oe review

op ed review 1/29

2012-01-28T11:12:00.001-08:00

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Under Obama, Price of Gas Has Jumped 83 Percent, Ground Beef 24 Percent, Bacon 22 Percent

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/under-obama-price-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.

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/state-of-the-union-registers-at-th-grade-reading-level-112236.html

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.

http://nation.foxnews.com/mitt-romney/2012/01/24/whos-greedy-obama-gave-1-charity-romney-gave-15#ixzz1kPOmcA7P

Joe Biden gave $369 to charity.

http://harndenblog.dailymail.co.uk/2012/01/much-ado-about-nothing-mitt-romney-is-very-rich-he-also-gave-millions-to-charity-and-the-taxman.html

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"...

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-defends-roe-v-wade-way-our-daughters-have-same-chance-sons-fulfill-their-dreams

The Oregonian says that abortion has made our society more “healthy.”

http://victoriataftkpam.blogspot.com/2012/01/zero-says-abortion-is-healthy-for-our.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FFRIlu+%28VICTORIA+TAFT%29

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….."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/01/24/pelosi_on_a_gingrich_presidency_that_will_never_happen.html

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.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/usda-commits-2325m-biorefinery-103-jobs/341036

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” ???

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-s-former-faith-adviser-i-frankly-am-glad-american-civil-religion-dying

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.

http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/atty-says-school-threatened-punished-boy-who-opposed-gay-adoption.html

Madonna is “bringing gay to the Super Bowl.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/madonna-treat-super-bowl-a-gay-old-time-claims-dancers-article-1.1011346#ixzz1ka23HjsK

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..”

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-record/2012/01/26/ariz-gov-brewer-recalls-terrible-encounter-pres-obama-hes-thin-skinned-about-my-book#ixzz1kZyI3z9n

Photo of Gov Brewer poking finger at President Obama.

http://news.yahoo.com/chilly-reception-obama-lands-phoenix-words-gop-governor-001215385--abc-news.html

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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.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/why_gingrich_and_gop_pols_fears_715Men9k32QChZiR59QDoO#ixzz1kCpOXAIV

"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.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2012/01/23/team-romney-says-obama-would-beat-gingrich

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

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/stimulus/2012/jan/26/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?

http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/288566/should-candidate-gingrich-be-evaluated-his-marriages

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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.' "

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2012/01/schools-education-protect-ignorance-classroom/2126256#ixzz1kPSZDqyK

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

op ed review 1/22

2012-01-21T16:13:00.001-08:00

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Florida’s largest newspaper endorses Romney

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article1210848.ece

Perry Drops Out of Presidential Race, Endorses Gingrich

http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/perry-drops-out-of-presidential-race-endorses-gingrich-20120119

Witless Joe Biden tells a San Francisco crowd: 'The Giants are on their way to Super Bowl'...

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2012/01/18/bidens-oops-moment-in-sf-giants-on-their-way-to-super-bowl/

How are those green energy jobs working out for you? Another Gov't-funded solar company lays off most of its staff...

http://www.toledoblade.com/Energy/2012/01/17/Solar-panel-company-lays-off-40-employees.html

“Collective bargaining kills another company.” Next time you're choosing a fattening indulgence in the checkout line, ask yourself if you're willing to pay extra so Twinkies and Wonder Bread (made by the same company) can arrive at the store on different trucks? So the driver can be excused from helping to unload? So the company can pay workers-comp costs way out of line the industry's? So a company with just 19,000 employees can administer 40 different pension plans?

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48838

“NEA-backed report pushes sex education in kindergarten.” By the time they leave elementary school, children should be able to “define sexual orientation,” and by the eighth grade be able to “define emergency contraception and its use.”

http://times247.com/articles/nea-backed-report-pushes-comprehensive-sex-ed-for-kindergartners

Health plans ordered to cover birth control without co-pays

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/205413-obama-administration-orders-health-plans-to-cover-birth-control-without-co-pays

Late last year, the Obama administration was forced to abandon one of the gimmicks it used to make it appear that Obamacare would reduce the deficit, the CLASS Act. Scheduled to reduce the debt by $70 billion over ten years, the CLASS Act's failure alone erased more than half of Obamacare's claimed $120 billion in total deficit reduction. Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released another crushing blow to Obamacare's deficit reduction claims, posting a study showing that pilot programs designed to reduce Medicare spending either had no affect, or actually increased Medicare spending

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/obamacare-fail-medicare-payment-reforms-dont-work/322731

Democrats dispute 22,000 jobs created by 1,700-mile oil pipeline...

http://nptelegraph.com/articles/2012/01/19/news/80004367.txt

Democrats claim 43,000 jobs created -- by a 1.7-mile light rail extension in California.

http://www.mtc.ca.gov/projects/central_subway/

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

The Anti-Jobs President

Wall Street Journal 1/20

The central conflict of the Obama Presidency has been between the jobs and growth crisis he inherited and the President's hell-for-leather pursuit of his larger social-policy ambitions. The tragedy is that the economic recovery has been so lackluster because the second impulse keeps winning. Yesterday came proof positive with the White House's repudiation of the Keystone XL pipeline, TransCanada's $7 billion shovel-ready project that would support tens of thousands of jobs if only it could get the requisite U.S. permits. Those jobs, apparently, can wait.

Unless the President objected, December's payroll tax deal gave TransCanada the go-ahead in February to start building the pipeline, which would travel 1,661 miles from Alberta to interconnections in Oklahoma and then carry Canadian crude to U.S. refiners on the Gulf Coast. The State Department, which presides over the Keystone XL review because it would cross the 49th parallel, claimed yesterday that the two-month Congressional deadline was too tight "for the President to determine whether the Keystone XL pipeline is in the national interest." The White House also issued a statement denouncing Congress's "rushed and arbitrary deadline," which merely passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

This is, to put it politely, a crock.

Keystone XL has been planned for years and only became a political issue after the well-to-do environmental lobby decided to make it a station of the green cross. TransCanada filed its application in 2008, and State determined in 2010 and then again last year that the project would have "no significant impacts" on the environment, following exhaustive studies. The Environmental Protection Agency chose to intervene anyway, and the political left began to issue ultimatums and demonstrate in front of the White House, so President Obama decided to defer a final decision until after the election.

The missed economic opportunity was spelled out Tuesday by Mr. Obama's own Jobs Council, which released a report that endorsed an "all-in approach" on energy, including the "profound new opportunities in shale gas and unconventional oil." The 27 members handpicked by the President recommended that he support "policies that facilitate the safe, thoughtful and timely development of pipeline, transmission and distribution projects," and they warned that failing to do so "would stall the engine that could become a prime driver of U.S. jobs and growth in the decades ahead." Only last week the White House issued a "jobs" report praising domestic energy production, but that now looks like political cover for this anti-jobs policy choice.

State did give TransCanada permission to reapply using an alternate route, timetable indefinite. The construction workers, pipefitters, mechanics, welders and electricians who might otherwise be hired for the project—well, they must be thrilled with this consolation prize. Not to mention all the other Americans who might fill "spin-off" jobs on the pipeline's supply chain like skilled manufacturers and equipment suppliers, or still others who might work in oil refining and distribution.

Environmentalists seem to think they can prevent the development of Canada's oil-rich tar sands, and that their rallies against Keystone XL will keep that carbon in the ground. They can't, and it won't. America's largest trading partner will simply build a pipeline to the Pacific coast from Alberta and sell its petroleum products to Asia instead, China in particular.

