op ed review 7/7
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
Obama administration officials are illegally delaying enforcement
of a central provision in Obamacare in a desperate attempt to manipulate the
2014 midterm elections and swell the ranks of those who look to government for
healthcare. The White House is beginning to sense that when Americans realize
the price of “free” healthcare, they’re likely to take swift vengeance on those
responsible.
Democrats are trying to suppress the confusion and hide the
cost of ObamaCare
WSJ: “These columns
fought the Affordable Care Act from start to passage, and we'd now like to
apologize to our readers. It turns out we weren't nearly critical enough. The
law's implementation is turning into a fiasco for the ages, and this week's
version is the lawless White House decision to delay the law's insurance
mandate for businesses, though not for individuals.”
The final version of Obamacare’s “preventive services”
regulation discriminates against faithful members of the Roman Catholic Church
by effectively barring them from owning and operating health-insurance
companies
First it was Aetna, now it’s UnitedHealth to exit individual
insurance market in California
Rassmussen: 60% Say
Federal Government Does Not Have the Consent of the Governed
71% Favor Proof of Citizenship Before Allowing Voter
Registration
41% Believe Supreme Court Too Hostile Towards Religion, 15%
Too Friendly
Gallup’s
latest poll confirms that American conservatives are significantly more
patriotic than American liberals.
In his first encyclical letter, Pope Francis has reiterated
that marriage is a union of one man and one woman for the procreation and
nurturing of children.
Seattle
gay pride participants viciously beat Christian
street preacher
A Sonoma
State University
student was ordered to remove her cross necklace because it might offend other
students.
What was our Secretary of State doing as the Egyptian
President was ousted from power? Here
are the pictures.
“US
government declares hacking an act of
war, then hacks allies”
Hillary Clinton’s State Department spent $630,000 to get
more Facebook "likes," prompting employees to complain to a
government watchdog that the bureau was "buying fans" in social
media.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/state-department-bureau-spent-630000-on-facebook-likes/article/2532629
A third pair of female Marine lieutenants has failed to
complete the Corps’ Infantry Officer Course at Quantico, Va.
The Marine Corps Times embedded a reporter with the latest class of candidates.
It reported Wednesday that one of the women was pulled for falling behind
schedule. The other made it to the course’s end but did not meet its standards,
as did six men, the newspaper said. Corps commanders have said they will not
lower standards to ensure that women can qualify for direct ground combat
units.
In the middle of a taxpayer funded $149M trip through Africa, First Lady Michelle Obama described living in the
White House as like being in a “really nice prison.”
Marco Rubio’s push for immigration reform has yet to boost
him much in the eyes of the nation’s Hispanic voters. A poll of likely Hispanic
voters in the 2016 presidential race shows Rubio trailing potential Democratic
nominees Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden 66-28 percent and 60-28 percent
respectively.
Republicans are getting “skunked” by Democrats, according to
talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.
Former Rep. Allen West thinks Lady Gaga needs some
instruction on the importance of the National Anthem. The fiery Florida
Republican is also demanding that she apologize to America’s active and retired
veterans. Lady Gaga drew West’s fire after she changed the words of the
National Anthem to “home of the gay” instead of “home of the brave” during a
performance at the June 28 New York City Gay Pride parade.
_______________________________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Investor’s Business Daily
6/18
The Senate on Tuesday voted against tough border security
measures that it promised to put in place years ago. Tell us again why we
should trust them to secure the borders later after granting amnesty first.
In a pair of votes, the Senate turned down a border fence it
promised to build seven years ago and a biometric entry-exit system it promised
to put in place 17 years ago. The history of these previous efforts to secure
the nation's borders is illuminating.
In 2006, Congress passed the Secure Fence Act, requiring 700
miles of double-tiered fencing get built along the Mexican border. Though the
fence would only cover a fraction of that border, President Bush told
Americans: "This bill will help protect the American people. This bill
will make our borders more secure. It is an important step toward immigration
reform." "We have a
responsibility to secure our borders," he added. "We take this
responsibility seriously."
