power and promoting a dependent nation that resembles socialist Europe. The fact that Europe
is dying because of this failed ideology is incidental to the narcissists now
in power who believe they can make it work here.
Since I have always been in a somewhat precarious
financial situation, I can well understand the temptation to have burdens
lifted but thankfully was raised by a strong and proud mother. She took in
laundry and babysat for neighbors rather than go on welfare after my father
abandoned us. She struggled back from three incapacitating strokes but refused
to become a cripple. Of course, back in those days, the dependent-making
machine was not in place yet. The Great Society had not yet reared its ugly
head. Food stamps were non existent and welfare was called home relief and was
only temporary. Food commodities were distributed and we were glad to get these
when our neighbors who were on welfare refused to eat them. Great cans of
peanut butter, bags of rice and flour, a pound of margarine, a box of cheese
and best of all, a large can of chipped beef which fried up and served over the
rice was delicious.
I watched an interview with a woman who had been on
the dole for several years who admitted that she could look for work but she
was too used to being taken care of and we can all probably guess who she votes
for. This was an educated healthy white woman whose shame factor was totally
suppressed. That's why politicians are always looking for ways to take away the
shame factor so that we can eschew pride and instead view ourselves as victims
of society……
This administration has hired 16,000 IRS agents to
enforce Obamacare when it should have hired private investigators to uncover
the massive fraud in our entitlement programs that leaves nothing for
legitimate applicants. Unfortunately it shows no interest in stopping the gravy
train as long as its riders vote Democrat.
_____________________________________________________________________________
FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"[T]he scariest news over the weekend came from the
tiny country of Cyprus.
... Individuals who have deposits of at least $130,000 (equivalent) in Cypriot
banks will pay what the New York Times called a 'one-time tax' of 9.9 percent
of their deposits. Smaller depositors will have their funds confiscated taxed
to the tune of 6.75 percent. ... Naturally the ATM networks were shut down to
prevent the good people of Cyprus
(or Russia)
from getting to their money before the government could take it away. ... Think
about what will happen when officials of the Obama Administration come to work
this morning and read that the EU could force Cyprus to confiscate legally deposited
funds.... I can certainly hear the clack-clack-clack of keyboards drawing up
the talking points explaining why rich people with deposits of over, say
$50,000 should be willing to do their fair share in paying down the national
debt. ... Sample Talking Point: If you can afford a 401(k) and $4/gallon gasoline,
you're making too much."
-Rich
Galen
"While no one is taxing our bank holdings thanks to
ObamaCare, they are going after some of our other assets. Remember that 3.8
percent Medicare surtax on investment sales larger than a couple hundred grand.
Surprised? The next time you try to sell your house, trust me, you'll be
hitting the roof. I want you to think about that. A tax not on your income,
earned or unearned, but your assets, what you have, what you own, your tangible
assets. Homes here, bank account's [in Cyprus]. Is there really a
difference? No.”
-Neil Cavuto
“U.S.
debt far outweighs that of every European nation -- nations that are going for
bailouts one after another. The U.S.
government could seize 100 percent of the $9.3 trillion held in banks in the
country and it would cover just over half of our total national debt. That $9.3
trillion would cover just two-and-a-half years of the federal budget. Think
about that the
next time a politician laments the supposed disaster caused by reducing budget
growth by $85 billion.”
-Mark Alexander
__________________________________________________________________________
BOOKS,FILM
Gerald Molen, the Oscar-winning producer of
"Schindler's List," "Jurassic
Park" and other blockbusters, is
re-teaming with conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza for a movie simply
called "America."
The filmmakers behind 2016: Obama’s America are working on a
follow-up to what has become the second-biggest political documentary in the
history of the domestic box office.
___________________________________________________________________________
GLOBALONEY
“No, the world ISN´T
getting warmer (as you may have noticed). Now we reveal the official data that’s
making scientists suddenly change their minds about climate doom. The Mail on
Sunday today presents irrefutable evidence that official predictions of global
climate warming have been catastrophically flawed. The graph on this page blows
apart the ‘scientific basis’ for Britain reshaping its entire
economy and spending billions in taxes and subsidies in order to cut emissions
of greenhouse gases.”
Like a desperate gambler who doubles down on a losing bet,
President Obama is calling for spending $2 billion more on green energy
projects. Apparently these billions will succeed where previous billions have
failed.
