op ed review 4/20
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
A new poll shows former secretary of state Hillary
Clinton’s numbers hitting their lowest point in six years. Meanwhile, it finds
that the Republican Party is experiencing something of a renaissance. The poll shows
Clinton’s favorable rating dropping to 49 percent, compared to 45 percent
unfavorable.
Welcome to Obama’s America:
“86M Full-Time Private-Sector Workers Sustain 148M collecting government
benefits.”
Bizarre picture of Nancy Pelosi continuing her amnesty
campaign, tweeting an image of herself washing the feet of illegal immigrants.
“China on course to become 'world's most Christian nation'
within 15 years…The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so
steadily that it by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America.”
Speaker John Boehner and other senior House Republicans are
telling donors and industry groups that they aim to pass immigration
legislation this year, despite the reluctance of many Republicans to tackle the
divisive issue before the November elections.
Speaker Boehner´s primary challenger has a provocative new
video in which an announcer asks if Boehner suffers from "electile
dysfunction"? "
Education Secretary Arne Duncan thinks, "it's frankly
inspiring" that children of illegal immigrants cross the border on a daily
basis to attend American schools.
Since taking office in 2009, President Obama has formally
proposed a total of 442 tax increases. The 442 total proposed tax increases
does not include the 20 tax increases Obama signed into law as part of
Obamacare.
Obama Selects First Openly Gay Episcopal
Bishop to Lead Easter Prayer
Remember when Lois Lerner admitted the IRS had targeted
conservative groups but tried to pass it off as the work of “rogue agents”?
Today we know they weren’t rogue, and they weren’t confined to IRS workers in
Cincinnati. With every e-mail that becomes public, we learn just how false the
earlier IRS explanations have been.
On Tax Day, the Republican National Committee announced it
is suing the IRS for stonewalling Freedom of Information Act request for
documents about the tax agency’s politicized scrutiny of conservative and Tea
Party groups.
The federal government backed down and ended their siege
against Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy less than 24 hours after an Infowars
exposé connecting the land grab to Harry Reid and a Chinese-backed solar farm
went viral, becoming the biggest news story on the Internet.
Senator Reid has escalated the war of words over the Bundy
dispute, sensationally labeling the Nevada cattle rancher’s supporters
“domestic terrorists” during an event in Las Vegas.
Western lawmakers gather in Utah to talk about taking land
back from the federal government.
A small study of casual marijuana smokers has turned up
evidence of changes in the brain, a possible sign of trouble ahead, researchers
say. "What
we think we are seeing here is a very early indication of what becomes a
problem later on with prolonged use," things like lack of focus and impaired
judgment.”
“Pot vending machine to debut..”
Report: FBI Visiting Gun Shops to Investigate “People
Talking About Big Government” “If you
see some Middle Eastern guy come in, you don’t have to be so worried about
that……What we’re really looking for are people talking about being sovereign
such as sovereign citizens or people talking about big government,” the agent
reportedly stated.
“Less than a minute into his speech at the Boston marathon
bombing memorial on Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden went tragically off
script and told the crowd of Boston bombing survivors that "it was worth
it."
A new Citizens United Political Victory Fund poll shows that
Republican Arizona voters have had it with Sen. John McCain, even though the
senator has signaled his intentions to run for a sixth term in 2016. According
to the poll, 64.2 percent of likely GOP primary voters said that they are ready
for someone new to take the job and only 29.3 percent signaled a willingness to
re-elect McCain.
IRS data for 2009 show
that the top 1% of US taxpayers paid 37% of all federal income taxes
collected, the top 50% paid almost all taxes collected (98%) and the
bottom half paid only 2%. And these are the stats on people who at
least pay income taxes; in 2012 Republican presidential candidate's Mitt Romney
was actually criticized for even mentioning that 47% don't pay income taxes.