Such green delusions are sad, and Mr. Obama's pandering is sadder, though everything the country stands to lose is saddest. If Mitt Romney and the other GOP candidates have any political wit, they'll vindicate the Keystone's "national interest" and make Mr. Obama explain why job creation is less important than the people who make a living working for the green anti-industrial complex.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577168912332364268.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"Last week, President Barack Obama, at a Capital Hilton fundraising event, told the crowd, 'We can't go back to this brand of you're-on-your-own economics.' ... President Obama's vision was shared by our Pilgrim Fathers of the Plymouth Colony in modern-day Massachusetts. They established a communist system. They all farmed together, and whatever they produced was put in a common storehouse. A certain amount of food was rationed to each person regardless of his contribution to the work. ... In 1623, after much debate, a new system was set up, in which every family was assigned a parcel of land, and whatever they produced belonged to the family. ... After Gov. Bradford's establishment of what Obama calls 'you're-on-your-own economics,' harvests were so bountiful that Bradford is credited with establishing what we now call Thanksgiving. ... Years ago, typing was done on a mechanical typewriter; milk was delivered to doorsteps via horse and wagon; slide rules were used to make calculations. Should any of these products and practices have survived, or was it OK for natural selection to consign them to the dustbin of history? Try cornering the president or his supporters, and ask them whether they believe government should ensure that the unfit survive and rather than 'you're-on-your-own economics' there should be 'you're-on-somebody-else economics.'"

-Walter. E. Williams

"President Obama, man of the people, will deliver his presidential nomination acceptance speech at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. -- so that Democratic Party fundraisers can reward big donors with skyboxes and other lavish perks.... The self-proclaimed Party of the 99 Percent is reportedly busy creating special-access VIP packages for the 1 percent -- under the illusion of throwing open its doors to the masses. DNC officials refuse to disclose fundraising updates until after the convention, even as they champion their own 'openness and accessibility.' And no doubt, Obama will use his stadium-size pulpit to 'stand up' to the very same 'fat cats' who'll be watching him while sipping Courvoisier in their DNC-appointed luxury seats. Such is the audacity of progressive cognitive dissonance."

-Michelle Malkin

"One of the weirdest things about Cornell West's recent rant on Fox News was that he is one of the highest-paid professors in the humanities in the United States ... yet he damned those who, like himself, are rich. ... With recent news that Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley professors, like the 1 Percenters at J.P. Morgan and Goldman-Sachs, were among Obama's most generous campaign contributors, I think we can discern the new three rules of fat-cattery: 1) Protestations of being liberal exempt you from the crime of being a 1 Percenter; 2) The less risk to your affluent status ... the more willing you are to put up with income-tax hikes, which renders you one of the good, blue 1 Percenters; 3) Damning Wall Street on Monday while shaking down Wall Street on Tuesday is just the way things are, whether for Barack Obama or for an Ivy League development dean."

-Victor Davis Hanson

“The United States, with its huge burden of debt interest payments, not only overborrows and overtaxes the American people but is, of necessity, cutting its defense spending to help make ends meet. The irony seems to be lost on some that much of this debt interest will end up in Moscow and Beijing. In other words, America has been more enfeebled by welfarism and big government than it ever was by the ideology or practice of communism. There no doubt is a wry smile or two inside the Kremlin…..The eyes of the world, both friends and competitors, will be on the United States in 2012. How America deals with its debt and economic problems will have echoes in time and place far beyond the corridors of Washington.”

-Washington Times

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FILM

Review of the new movie about Margaret Thatcher. “Like Ronald Reagan on our side of the pond, Mrs. Thatcher remains a polarizing figure, worshipped by the right and reviled by the left. Here, her fight against left-wing orthodoxy is depicted as ferocious and honorable, with minimal time devoted to criticisms. One could be forgiven for guessing the filmmakers themselves were conservatives, if one didn’t know better.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/13/movie-review-the-iron-lady/

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ACTIVISM

A Gay Marriage Equality bill (read SB 6239) has been introduced this month in Washington State. The measure is deceptive and exceedingly dangerous. It represents a radical shift in the definition of marriage, and it would pose a serious threat to religious freedom. The bill’s introduction says it would not force clergy or churches to marry gays. However, it adds to state marriage law a section dealing with discrimination….. The Governor has an office number to take comments, 1-360-753-6780. You can talk to a real person between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM. Also call the legislative hotline: 1-800-562-6000

http://catholiclane.com/gay-marriage-coming-after-the-church/

The Sunlight Foundation is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization that uses the power of the Internet to catalyze greater government openness and transparency, and provides new tools and resources for media and citizens, alike.

http://sunlightfoundation.com/

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GLOBALONEY

The Copper Basin 300 sled dog race in Alaska had to be cancelled due to too much snow.

http://newsminer.com/view/full_story/17180728/article-Copper-Basin-300-canceled-because-of--impassible--trail-conditions?instance=home_news_window_left_top_4

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THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE

“Newt Gingrich lacks the moral character to serve as President, his second ex-wife Marianne told ABC News, saying his campaign positions on the sanctity of marriage and the importance of family values do not square with what she saw during their 18 years of marriage.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/exclusive-gingrich-lacks-moral-character-president-wife/story?id=15392899#.TxhEcYGOfYQ

“Mitt Romney, who recently revealed he pays close to 15 percent tax on his income, has untold millions of dollars of his massive fortune saved in offshore tax shelters in the Cayman Islands, according to reports. Romney, whose family fortune is worth an estimated $250 million, is one of the wealthiest candidates to ever run for president. His refusal to release his full tax returns, citing privacy concerns, has drawn criticism….”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088608/Mitt-Romney-millions-dollars-saved-offshore-Cayman-Islands-tax-shelters.html

In the days following Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's admission that he pays around 15 percent in federal income taxes, the Obama-loving media have been in a full-court press claiming this is less than what most Americans pay. Actually, according to last year's report from the Internal Revenue Service, as a percentage of Adjusted Gross Income, 97 percent of 2009 filers paid less than 15 percent:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/01/19/media-myth-debunked-97-percent-americans-pay-less-romneys-15-percent#comments

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ARTICLES

A few years ago, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to imagine European leaders, begging bowl in hand, turning to China for a financial bail-out. Equally, few would have predicted that Chinese leaders visiting Washington would publicly berate US policymakers about their mismanagement of the world’s biggest economy. But the world has changed. The implosion in 2008 of the financial system in the US and Europe and last year’s European sovereign debt crisis have accelerated the shift of economic momentum to Asia. The dramatic change in fortunes has spawned a degree of triumphalism among some Asians. “There’s no crisis of capitalism,” says Meghnad Desai, emeritus professor at the London School of Economics. “There’s a crisis of western capitalism, which has gone geriatric. The dynamic capitalism, with its energy, innovation and sheer greed for growth has moved east.”

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1d92589a-3090-11e1-9436-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1jjJjkvws

The Girl Scouts have a cross-dresser in the front office. Ten years ago, Girl Scouts media relations officer Joshua Ackley was frontman for the “homopunk” band the Dead Betties. In publicity shots, he’s dressed in women’s clothing, and in music videos, he appears to be naked and feigning masturbation. The video for “Hellevator” portrays a woman being strangled in an elevator shaft while Mr. Ackley flashes a menacing grin. Today he issues press releases, posts news and views on the Girl Scouts’ blog, and tries to mollify moms who are concerned about Girl Scout ties with Planned Parenthood. In fact, it was Mr. Ackley who facilitated the Girl Scouts’ “no adults allowed” workshop at the United Nations - the workshop in which the Planned Parenthood sex brochure “Healthy, Happy, and Hot” was offered, although part of Mr. Ackley’s job is to deny it.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/16/say-no-to-girl-scout-cookies/

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

The questions and facts on this site expose changes within the Girl Scout organization which are increasingly connecting young girls to radical feminism, the promotion of sexual rights, LGBT issues, and the abortion rights movement.

www.100questionsforthegirlscouts.org

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HUMOR

"[A]ccording to the Mayan Calendar, the world is supposed to come to an apocalyptic end on December 21st. I am of two minds about the prediction. On the one hand, I'd hate to think that I might never see another Christmas or another birthday. On the other hand, if, by some awful turn of events or through some political skullduggery, Obama actually gets himself re-elected on November 6th, the end couldn't come soon enough for me."