________________________________________________________________________
SECOND AMENDMENT
Contrary to the American Bar Association´s (ABA) contention
that the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) "is consistent with the Second
Amendment" and "would not require new domestic regulations" to
hamper the exercise of the rights therein, the reality is that if ratified, the
ATT could make guns as scarce as ammo and the exercise of the Second Amendment
difficult indeed. And here’s how this would happen…….
Thousands of people
line up in California
to buy ammunition.
_____________________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
“Today, President Obama issues a
challenge to Republican Senators: in nominating Tom Perez as Labor secretary,
he implies that Senate Republicans don’t have either the guts or organizational
skill to stop what would become perhaps the most radical left-wing cabinet
member in history……I wrote the book on Tom Perez. My New York Times bestseller
Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department is
largely a catalog of the rancid racialism over which Perez has presided. Perez
is an unapologetic leftist from the Hugo Chavez-wing of the Democrat Party.
(Not an exaggeration: Chavez once had Citgo make a payment to Perez’s illegal
alien advocacy group Casa de Maryland.)”
Perez also has ties to
liberal billionaire George Soros.
Madonna rips Boy Scouts at the GLAAD Awards
“Socialist French President
Hollande's popularity has fallen to the lowest level since he was elected last
May, taking his rating below that of far-right leader Marine Le Pen for the
first time, a poll showed on Sunday.”
____________________________________________________________________________
CONSERVATIVE STRATEGY
Republican leaders spent three months studying their 2012 election
defeat and on Monday announced they were beat on nearly every aspect of
politicking, from money to message to manpower, and said one immediate change
should be to embrace immigration reform — a lightning-rod issue that nearly
tore the party apart under the George W. Bush administration. Unveiling a
98-page election post-mortem, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince
Priebus promised a kinder, gentler GOP that will not write off any voters. That
begins, the party said, with Hispanic voters and immigration reform. “By 2050,
we’ll be a majority-minority country, and in both 2008 and 2012, President
Obama won a combined 80 percent of the votes of all minority groups,” Mr.
Priebus said Monday. “The RNC cannot and will not write off any demographic,
community, or region of this country.” The plan calls for the GOP to become a
party that voters believe cares about them, beginning with a $10 million image
makeover to attract minorities. The plan also includes nuts-and-bolts
suggestions, such as shortening the presidential primary process and trying to
take control of the debates, which are currently run by television networks.
Ann Coulter at CPAC: “If amnesty goes through, America becomes California and no Republican will ever win
another national election…..I can see why Democrats would want amnesty, but why
on earth are Marco Rubio and these endless Bushes supporting it? Even Shemp and
Zippo Bush are supporting amnesty for illegals……Republicans are grasping
at these suicidal policies because they’re panicked, they’re demoralized after
the last election…..Stop panicking, Republicans!”
“More voters trust the Democratic Party than the Republican
Party on budgetary issues, according to the results of a new poll for The Hill
— even though a strong majority actually prefers Republican fiscal policies.
The discrepancy would appear to be rooted in the GOP’s image problem….”
Not a good sign:
“Florida voters overwhelmingly would chose former Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton for president in 2016 over the state’s two highest
profile Republicans, former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio, a new poll
shows.”
_____________________________________________________________________________
CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL ACTION CONFERENCE 2013
“Liberty
is under assault from every direction,” Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) told an enthusiastic crowd at the
CPAC, but conservatives are finally starting to turn the tide in their favor.
“For the last three weeks, conservatives have been winning,” he said during his
keynote address on Saturday. “We’re winning right now.” Cruz, who spoke without
a script, prompter, or podium, closed out the three-day gathering on an
optimistic note, and largely devoid of the calls for change or moderation that
were prevalent in many of the speeches delivered throughout the conference. The
fast-rising GOP star said his “biggest surprise” since being sworn in as
Senator in January was “the defeatist attitude among so many Republicans who’ve
been in a Washington
a long time.” He didn’t mention Senator John McCain (R., Ariz.) by name, but
Cruz did address McCain’s recent comments describing Cruz, Rand Paul, and other
libertarian-leaning Republicans as “wacko birds.” “I have to admit, when
Rand and I first heard that, we thought that it was a new kind of drone,” he
joked. “If standing for liberty and the Constitution makes you a wacko bird,
then count me a proud wacko bird.”
There were high expectations for Sen. Ted Cruz´s keynote
address, and he delivered. As a young, passionate Hispanic who happens to be
one of the most brilliant and accomplished constitutional experts and Supreme
Court lawyers in the U.S. Senate in over half a century, Cruz poses a clear
frustration for the left—and some in the Republican establishment as well. Cruz
was a rock star at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Whenever
anyone mentioned him in their remarks, the utterance was met with applause.