President Obama has attended 373 fundraisers during his
five-plus years in office. That´s about
one every five days or so. Assuming he speaks for close to 15 minutes at each
event, that´s well over 5,000 presidential minutes consumed by the dirty
business of asking people for money. And that doesn´t include the prep, the
glad-handing and hobnobbing, the photos, the private asides, the travel.
The express train hurtling to return racial preference admissions
to California has just been derailed by an outburst of opposition from Asian
Americans.
A group of Asian Americans is starting a grassroots effort
to garner support for the Republican Party and its candidates, saying the GOP
most closely aligns with their core values including family, education and
entrepreneurship.
_______________________________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN
Cal Thomas:
Focus on What What Works
4/8
The Fiscal Times reported last week that the State
Department has missing files or incomplete files for more than $6 billion in
State Department contracts. Steve Linick, State’s inspector general, issued a “management
alert” warning that “significant financial risk and a lack of internal control
at the department has led to billions of unaccounted for dollars over the last
six years.” “For instance,” writes the FT, “a recent investigation of the
closeout process for contracts supporting the mission in Iraq, showed that
auditors couldn’t find 33 of the 115 contract files totaling about $2.1
billion. Of the remaining 82 files, auditors said 48 contained insufficient
documents required by federal law.” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf
says the $6 billion isn’t missing, but that State is merely experiencing “bureaucratic
issues,” which it’s addressing.
The lack of internal control is an apt description for what
is wrong with the federal government, which seems incapable of controlling its
spending.
Oh, how far we’ve come from the days of our grandparents,
who lived through the Great Depression and World War II. Then, slogans like “waste
not, want not” and “use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without” were
necessities not just for winning a war, but surviving as a family. Then, children were told to clean their plates
because somewhere in the world people were starving. The Puritan ethic reminded
people to always live within their means. Envy, greed and entitlement were
regarded as “sins.”
I recall an address given by the late Catholic Bishop Fulton
J. Sheen. He asked, “How do you define a football field?” His answer? “By its
boundaries.” Sheen’s point was that when boundaries are crossed, trouble
ensues. The Founders gave us a
Constitution with boundaries that restrict the power and reach of government.
We have exceeded those boundaries, which is why government no longer works and
we have massive debt.
The duplicative nature of many government programs and the “eternal
life” most seem to have without ever having to prove their effectiveness, has
contributed not only to the debt, but to the deepening cynicism felt by many
Americans. According to a recent Reason-Rupe poll, Americans were asked to
guess between zero to 100 what percentage of their elected officials used their
political power to help their friends and hurt their enemies. On average, the
poll found that Americans think 70 percent of their elected officials do so. In
addition, those surveyed were asked to guess between zero to 100 what percentage
of their elected officials are corrupted by special interests. They responded
that 75 percent were probably corrupted by special interests…
To return government to its constitutional boundaries we
need a new Grace Commission. Established in 1982 by President Reagan and headed
by businessman J. Peter Grace, the Grace Commission conducted an audit of the
federal government with the goal of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. Its
voluminous report was presented to Congress, which promptly shelved it. In
Washington, if you haven’t noticed, money is power.
What’s needed now is a new version of the Grace Commission
that resembles the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC), tasked with
closing outmoded military bases. Congress gave BRAC the power to close the
bases and BRAC gave Congress cover so if anyone complained about lost jobs or
negative economic effects in their districts, the commission could be blamed.
Most businesses conduct audits or internal reviews to make
sure they are operating efficiently. Not the federal government. Republicans, who have occasionally proposed
fiscal restraint, should promise an audit of the federal government if voters
return them to a Senate majority in November and the White House in 2016. It
will be difficult, but it must be done or the future of increasing debt and
lack of personal responsibility will cripple the country, perhaps beyond
healing.
Focusing on “what works,” and getting rid of what doesn’t is
the way back from the fiscal brink. We had better start soon, though, because
spending like there’s no tomorrow will ensure there isn’t one for the country
bequeathed to us.