-Burt Prelutsky

"During a recent interview, Michael Moore refused to credit capitalism for his commercial success in the film industry, saying 'socialist countries' have movies too. Yes. As well as jails full of dissident filmmakers."

-Fred Thompson

"President Obama reportedly agreed to give his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention in Charlotte at Bank of America Stadium. It's sure put the convention over budget. When you're sixteen trillion dollars overdrawn Bank of America's fees really add up."

-Argus Hamilton

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WISE WORDS

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

-Martin Luther King Jr.

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."

-Ben Franklin

"The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: Hate the man who is better off than you are. Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community. Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others. Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects -- his laziness, incompetence, improvidence, or stupidity."

-Henry Hazlitt

"You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path."

-Ronald Reagan

op ed review 1/15

2012-01-14T15:34:00.001-08:00

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night with a broad-based coalition of both conservative and moderate voters overwhelmingly motivated by their worries about America’s economic future and wanting above all to beat President Barack Obama in November. According to exit poll data, more than a third of voters said the quality that mattered most in deciding their vote was the candidate’s ability to defeat Obama. Romney won an overwhelming 62 percent of those voters. One surprising finding: Santorum, a Catholic, won only about 8 percent of self-identified Catholic voters….Romney, a Mormon, dominated among Catholics winning 45 percent of them.

http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/10/10102559-possible-implications-for-november-in-exit-poll-data

Republican circular firing squad? Mitt Romney is depicted as a financier “more ruthless than Wall Street” and a son of privilege responsible for firing thousands of workers in a film bankrolled by Newt Gingrich supporters set to be released today in South Carolina.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-10/gingrich-sponsored-attack-film-depicts-romney-as-ruthless-rich.html

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is “shocked” by Newt Gingrich’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s private-sector career. Giuliani asked, “What the hell are you doing, Newt? I expect this from Saul Alinsky!”

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48753

“Obama on Pace to Borrow $6.2Trillion in One Term—More Than All Presidents from Washington Through Clinton Combined”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-pace-borrow-62t-one-term-more-all-presidents-washington-through-clinton-combined

Size of U.S. debt is now the same as its entire economy: $15.23 TRILLION

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2084353/Size-U-S-debt-entire-economy--15-23-TRILLION.html#ixzz1j5Dm7zjL

The record of President Obama’s first three years in office is in…..Obama, with his throwback, old-fashioned, 1970s Keynesian economics, has put America through the worst recovery from a recession since the Great Depression.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2012/01/12/the-worst-economic-recovery-since-the-great-depression/

Poll: Americans, 2-1, Fear Obama's Reelection

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2012/01/09/poll-americans-2-1-fear-obamas-reelection

President Obama Monday evening collected a startling $45,000 per head at a Washington fundraiser to benefit his campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and Democratic state election efforts.

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/01/10/obama-hosts-fundraiser-45000-ticket/

President Obama recently signed a mysterious new law that proclaims all American soil is a "battleground," thereby allowing the president to indefinitely detain any American citizen without charges.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/01/the_top_5_reasons_obama_must_be_removed_as_commander-in-chief.html

“It's unclear exactly why, but the Department of Homeland has been operating a "Social Networking/Media Capability" program to monitor the top blogs, forums and social networks online. The purpose of the project is to "collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture,” whatever that means.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/01/homeland-security-monitoring-drudge-report-new-york-times/47300/

Conservatives Remain the Largest Ideological Group in U.S.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/120857/conservatives-single-largest-ideological-group.aspx

“U.S. Coast Guard called in to protect ships from “occupiers” and labor groups in Longview WA.”

http://tdn.com/news/local/protest-planned-for-first-ship-to-dock-at-egt-grain/article_e9b1d6e0-38d7-11e1-aac5-001871e3ce6c.html?oCampaign=hottopics#ixzz1jLvU5hdn

The Obamas threw an epic Halloween bash in 2009 and we’re only just now discovering how over-the-top the bash was — and how complicit media was in keeping the White House’s secret.

http://bigjournalism.com/dloesch/2012/01/09/how-medias-malpractice-with-obamas-halloween-bash-hurts-conservatives/

Here are some bizarre photos from the event:

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/01/09/the-only-known-photos-from-the-white-houses-2009-alice-in-wonderland-party/

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez mocked the U.S. and joked about directing 'a big atomic bomb' at Washington as they met in Caracas.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2084428/Well-set-sights-Washington-Chavez-Ahmadinejad-joke-attacking-U-S-big-atomic-bomb.html

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Ann Coulter 1/11

Earlier this week, Mitt Romney got into trouble for saying, "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me." To comprehend why the political class reacted as if Romney had just praised Hitler, you must understand that his critics live in a world in which no one can ever be fired -- a world known as "the government."

Romney's statement about being able to fire people was an arrow directed straight to the heart of Obamacare. Talking about insurance providers, he said:

"I want individuals to have their own insurance. That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. It also means if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. You know, if someone doesn't give me a good service that I need, I want to say I'm going to go get someone else to provide that service to me."

Obamacare, you will recall, will be administered by the same people who run the Department of Motor Vehicles. They will operate under the same self-paced, self-evaluated work rules that have made government offices the envy of efficiency specialists everywhere. And no one will be able to fire them -- unless they're caught doing something truly vile and criminal, such as stealing from patients in nursing homes.

Oops, I take that back: Government employees who rob the elderly also can't be fired. The Los Angeles Times recently reported that, after a spate of burglaries at a veterans hospital in California several years ago, authorities set up video cameras to catch the perpetrators. In short order, nurse's aide Linda Riccitelli was videotaped sneaking into the room of 93-year-old Raymond Germain as he slept, sticking her hand into his dresser drawer and stealing the bait money that had been left there. Riccitelli was fired and a burglary prosecution initiated. A few years later, the California Personnel Board rescinded her firing and awarded her three-years back pay. The board dismissed the videotape of Riccitelli stealing the money as "circumstantial."

But surely we'll be able to fire a government employee who commits a physical assault on a mentally disturbed patient? No, wrong again. Psychiatric technician Gregory Powell was working at a government center for the mentally retarded when he hit a severely disturbed individual with a shoe so hard that the impression of the shoe's sole was visible on the victim three hours later. A psychologist who witnessed the attack said the patient was cowering on the couch before being struck. Powell was fired, but, again, the California Personnel Board ordered him rehired….

Wherever there is government, there is malfeasance and criminality -- and government employees who can never be fired.

In 2010, 33 employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission -- half making $100,000 to $200,000 per year -- were found to have spent most of their workdays downloading Internet pornography over a five-year period. One, a senior lawyer at SEC headquarters in Washington, D.C., admitted to spending eight hours a day looking at Internet pornography, sometimes even "working" through his lunch hour. Another admitted watching up to five hours a day of pornography in his office. Not one of the porn-surfing employees of the SEC was fired……

These are the people who are going to be controlling your access to medical services if Obamacare isn't repealed. There will be only one insurance provider, and you won't be able to switch, even if the service is lousy (and it will be).

Obamacare employees will spend their days surfing pornography, instead of approving your heart operation. They can steal from you and even physically assault you. And they can never be fired. That's one gargantuan difference with "Romneycare" right there: If you don't like what your insurer is doing in Massachusetts, you can get a new one.

Now, wouldn't you like to be able to fire people who provide services to you?