Sen. Rand Paul won the 2013 Washington Times-CPAC
presidential preference straw poll Saturday, and Sen. Marco Rubio was a close
second, easily outdistancing the rest of the field and signaling the rise of a
new generation of conservative leaders who will take the Republican Party into
the 2016 election. Mr. Paul won 25 percent of the vote, and Mr. Rubio collected
23 percent.
Ann Coulter at CPAC:
"Paul Ryan, you're a good man and you mean well, and good for you
for your courage trying to reform Medicare and rid us of Obamacare. But your
proposed budget that has the federal government spending $41 TRILLION over the
next ten years, with more and more and more spending increases every single
year, and assumes all the oppressive Obamacare taxes. Congressman,
that's what liberal Democrats do, not us…..This is not conservatism. It is,
literally, Democrat Lite…”
Coulter also said she could no long support New Jersey Gov.
Chris Christie in 2016, adding, “I’m now a single-issue voter against amnesty.
So Christie’s off the list.”
In a speech at CPAC, Media Research Center Pres. Brent
Bozell blasted Republican leaders for their lack of conservative behavior.
“I just got done watching Dr. Ben Carson speak at CPAC and
among many thoughts, I wanted to share the first thing that came to mind when
he was finished. If I were a Democrat, I’d be looking at this guy and saying, “That is the most dangerous man in the United States of America
today.” Carson put on one heck of a demonstration in
public speaking on conservative topics. Intelligent, with a smooth delivery and
no apparent use of a teleprompter, Carson
had the crowd alternately busting up laughing and coming to their feet for extended
applause.”
_________________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
If waterboarding, a procedure we inflicted on our own
troops, can be considered torture, I suppose that almost anything one doesn’t
approve of can be so deemed. And given the proven effectiveness of throwing the
term torture around, the temptation to apply it to anything one doesn’t approve
of must be difficult for the intellectually dishonest to resist. “Racism” used
to be the left’s favorite discussion-ending epithet; now it has a rival in
“torture.” For example, a special report to the U.N. says laws outlawing
abortion are torture.
LIVs love Pop
Media. Pop Media loves Obama. Ergo, LIVs love Obama. It is that simple.
So sayeth Clayton Cramer in an article in PJ Media. According to Clayton, low
information voters (LIVs) don´t know if the national debt is 16B or 16T, they
think Benghazi
is a strip joint on K street
and "they know that gay marriage is a good thing because all their
favorite actors and musicians think it is so cool!" The better-informed
LIVs read Us or People. Most of an LIV´s knowledge of economics, politics, and
history comes from watching movies, television shows, The Daily Show, and stuff that one of his leftist
friends posts on Facebook.
When was that watershed moment where advocacy of gay
marriage crossed into the mainstream from the radical chic of the intellectual
elite? Gay marriage, quite apart from homosexuality per se, has only in recent
years been embraced by more than just a few libertarian sophisticates.
Ironically it wasn´t too long ago when the progressive darlings and the beautiful
people believed, to the contrary, that marriage of any kind was oppressive, a
form of institutional bondage.
Of all the arguments public-school advocates have used to
hoodwink generations of parents into condemning their own children to years of
state-controlled subservience training, one of the most successful is that
without public schools, children cannot be properly "socialized," and
will therefore be ill-prepared for life in the "real world." The basic premise of the argument for public
schools as necessary tools of socialization is that learning to get along, or
fit in, with children one´s own age is a vital life skill. Is it?
___________________________________________________________________________
NOTEWORTHY LINKS
Top Ten ObamaCare Horror Stories the Media Are Covering Up
__________________________________________________________________________
LATE NITE
Leno: A 28-year-old
woman from Serbia
has a rare brain condition where she sees everything upside down. The good
news? She's now been given a job at the White House as President Obama's
economic adviser……..The U.S. Senate is now fighting to keep open the Senate
barber shop. It loses $350,000 a year. Do you know what that makes it? The most
successful government program ever. It’s losing only $350,000 a year………The
island nation of Cyprus is now considering a 10 percent tax on every individual
savings account in that country. They'll take 10 percent of your money right
out of the bank. To which President Obama said: "You can do that?"
______________________________________________________________________
WISE WORDS
"The moment the idea is admitted into society
that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a
force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny
commence."
-John Adams
posted by gary at
9:08 AM
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