_______________________________________________________________________
BOOKS
Neurosurgeon Ben Carson says the White House wanted him to
apologize for “offending” President Obama after he famously delivered a
conservative message at the National Prayer Breakfast last year. Carson, the
former director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, recalls
the events surrounding his 2013 speech in his new book, “One Nation: What We
Can All Do To Save America’s Future.”
Charles Murray: “I
just published a book called “The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead” for
people making the transition from college to the real world. It consists of
tips that I originally wrote for the interns and research assistants at the
American Enterprise Institute, where I work. But let’s face it: Some of my
advice doesn’t seem to apply if you’re in the political part of Washington.”
_________________________________________________________________________
GLOBALONEY
Even by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change´s own
lamentable standards, its new report makes no sense whatsoever. Before the
report´s formal release, US officials--who had seen an earlier draft--wrote to
the United Nations demanding it be amended. "The discussion of the
economic costs of mitigation is too narrow and does not incorporate co-benefits
of action." Loosely translated this means: "If we admit how much we´re
spending to such little purpose, the taxpaying public is going to kill us."
Pressing questions for the British House of Lords: Does baked-beans consumption go into our
climate change calculations?
climate change calculations?
A new report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finds
that solar facilities in California are acting like “mega traps” that kill and
injure birds. As a result, “entire food chains” are being disrupted.
___________________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
The Washington Free Beacon has compiled this video of Harry Reid chanting “Koch brothers” 134
times on the Senate floor.
Two major environmental groups will announce Monday that
they are creating an alliance between their two political action arms, in an
effort to expand their influence on national policymakers. The League of
Conservation Voters and the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund are
starting LeadingGreen, a collaboration that will steer donations to federal
candidates and enlist the help of major donors in lobbying elected officials.
________________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
“It’s time for Republicans to give women a fair shot at
equal pay, Patty Murray said. So we did
a little research. I was curious - how
do the female Patty Murray staffers do compared to the male Patty Murray
staffers? It turns out, one of the worst offenders in the entire United States
Senate on gender pay is Senator Patty Murray from Washington. According to a
2012 report, female members of Patty Murray’s staff on average made about
$21,000 less per year than her male staffers.
That is a difference of 34 percent.
In other words, the female Patty Murray staffers make 66 cents for every
dollar that the male Patty Murray staffers make.”
It’s hardly been a secret that in recent years the moderate
center of the Democrat party has been driven away and what remains is a conglomeration
of disparate blocs which, to date, the party has been able to treat as if there
were no conflicting interests between them. As the midterm elections approach
and the administration’s incompetence, along with the distaste for the
president’s signature ObamaCare legislation, drive the party’s chances down
further, the make-believe coalition of opposites may well crumble if the
opposition doesn’t blow it.
Republicans are famously divided on immigration reform, but
Democrats pretty much unanimously support it. There´s a reason for that. In
stark, partisan political terms, continuing the high level of immigration of
recent decades, and certainly increasing immigration as envisioned by many
reformers, will result in more Democrats winning more elections in coming years
Dennis Prager: In the
United States of America today, the belief that marriage should remain defined
as the union of a man and woman is portrayed as so vile by the left that anyone
who holds it is unfit for employment. That is why you should uninstall Firefox.
Meet Sylvia Burwell, the Titanic’s New Captain
_________________________________________________________________________
NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES & INFO
“Can You Spot The Racist, Homophobic Anti-Semites In This
Special 10 Item Quiz?”
____________________________________________________________________________
WISE WORDS
“The law, unfortunately, has always been retained on the
side of power; laws have uniformly been enacted for the protection and
perpetuation of power."
-Thomas Cooper
___________________________________________________________________________
HUMOR
Frank J. Fleming: “The reason I
like a mugger over a tax collector is that a mugger never acts like you’re
supposed to thank him.”
posted by gary at
3:35 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home