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48749

Tony Blankley, a noted conservative commentator, Ronald Reagan speechwriter and former editorial page editor of The Washington Times, died late Saturday, leaving a legacy of significant analysis that bridged politics and culture with finesse, optimism and a sense of history. He was 63 and had been battling stomach cancer. “His father had been the accountant for Winston Churchill. Tony grew up with this deep passionate commitment, that I think he got from his dad, for freedom,” Said Newt Gingrich, “Tony was a very special person. He was more than a great professional. He was a great human being...”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/8/former-times-editorial-page-editor-tony-blankley-d/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"Government becomes big by having big ambitions for supplanting markets as society's primary allocator of wealth and opportunity. Therefore it becomes a magnet for factions muscular enough, in money or numbers or both, to bend government to their advantage. The left's centuries-old mission is to increase social harmony by decreasing antagonisms arising from disparities of wealth -- to decrease inequality by increasing government's redistributive activities. Such government constantly expands under the unending, indeed intensifying, pressures to correct what it disapproves of -- the distribution of wealth produced by consensual market activities. But as government presumes to dictate the correct distribution of social rewards, the maelstrom of contemporary politics demonstrates that social strife, not solidarity, is generated by government transfer payments to preferred groups. ... Not only does redistributionist government direct wealth upward; in asserting a right to do so it siphons power into itself.... Government uses redistribution to correct social outcomes that offend it. But government rarely explains, or perhaps even recognizes, the reasoning by which it decides why particular outcomes of consensual market activities are incorrect. ... People are less dissatisfied by what they lack than by what others have. And when government engages in redistribution in order to maximize the happiness of citizens who become more envious as they become more comfortable, government becomes increasingly frenzied and futile."

-George Will

"Mitt Romney's victory in Iowa is underappreciated. It was a well-run campaign and no one thought the day of the Ames straw poll, in August, that it would happen. The victory of Rick Santorum is a pundit-humbler: No one saw that coming even six weeks ago, except perhaps Mr. Santorum. The Iowa results almost perfectly reflect the Republican Party, which, roughly speaking, is split into three parts -- libertarians, social conservatives and moderate conservatives, who went for Ron Paul, Mr. Santorum and Mr. Romney respectively. The three parts of the party have been held together by agreement on three big issues: spending (which must be cut), taxing (which must be reformed), and President Obama (who must be removed). These three issues have force. Taxes and spending are the ties that bind, the top and bottom crust that holds the pie together. They're the reason the party is still the party, and not the splinter groups. The third element, Mr. Obama, is this year equally important. But there's no denying the Republicans are in a brawl, and it is becoming ferocious."

-Peggy Noonan

“Conservatives are fractured, split and mad at each other, brawling like Democrats. There’s only one man who can unify the movement. Fortunately for the Grumpy Old Party, Barack Obama is available, ready and eager. By mid-March, we’ll have muddled through most of the primaries and caucuses (cauci?), and by then the Republicans will know who their nominee will be, even if he won’t be crowned until the party meets in convention assembled in Tampa, Fla., in late August. Soon the cannibalism will abate, and the fun will begin. The venom will be aimed at the president, who will fire back”

-Wes Pruden

“There still exists a possibility that, come Jan. 20, 2013, we could have a Republican Senate and House, and a Republican president. But there is also a possibility that a Goldwater-Rockefeller-type family bloodletting could sunder the party and kick it all away.”

-Pat Buchanan

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ISLAM

Federal agents arrested a Florida man described as having extremist jihadist beliefs who wanted to blow up a target in Tampa and create "terror" in victims' hearts. "I want to do something terrifying," he said, according to a federal complaint, "like one day, one night, something's going to happen. Then six hours later, something else." Sami Osmakac, 25, was taken into custody after an FBI sting operation in which he tried to buy explosives, at least 10 grenades, Uzis and an AK-47, authorities said.

http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2012/jan/09/feds-man-planned-terrorism-attacks-in-tampa-ar-345330/

A group of Muslim men in the UK handed out leaflets calling for homosexuals to be 'punished' and given the death sentence.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2084684/Gay-people-death-penaltyFive-Muslim-men-trial-stirring-hatred-allegations-handed-homophobic-leaflets-near-mosque.html

A mother accused of murdering three of her daughters and her husband’s first wife in an honor killing recently testified in an Ontario court in Canada.

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/01/13/when-muslim-moms-kill/

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GLOBALONEY

It may be a mild winter down here, but record snow in Anchorage as Alaskan communities run out of shovels following 27ft snowfall.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2085892/Record-snowfall-Anchorage-Alaskan-communities-run-shovels-following-27ft-snowfall.html#ixzz1jLwKPqsx

Companies that supply gasoline and diesel fuel will pay $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury for failing to use a special type of biofuel additive that does not now exist. “Penalizing the fuel suppliers demonstrates what happens when the federal government really, really wants something that technology is not ready to provide.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/business/energy-environment/companies-face-fines-for-not-using-unavailable-biofuel.html

________________________________________________________________________

THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Conservatives are savaging Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry for their attacks on Mitt Romney’s years at the private-equity firm Bain Capital. The attacks from Gingrich and Perry, whose presidential campaigns are on life support, are meant to resonate in South Carolina, the next state on the GOP calendar and a place hit hard by the economic downturn. Yet in slamming Romney as a corporate raider, the two candidates fighting for their party’s right-wing might have done what Romney never seemed capable of: rallying conservatives around the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign. The influential Wall Street Journal editorial page denounced the criticism as “crude and damaging caricatures of modern business and capitalism” on Tuesday, saying that “desperate” GOP candidates “sound like Michael Moore.” Rush Limbaugh said Monday of Gingrich’s criticism that “you could have read this in an Occupy Wall Street flier.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/203581-right-wing-rips-gingrich-perry-for-attacks-on-romney-capitalism

Newt says there is “good” capitalism (Apple) and “bad”(Bain) capitalism. Huh???

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/newt-gingrich-and-confusion-about-capitalism/2012/01/12/gIQAbaJlvP_blog.html#pagebreak

Well, we saw this a mile away. In less than a day, the Newt Gingrich attack on capitalism has failed miserably to elevate Gingrich or to make Mitt Romney a less-desirable nominee. The reaction is nearly uniform. A longtime GOP campaign operative and Romney supporter told me, “Newt’s just dynamiting bridges behind him on the way out of town now. The entire party from top to bottom sees it. Everyone knew he was volatile, but using a Michael Moore hit-job on capitalism just confirmed it.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/gingrichs-attack-boomerangs/2012/01/09/gIQAJrzHmP_blog.html#pagebreak

A survey finds that 58 percent of Republican primary voters want more presidential choices, while just 37 percent say they are satisfied with the current field.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2012/01/10/obligatory_58_percent_of_republicans_want_another_presidential_choice

Ken Blackwell: “Why We Need A Constitutional Conservative Candidate”

http://cnsnews.com/node/497286

Gallup: Mitt Romney is the now the only candidate that a majority of conservative and moderate/liberal Republicans nationwide see as an "acceptable" GOP nominee for president. Conservative Republicans are more likely to say Romney would be an acceptable nominee than either Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/151961/Majority-Conservatives-Romney-Acceptable.aspx

History lesson: The Hundred Year GOP War. “Once upon a time… a long, long, loooonnnnnnnnng time ago in a political galaxy far away… the fight between Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich began. Specifically, it was 1912 -- a long 100 years ago -- when Republicans William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt launched the first intra-Republican Party war between conservatives and moderates. Or, as TR himself-styled the latter, "progressives." That first fight was a doozy.