Seriously? A year later, Congress quietly passed a law that
largely neutered the fence requirement, and today, only 36 miles of it have
been built. Yet when Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., introduced a bill requiring that
just half the original 700-mile fence get built before illegals gain amnesty,
and the other 350 before they can gain citizenship, it went down in flames,
with Sen. Marco Rubio and a few other Republicans voting against it.
Shortly after rejecting Thune's fence, the Senate turned
down an amendment introduced by David Vitter, R-La., that would have required a
biometric entry-exit system at every land, sea and airport of entry before
today's illegals get green cards.
Congress promised to create this system way back in 1996 —
part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act — to
better track those entering and leaving the country. But it too never was
built.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., gave the game away in
explaining his opposition to this prudent idea. "I want biometrics as far
as the eye can see, in as many ways as possible, post-9/11, to protect this
nation," he said. "But to make it a trigger, in light of how much it
costs and how long it takes, I just think goes too far."
So there you have it: Since the Senate is desperate to get
amnesty done as soon as possible, it can't let little inconveniences like
securing the border or tracking people coming into the country get in the way. As
we've said many times in this space, border security has to come before any
effort is made to grant legal status to today's 11 million illegals. For good
reason: Failure to do so will only encourage more to cross the border, in the
justifiable belief that once here they, too, will get citizenship without
having to wait in line. We're already seeing illegal crossings increase even
before the law is passed.
Plus, putting border security first would give those here
illegally now an incentive to see security done quickly, creating a lobbying
force that would be impossible to ignore. History already proves that putting
the carrot ahead of the stick doesn't work. The 1986 immigration law also
promised to close gaps in the border in exchange for amnesty. But as soon as
soon as Democrats got amnesty on the books, they started putting roadblocks in
the way of enforcement. The result was that just three years after the bill's
passage, illegal border crossings had actually increased, and today the number
in the country illegally has climbed fourfold.
A few days ago, Rubio said immigration reform had to ensure
"that we will never have another wave of illegal immigration again."
But with the Senate turning down every meaningful border security measure,
that's the only thing we can guarantee will happen again if this bill becomes
law.
Another good read: “The
spectacle of a 29-year-old computer geek armed with a laptop and a credit card
racing across the hemispheres, eluding the FBI, the CIA, the TSA, the IRS and
the rest of the alphabet soup available to the president, taunting the entire
U.S. Government to catch him if it can, has much of the rest of the world
applauding, cheering and laughing. This is the entertainment nobody has seen
since Bonnie and Clyde redefined the job of
bank examiner on the front pages of 80 years ago. This is also something new in
our history, the world laughing at the ineptitude of the United States. Only Mr. Obama, who
set out years ago to cut America
down to a size to suit the third world, can be pleased. Mr. Obama himself reassures us that everybody
means well, it was all about mistakes, with no intent to do bad, just the
honest incompetence of careless people. Some reassurance.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/25/pruden-barack-obamas-enduring-ineptitude/#ixzz2YIBYlpIk
________________________________________________________________________
FROM OTHER COLUMNS
"Even a secular person should be required to answer a
question before removing such an important cultural underpinning as traditional
marriage: If marriage is no longer to be reserved for one man and one woman, as
it has for millennia in many different cultures and religions, what is the new
standard and on what is it based? Should we change America's motto to 'in polls we
trust'? ... Polygamist groups have made it known they wish to be next in line
to enjoy full constitutional protection for their lifestyle. ... There are
people who favor sex and marriage between adults and children. On what basis
should they be denied their 'right to happiness'? Today's 'that goes too far'
easily becomes tomorrow's 'right' with a morally vacuous media leading the charge
and a morally exhausted people who are afraid to say 'stop,' for fear they'll
be labeled 'bigots.'"
-Cal Thomas
"No crisis should go to waste, an eternal truth
highlighted in bold by a purported climate change apocalypse that is now the
target of actions newly proposed by President Obama. This so-called 'crisis'
will flood not various coastlines, but instead the front pages, replacing
other, less flattering political headlines for the administration. ... Whatever
the weakness of the evidence on greenhouse gases (GHG) and climate effects, the
real goal of carbon policy is a regional redistribution of wealth.”