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/01/10/the-hundred-year-gop-war/

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ARTICLES

“Why Boeing's Not in Kansas Anymore” In the end, the Pentagon's 'price-shootout' strategy to break the impasse over the battle for the Air Force refueling-tanker contract drove jobs out of Wichita.

http://www.industryweek.com/articles/viewpoint_why_boeings_not_in_kansas_anymore_26323.aspx?ShowAll=1

R. Emmett Tyrrell: “Thank You, God, For Tim Tebow”

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/01/12/thank-you-god

Chinese officials love their cars — big, fancy, expensive cars. A chocolate-colored Bentley worth $560,000 is cruising the streets of Beijing with license plates indicating it is registered to the Communist Party headquarters. The armed police, who handle riots and crowd control, have the same model of Bentley in blue. And just in case it needs to go racing off to war, the Chinese army has a black Maserati that sells in China for $330,000. "Corruption on wheels is an accurate description of this problem,"

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-corruption-on-wheels-20120108,0,4555295.story

______________________________________________________________________________

NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

GET YOUR FREE RIGHT WING HANDBOOK (PDF) NOW!

http://rightwinghandbook.com/

The top 19.5 quotes from the Republican debates

http://news.investors.com/Article/597110/201201090816/new-hampshire-romney-paul-santorum-gingrich.htm

Good framework for a platform: “Leaders of over 100 conservative organizations and tea party activists we have come together to reaffirm the principles of constitutional limited government and economic freedom and our belief in a strong national security and traditional American values. We advocate a principle-based strategy focused on four fundamental policy areas, each of which is supported by a majority of our fellow citizens: growth, family, strength, and accountability. We urge those seeking public office to pay particular attention to the following important issues:”

http://www.conservativehq.com/article/5930-conservative-consensus-2012

Impressed by the effectiveness of the liberal Center for American Progress, a group of conservative journalists and operatives are preparing to engage in their own sincerest form of flattery. The Center for American Freedom’s goal is to wage a well-funded assault on the Obama White House and the liberal domination of partisan online media. The group also will have a campaign-style war room directed by two former heads of the Republican National Committee’s impressive research operation. And CAF's media-monitoring unit will attack unfair reporting at MSNBC, just as Media Matters has done to Fox News.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71099.html#ixzz1ib7i8A1f

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LATE-NITE

Leno: According to the tabloids, John Edwards is going to marry his mistress, Rielle Hunter. Which means, of course, now he has to find a new mistress, and the whole thing starts again…..In Saturday night's Republican debate, Jon Huntsman spoke Chinese. Why Chinese? If you want to reach the American people, you’ve got to speak Spanish……A group calling itself the Courage Campaign is trying to win support for a millionaire tax by running an ad showing Kim Kardashian. They want the Kardashians to pay more. This is part of the plan to raise taxes on the dumbest 1 percent.

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WISE WORDS

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

-C. S. Lewis

"The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, unalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment."

-Ronald Reagan

op ed review 1/8/12

2012-01-07T14:35:00.001-08:00

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

One of the closest Iowa GOP caucuses in history: Romney edges Santorum by just eight votes:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2081986/Iowa-caucus-2012-Mitt-Romney-Rick-Santorum-deadlocked-Iowa.html

Michele Bachmann ended her bid after coming in 6^th.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/04/source-bachmann-will-acknowledge-the-reality-of-iowa-vote/

“President plans to cut half a million troops and says US can't afford to wage two wars at once”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/obama-the-us-can-no-longer-fight-the-worlds-battles-6285629.html

Strategy to include "building up and training foreign military."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/5/obama-takes-cutback-strategy-to-pentagon/

President Obama has indicated he is prepared to convey information about secret American missile defense technology to Russia.

http://bigpeace.com/jpollak/2012/01/04/obama-to-share-missile-defense-secrets-with-russia/

With the Pentagon pushing to cut costs, Boeing said on Wednesday that it would close its plant in Wichita, Kan., over the next two years and lay off many of the 2,160 workers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/business/boeing-to-shut-wichita-plant.html

President Obama made four recess appointments Wednesday, naming three new members to the National Labor Relations Board and appointing Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But the appointments may have been illegal, according to past administration statements.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/04/obama-makes-four-recess-appointments-of-dubious-legality/

Investor’s Business Daily: “President Obama's nonrecess "recess appointments" can't be excused as over-the-top electioneering. This president has crossed over from socialistic extremism into lawlessness and, perhaps, impeachability……Now we have the makings of a banana republic, where the rule of clearly written constitutional law is compromised by a ruler's subjective whim.”

http://news.investors.com/Article/596910/201201051902/obamas-banana-republic-abuse-of-power.htm

A group of anti-Obama Facebook groups are planning to fly an “Impeach Obama” Banner over this year’s Super Bowl.

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/01/06/groups-fly-impeach-obama-banner-super-bowl/

Gov. Chris Gregoire said Wednesday she wants Washington to become the seventh state in the nation to make gay marriage legal.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57352305/wash-governor-vows-to-legalize-gay-marriage/

“Take Two Minutes and Stand for Marriage: Call the Washington legislative hotline: 1-800-562-6000 Does it concern you that the legislature is considering redefining marriage? Tell them what you think.”

President Obama can claim partial credit for two of this year’s greatest product failures described in a top-seven disaster list prepared by Yahoo! Finance.”Worst Product Flops of 2011.” The No. 3 prize went to the battery-powered Chevy Volt, which had been touted by Obama as the green-tech model for future vehicles.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/04/obama-gets-two-awards-for-worst-product-failures-of-2011/

The Obama administration has embarked on a full-scale effort to “engage” with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/01/04/egypt-muslim-brotherhood-obama-engagement/

Well, that didn’t take long: Now that President Obama has brought US troops home — to fulfill a campaign vow — Iraq is devolving into political chaos verging on civil war.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/goodbye_iraq_13BiGjGEmeRVnnHrCCTyKI

Higher-ups within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are pressuring rank-and-file officers to rubber-stamp immigrants’ visa applications, sometimes while overlooking concerns about fraud, eligibility or security.

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/01/03/010312-news-immigration-strife-1-3/

According to its latest annual report, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) received $487.4 million in tax dollars over a twelve-month period and performed 329,455 abortions. The number of adoption referrals continued to decline, about 4900.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/planned-parenthood-s-annual-report-got-4874m-tax-money-did-329445-abortions

Employers are facing more uncertainty in the wake of a letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission warning them that requiring a high school diploma from a job applicant might violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/1/eeoc-high-school-diploma-might-violate-americans-w/

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Steve McCann 1/5/12

The left invariably frames its policy pronouncements under the mantle of so-called "rights" that only the government can guarantee. The implication being that all citizens are entitled and guaranteed, by virtue of living in the United States, to what is defined as a "right." Much of this current approach by the so-called Progressives stems from the State of the Union address delivered by Franklin Roosevelt in 1944 in which he laid out what is commonly referred to as the "Second Bill of Rights." It is a consolidation of socialist thinking begun in the mid-nineteenth century.

These tenets, never contemplated by the founding fathers as God-given rights, have nonetheless become the foundational principle of the Democratic Party. Democrats' successful attempt, along with the tacit concurrence of many in the Republican Party, to force this dogma on American society has entailed at least partial realization of the following:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment; and

The right to a good education.

While these are admirable goals for any society, it is impossible to guarantee these ideals. Yet when liberals frame and promote these goals as "rights," the expectation of much the populace is that these are in fact entitlements that every American should be guaranteed. It also becomes much easier for the politicians to manipulate the voters by paying lip-service to these "rights" and spending the country into oblivion in order to provide them.

Out of this mindset has come the minimum wage laws, the creation of innumerable federal agencies to regulate and monitor all aspects of business, 160,000 pages of federal regulations and a tax code exceeding 80,000 pages, Medicare and Medicaid, an overwhelming litany of various welfare and social programs, Social Security, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the creation of seven new presidential cabinet secretaries since Franklin Roosevelt, ObamaCare, federal intrusion into local education matters, the institution of public-sector unions, and the loss of liberty and individual freedom through the unfettered growth of government.

What has this cost the people of the United States? A society at odds with itself while bent on class warfare and self-satisfaction as the future of succeeding generations is made untenable. From a strictly financial perspective, the picture comes into focus by comparing the last fifty years (1962 to 2012, with 1962 inflation adjusted to 2012 dollars)…..It is projected that by 2016, if no changes are made, the total national debt will be over $21.5 trillion; the debt as a percent of GDP will be in excess of 113%, and overall government spending will exceed $8.0 trillion.

This scenario has come about as a direct result of injecting the Roosevelt "Second Bill of Rights" into the mainstream of American political thinking, coupled with the belief that the phenomenal economic growth the nation experienced over the past fifty years would go on in perpetuity. Therefore, the well-worn adage of "If the United States can (fill in the blank), why can't we provide (fill in the blank) for the American people?" became the standard justification for any new program necessary to guarantee these newly found "rights."

Unfortunately, this mindset is not limited to the Democratic Party. The mainstream of the Republican Party for much of the past fifty years has been aiding and abetting this philosophical approach by simply slowing down the spending but not making a case for why these policies and programs are not "rights," but goals a nation and its peoples should strive to achieve. The only God-given "rights" a government must guarantee are those enumerated in the Constitution: "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Not the assurance of, but the environment to allow all to pursue, happiness.

In 2012 the Republican Party elites, despite the dire future facing the country, have not come to grips with why their preferred candidate for the presidential nomination, Mitt Romney, said as recently as 2004 that "[f]air and affordable housing should be a right, not a privilege." In 2003, George W. Bush and a Republican-controlled Congress, including Rick Santorum, who is also a candidate for president, voted for and passed a massive increase in Medicare spending through a new prescription drug program. The debate leading up to passage revealed the frequent use of the words "rights" and "entitled" when it came to the needs of senior citizens.

The United States will never solve its fiscal or societal dilemmas until its citizens, led by principled leaders unafraid to tell the truth, understand what "rights" are and that life is inherently inequitable and difficult. Government, which is made up of fallible human beings, cannot make life fair and guarantee equal outcomes; it can only provide a framework to enable the individual to pursue those goal. The history of mankind has shown that to do otherwise condemns that nation to an inevitable collapse in which all its people pay the ultimate price.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/01/the_lefts_rights_scam.html#ixzz1iiAU7MI2

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

“That seems to leave Mitt Romney as the last man standing, the Castor Oil Candidate. He’s the heavy favorite Tuesday in New Hampshire, and a new Rassmussen poll shows him leading Rick Santorum by 29 percent to 21 percent. The rap on Mitt is that nobody loves him, and that may be so. But this is the year when nobody likes anybody, and the anybody that nobody likes most is Barack Obama. Another Rasmussen poll shows that a “generic” Republican candidate, meaning almost anybody, would defeat Mr. Obama. Is this the year they gave an election and nobody came?”

-Wes Pruden

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ISLAM

“If I wanted to murder my family or destroy a historic university and yet not give my faith a bad name in the press, I would convert to the Religion of Peace. Yep, if you belong to that lovely creed, you can snap on Christmas and execute your entire clan or burn down a famous college, and the media won’t say shizzle about your faith or your motivation for mayhem.”

http://townhall.com/columnists/douggiles/2012/01/01/the_santa_killer_was_a_religion_of_peacer

“Islamists….are having the best time of their lives since the last Caliphate. The news that the Obama Administration has brought in genocidal Muslim Brotherhood honcho Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to discuss terms of surrender for the transfer of Afghanistan to the Taliban caps a year in which the Brotherhood and the Salafists are looking up carve up Egypt, the Islamists won Tunisia’s elections, Turkey’s Islamist AKP Party purged the last bastions of the secular opposition and Libya’s future as an Islamist state was secured by American, British and French jets and special forces.”

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/43608

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GLOBALONEY

James Delingpole: “The money our governments have poured into the renewable (energy) Ponzi scheme has been squandered – and seen to be squandered – on such an epic scale that even the most purblind, state-addicted, left-leaning voter can have failed to notice that something isn't quite right here; that maybe next time it might be an idea to let the market pick energy winners rather than leave it to government, which patently hasn't a clue.”

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100127634/ha-ha-warmist-losers-for-you-the-war-is-over/

Lying With Numbers: Green Energy Edition

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/12/30/lying-with-numbers-green-energy-edition/

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THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Ann Coulter: “So it was a relief to see that when the first votes in the Republican primary were actually cast -- even in a caucus system ideal for zealots, fanatics and mobs -- reason prevailed. Romney won. Not a professional politician, Romney has created a lot of jobs and also knows how to fire people, something heretofore untried in the federal workforce, except briefly by Reagan. Having spent his life turning around companies in the private sector and not sitting on some Senate committee spending money, he'll get to Washington and be as shocked as the rest of us are at how taxpayer money is wasted even by conservative senators like Santorum. Iowa shows that Republicans are still the party of normal people -- normal people who are determined to defeat Obama…”

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48571

After the caucuses, Romney gave a speech with a theme worthy of a national election, contrasting a “merit-based” or “opportunity” society with Barack Obama’s promotion of an “entitlement society,” which Romney termed “a fundamental corruption of the American spirit”: “Once we thought ‘entitlement’ meant that Americans were entitled to the privilege of trying to succeed. But today the new entitlement battle is over the size of the check you get from Washington. And the only people who truly enjoy any real rewards are those who do the redistributing — the government.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/suddenly-a-fun-candidate/2012/01/04/gIQAnn0jaP_story.html

Gov. Chris Christie at a Romney rally in Iowa: "Let's be real clear. President Barack Obama came out to Iowa three years ago, and he talked to you about hope and change. Well, let me tell you, after three years of Obama, we are hopeless and changeless, and we need Mitt Romney to bring us back, to bring America back.”

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/12/30/christie_after_three_years_of_obama_we_are_hopeless_and_changeless.html

Eight votes don’t mean much, but even had Mitt Romney lost out to Rick Santorum in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, he would still have emerged as the big winner last night. He didn’t lock up the nomination, but he acquired a key strategic advantage. To beat Romney, you’ve got to get him one on one and win all the non-Romney votes out there.

http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/dick-morris/202253-romneys-huge-win-

“It's not true that the Republican Party is against the conservative movement, and wants to attain its demise. The two need each other. With over 40 percent of the voting public defining itself as "conservative" (warning: these self-definers might not all please or align with the movement conservatives), the movement gives the party a strong base to build on. But with only 40 percent in its corner, the movement needs the party to expand its appeal and build coalitions around it. One who knew this was President Reagan, whose two picks for vice president were George Bush the elder (and Sen. Richard Schweiker, a Pennsylvanian who was a great deal more liberal). Reagan also frequently spoke of his past as a Democrat. When conservatives get their own numbers over the 50 percent mark, they can afford to dismiss the Republican Party. Until then, they ought to face facts. It isn't true, either, that the Establishment's hit on Gingrich was a RINO-esque coup against the conservative movement, and an effort to kneecap the Right. For one thing, this Establishment includes Rich Lowry, Ann Coulter, Tom Coburn and others, a collection of squishes if ever there was one, along with useful idiots such as George Will.”