-Benjamin Zycher
__________________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
The paid protesters opposing the late-term abortion ban in Texas
are doing more than rallying outside the legislature against the pro-life bill.
They’re threatening pro-life state legislators and their staffers. Death
threats, harassing emails and phone calls and calls for their daughters to be
raped are among the hate targeted at pro-life lawmakers from the small
contingent of abortion activists upset that Texas would
consider banning abortions on babies at viability.
When teenage thugs are called "troubled youth" by
people on the political left, that tells us more about the mindset of the left
than about these young hoodlums……At least as far back as the 18th century, the
left has struggled to avoid facing the plain fact of evil -- that some people
simply choose to do things that they know to be wrong when they do them. Every
kind of excuse, from poverty to an unhappy childhood, is used by the left to
explain and excuse evil.
Very scary article: “The
Obama administration has been collecting enormous amounts of communications and
other data on Americans…….an overlooked motive will play a pivotal role in
2014: this data-mining effort, in significant part, is a vehicle for getting
votes…….All incumbents want to retain power. But these anything goes, Alinsky
acolytes now have access to data, and its electoral ramifications, which Nixon
couldn’t begin to dream of. And this administration can’t be trusted not to use
it. There are questionable concerns being voiced about the Feds acquiring
domestic SWAT vehicles or stocking up on ammunition. Folks with those worries
are missing something more compelling – and sinister. The Left is attempting a bloodless coup.”
http://townhall.com/columnists/barneybrenner/2013/07/05/data-mining-and-elections-n1633684/page/full
News item: “U.S.
Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement”
_________________________________________________________________________
GLOBALONEY
Electric cars, despite their supposed green credentials, are
among the environmentally dirtiest transportation options, a U.S. researcher
suggests. Writing in the journal IEEE Spectrum, researcher Ozzie Zehner says
electric cars lead to hidden environmental and health damages and are likely
more harmful than gasoline cars and other transportation options. Electric cars
merely shift negative impacts from one place to another, he wrote, and
"most electric-car assessments analyze only the charging of the car.
?? Two professional sports teams have endorsed President
Obama’s global warming proposals. Executives from the Major League Baseball’s
Seattle Mariners and the National Basketball Association’s Portland Trailblazers
issued statements after Obama announced new environmental regulations last
week.
_________________________________________________________________________
BOOKS
“Keynes Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics” John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), godfather of
the “stimulus” and the “multiplier,” and Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992), who
argued that government intervention in the economy breeds prosperity-killing
economic distortions, weren’t just polar opposites in economic theory. They
were real-life sparring partners.
_________________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
Here are seven reasons (more will pop up in the days to
come) why Obamacare is a huge setback for Democrats on the ballot in 2014.
“As George Zimmerman Prosecution Implodes, A Media Invested In His Guilt Grows More Shrill”
Colon: Is it possible that Snowden is a hero?
“Marriage cannot be redefined. Its meaning cannot be
changed. And the real meaning of marriage matters to everyone, especially
children.”
Is Obama a Victim of Self-Esteem Education?
____________________________________________________________________________
NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES
Pictorial history of Fourth of July celebrations:
Funny ad
____________________________________________________________________________
WISE WORDS
"The wise and correct course to follow in taxation is
not to destroy those who have already secured success, but to create conditions
under which everyone will have a better chance to be successful."
-Calvin Coolidge
"But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite
simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives
it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one
citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do
without committing a crime."
-Frederic Bastiat
______________________________________________________________________
LATE NITE
Leno: Yesterday, the
Supreme Court opened the door for same-sex marriage to resume in California. Apparently,
the judges were really swayed by that Liberace movie…… The Girl Scouts
announced that their pension plan has a $347 million deficit. The Girl Scouts
are $347 million in debt so in addition to teaching girls about camping it also
is preparing them for careers in government…… In an interview, Pat Buchanan
predicted that the inflow of Hispanics from the immigration bill will break the
U.S.
into two countries with different cultures and different languages. Of course,
as a resident of Los Angeles,
I can't imagine what that would be like.
posted by gary at
8:30 AM
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