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2012/01/truth-and-untruth-about-gop-establishment/2057386#ixzz1iVMYALfE

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ARTICLES

If the individual states of our nation are a laboratory of democracy, then the states of Europe are the laboratory of socialism. What we are witness to in Greece, and eventually in Spain, Italy, and possibly France, is the painful death of the welfare state…..One of the first organs to fail is the socialized health care program. No matter its stated merits, a serious and impactful socialized medicine program is simply too expensive for any state to long sustain. The lesson here is for our nation to rid ourselves of ObamaCare entirely before it becomes embedded into the fabric of society, because it too will be rooted out by the forces of economics. It is easier to throw out the seed than uproot the plant, so the sooner this is done, the better. Anything less is a form a gross medical malpractice.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/european_health_care_economic_malpractice.html#ixzz1i8GQ5i6z

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. claims Jim Crow is returning. In a recent speech, Mr. Holder said that attempts by states to pass voter identification laws will disenfranchise minorities, rolling back the clock to the evil days of segregation. He said that a growing number of minorities fear that “the same disparities, divisions and problems” now afflict America as they did in 1965 prior to the Voting Rights Act. According to the Obama administration, our democracy is being threatened by racist Republicans. Hence, the Justice Department must prevent laws requiring a photo ID to vote from being enacted.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/30/voter-id-terrifies-democrats-will-obama-steal-the-/

Ryan Jerome was enjoying his first trip to New York City on business when the former Marine Corps gunner walked up to a security officer at the Empire State Building and asked where he should check his gun. That was when Jerome’s nightmare began. The security officer called police and Jerome spent the next two days in jail. The 28-year-old with no criminal history now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of three and a half years in prison. If convicted, his sentence could be as high as fifteen years. Jerome has a valid concealed carry permit in Indiana and visited New York believing that it was legal to bring his firearm.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/03/marine-faces-fifteen-years-behind-bars-for-unknowingly-violating-gun-law/#ixzz1iQKU81ui

John Nolte: Advice for Hollywood: Top 10 Ways Hollywood Can Win Its Audience Back

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2012/01/02/top-10-ways-hollywood-can-win-its-audience-back/

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71099.html#ixzz1ib7i8A1f

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LATE-NITE

Leno: According to the Mayans, the world is supposed to end in the year 2012. Are you buying that? When's the last time you even ran into a Mayan?........Experts say traffic deaths are down because the bad economy means more cars are being repossessed, and all the unemployment means we don't have as many people driving to work. So you know what that means? The White House economic plan is also their highway safety plan.

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WISE WORDS

"The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust."

-James Madison

op ed review 1/1/12

2011-12-31T16:01:00.000-08:00

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Speaking from her $4 million Hawaii vacation, Mrs. Obama wants to know: Do any of President Obama’s supporters have $3 to spare for his reelection? The obscene juxtaposition of the first lady on a $4 million vacation while asking what would have to be middle to low income earners for three bucks – is yet another example of lack of perspective the Obamas seem to be gaining while in power. And they blow $4 million – mostly taxpayers’ money – on a vacation, while wondering if the small people can come up with $3.

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/12/30/4m-vacation-michelle-seeks-3-backers/

Well what else would one wear on a $4m break? From $2,000 dress to $1,000 skirt, Michelle Obama's lavish Hawaii wardrobe revealed

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2079588/Well-wear-4m-break-From-2-000-dress-1-000-skirt-Michelle-Obamas-lavish-Hawaii-wardrobe-revealed.html

The Obama’s invited Associated Press photographers along capture their trip to Target and stage photo ops at PetSmart and Best Buy. Then the press was shooed away so they could enjoy a $260 meal at one of Honolulu’s best restaurants.

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/12/29/middle-class-warriors-dine-260/

It takes three cars to collect Prince Philip after major heart surgery, it takes forty cars to take President Obama to golf.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/8978739/The-Duke-of-Edinburgh-leaves-hospital.html

Just 55.3 percent of Americans between 16 and 29 have jobs.

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/30/have-the-youth-given-up-on-obama/

Is this what President Obama means by “spread the wealth around”? Your home value may be down, but “Delinquent borrowers facing foreclosure are learning that they can stay in their homes for years, as long as they're willing to put up a fight….the average time it takes to process a foreclosure has climbed to 674 days from 253 days just four years ago…”

http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/28/real_estate/foreclosure/index.htm

When asked an open-ended question by Gallup about which man living in the world today they admire most and whom their second choice would be, 32 percent of Americans surveyed this month would not name anyone, thus falling into a category that Gallup describes as "None/No opinion." President Barack Obama came in second to "None/No opinion" with 17 percent.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/none-beats-obama-gallup-s-most-admired-survey?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

La Pierre: “Obama administration officials are deliberately keeping gun owners in the dark about the president’s gun-control agenda as we head into next year’s national election, because administration officials know that when NRA members and gun owners show up at the polls en masse, anti-gun candidates lose. The Obama campaign’s strategy goes like this: Neutralize gun owners and NRA members as a political force in the upcoming national election by pretending to be pro-gun or at least not focused on pushing a gun-control agenda.”

http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/12/the-obama-administration-is-planning-a-second-term-attack-on-gun-rights/

Democrats on Tuesday lamented Sen. Ben Nelson's decision to retire rather than seek a third term in Nebraska, fearing the move could give Republicans a crucial victory in their effort to reclaim control of the chamber next year.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2079232/GOp-poised-regain-control-Senate-Democrat-Ben-Nelson-retires.html#ixzz1hnQkprdY

According to a new book, Four-star general-turned-CIA director David Petraeus almost resigned as Afghanistan war commander over President Barack Obama's decision to quickly draw down surge forces. Petraeus decided that resigning would be a "selfish, grandstanding move with huge political ramifications"

http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111229/NEWS/111229644

Washington State’s minimum wage is the highest in nation.

http://oregonbusinessreport.com/2011/12/chart-or-wa-minimum-wage-boost-leads-nation/

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Dr. Milton Wolf (President Obama’s cousin) 12/28

There’s something profoundly tragic about the failed presidency of Barack Obama. He was supposed to be a new kind of president, a man who embodied hope and would transcend petty politics and even race. Instead, we’re left with a downgraded America that is stagnating under the weight of its bloated government. As tragic as that alone is, even this is but a mere symptom of Mr. Obama’s larger fundamental failure: He simply does not trust the Americans who entrusted him with the presidency.

Most presidents, we believe, ascend to the Oval Office, but for the 44th president, the reverse seems true. Whatever majesty the White House can muster must rise to the grandiosity of Barack Obama. “We are the ones we have been waiting for,” said the man who writes autobiographies and later would claim to control the rise of the oceans.

As recently as this month, the food-stamp president of 13 million unemployed Americans declared himself the fourth-most-accomplished president in the history of the United States, eclipsing, in his own mind, President Reagan and even our nation’s father, George Washington. That in only three years. Barack the Magnificent won’t allow trivialities like $15 trillion debts or historic national credit downgrades dissuade him. Mr. Obama may care deeply for America, but he believes in only one thing: Barack Obama. And you are not Barack Obama.

Where once the American flag was hailed universally as the ultimate symbol of freedom, we who live under it have slowly but surely surrendered our liberties to an insatiable government. Consider our decline in just the past two generations. Our grandfathers, who stood against evil and shed their blood to stop it, never would have tolerated their own government becoming so totalitarian that it would dictate to them what car they should drive, what (if any) health insurance they should choose or even what light bulb they should buy.

Has our generation been worthy of earlier Americans’ sacrifices? Or have we surrendered their hard-fought victories in return for false promises of a big-government utopia that never materializes? Look no further than the politicians we elect. We have chosen as our president a man who believes we are unworthy, not of the previous generations’ sacrifices, but rather unworthy of freedom itself.

The sum total of Mr. Obama’s political philosophy, the unifying theme of his presidency, amounts to this: You cannot be trusted to live as a free American.

President Obama’s first major legislative action, the failed $787 stimulus, revealed his fundamental distrust of free Americans. A president who actually trusts his people would stand aside as they freely chose how to invest their capital and their labor. Mr. Obama, on the other hand, simply doesn’t believe you are smart enough to know what’s best for you. He commandeered nearly $1 trillion dollars from the taxpayers and redirected it as he saw fit. That he squandered billions on crony boondoggles such as the Solyndra solar-panel company or laughable efforts to measure the malt-liquor habits of Buffalonians and the like is evidence merely of his incompetence. That he trusted only himself to allocate taxpayers’ money in the first place - even if he had had the capacity to do so brilliantly - is evidence of a much larger offense: This president distrusts his subjects.

Obamacare is a modern-day monument to government arrogance. So untrustworthy are Americans that they cannot be allowed to decide for themselves whether to purchase health insurance or, if so, how much. Likewise, physicians are too untrustworthy to provide you with care without first consulting the government’s “best practices” guidelines. Obamacare would solve both.

Untrustworthy bankers would become angelic under the restrictions of Dodd-Frank. Untrustworthy bloggers would fall in line under the Stop Online Piracy Act. Untrustworthy manufacturers would create the only jobs worth having under the dictates of the National Labor Relations Board. And untrustworthy energy consumers would act responsibly only under the restrictions of “cap and trade” or at least a dictatorial Environmental Protection Agency.

For statists like Mr. Obama, no matter how bloated our government has become, America is forever just one legislative act away from utopia, if only those untrustworthy Americans would just get in line. The man who ran on hope has instead embraced a tragic pessimism that views all free Americans with disdain as either incompetent rubes in need of his salvation or unrighteous villains in need of his rules. Either way, Mr. Obama embraces a command-and-control government and rejects American freedom.

Mr. Obama’s distrust of Americans is his fatal flaw, and Republicans would be wise to exploit it fully. The GOP should resist the temptation simply to become a cleverer version of autocrats who pull the same powerful levers of government but in different directions. Instead, they should become the party that embraces liberty. If the 2012 election is between Republicans and Democrats or even between conservatives and liberals, Republicans might win. But if the election is instead between a bloated, ineffectual government that distrusts its subjects and Americans who still yearn to breathe free, Republicans will win. Only then will voters have a dramatic choice between a party that trusts Americans to be free and a party that does not.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/28/in-obama-he-trusts/

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ISLAM

Turns out the Santa killer in Texas was a Muslim.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/12/27/3619671/dads-text-message-referred-to.html

An Iranian woman whose sentence of death by stoning for adultery provoked an international outcry could be executed by hanging instead, the country's judicial authorities have indicated.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/26/sakineh-mohammadi-ashtiani-hang-iran?intcmp=239

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BOOKS

“Throw them all Out” by Peter Schweizer “….also offers a complete rundown of the actual extent of Barack Obama's "stimulus" program, which he characterizes as the biggest political payoff since the heyday of Boss Tweed. Reading this will make your blood boil. It should be a major topic of discussion in next year's campaign”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/throw_em_all_outand_good_riddance.html#ixzz1hqYBwuDz

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LEFTIST WATCH

In a Christmas break message to his party, Communist Party USA vice chair Jarvis Tyner has confirmed the vital importance of the build up to the 2012 elections to “set the stage for a new progressive era and for a socialist transformation.” Tyner draws clear right/left battle lines and the communist’s commitment to Party ‘friend’ President Barack Obama and to the Democratic Party cause.

http://biggovernment.com/tloudon/2011/12/28/us-communist-leader-progressive-change-is-closer-than-we-think/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BigGovernment+%28Big+Government%29

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GLOBALONEY

Long viewed as a remedy for the world's dependence on fossil fuels, the solar industry is dimming as makers of panels used to harness the sun continue to fall by the wayside.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204552304577117140511996840.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird

Seattle City Light's current residential marginal rate (its highest) is $0.0956 / kWh. Your $600 solar unit generates $4.78 worth of electricity a year.. Your $600 solar unit will pay for itself in only 125 years (sustainably today!)

http://soundpolitics.com/archives/015194.html

“The Obama administration defended its (Solyndra)actions based on an ideological attachment to “green energy,” a liberal faith bordering on mania. The administration pleaded not guilty by reason of sincerity; the environmental cause is so pressing, so dire, that its well-intentioned failure should be excused.”

-Washington Times

Seattle has banned plastic shopping bags to save the planet. “Reusable grocery bags can be a breeding ground for dangerous food-borne bacteria and pose a serious risk to public health, according to a joint food-safety research report issued today by the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University in California.”

http://www.uanews.org/node/32521

________________________________________________________________________

THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE

This election cycle has been very challenging for conservatives. Those of us on the political right would like to see the country move in the conservative direction. The citizens will be better off if it does. History proves this. It would be very disappointing if the political gains made by the Tea Party movement did not continue. But there are forces within the conservative movement itself which could hinder progress. If the Republican candidates spend all of their time tearing each other down, they will be using their energy for counterproductive purposes.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/m-the_forgotten_11th_commandment.html

Michelle Bachman: “Should I be fortunate enough to be elected by the American people to serve as president of the United States, I will have an ambitious agenda in the first 100 days that will send a signal to our country’s job creators and to the world that the days of socialist policies are over, that our free market is once again open for business and that we will once again lead the world as the true exceptional nation….My first act as president will be to repeal Obamacare and Dodd-Frank. No two pieces of legislation represent socialism and big government more than those, and both have greatly hindered the creation of jobs and capital necessary for economic recovery……I also will get government spending….In the first 100 days, I will submit legislation to repeal laws establishing the Departments of Education, Commerce and Energy and the Environmental Protection….I will honor the Constitution and send Congress a balanced budget in my first 100 days. If Congress passes an unbalanced budget, I will veto it.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/29/little-time-to-save-america/

Must read by Ann coulter:: “…..Only Michele Bachmann and Mitt Romney aren't trying to sneak through amnesty for illegal aliens…..That leaves us with Romney and Bachmann as the candidates with the strongest, most conservative positions on illegal immigration. As wonderful as Michele Bachmann is, 2012 isn't the year to be trying to make a congresswoman the first woman president.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48423

Mitt Romney has now jumped to his biggest lead ever over President Obama in a hypothetical Election 2012 matchup. It’s also the biggest lead a named Republican candidate has held over the incumbent in Rasmussen Reports surveying to date. The latest national telephone survey finds that 45% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the former Massachusetts governor, while 39% prefer the president.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/2012_presidential_matchups

In the Republican primary struggle to define the most reliably conservative presidential candidate, Mitt Romney has put his money where his mouth is. Romney has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Massachusetts conservative groups and to core Washington-based conservative think-tanks and publications, among them the Heritage Foundation research institute, the Federal Society legal interest group and a gala dinner for the National Review magazine website

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/romney-charity-used-for-1271078.html

Long-time supporters of National Review, the venerable conservative publication founded by the late William F. Buckley, have grown increasingly worried the outlet is becoming the house organ of the Republican establishment.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/23/inside-game/

Jonah Goldberg: Shrink from the left, shift to the right, in the fratricidal conservative fight. I’ve made a disturbing discovery: I am a member of the conservative “establishment.” I feel like Michael Douglas at the end of Falling Down: “I’m the bad guy?”

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/286697/establishment-moves-rightward-jonah-goldberg

The 2012 presidential race will be decided in a dozen swing states, and President Obama faces a hard road to victory in many of them.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/25/dozen-states-will-prive-pivotal-in-race-to-white-h/

The debates, coupled with the way cable TV and the Internet have amplified the distribution of information, have scrambled the race, fueled an unprecedented volatility and altered the attributes on which candidates are judged. One veteran Republican activist calls it a political version of American Idol.

http://www.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2011-12-27-campaign27_CV_U.htm?loc=interstitialskip

“7 Reasons Why Mitt Romney's Electability Is A Myth”

http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2011/12/27/7_reasons_why_mitt_romneys_electability_is_a_myth/page/full/

Krauthammer: "Embarrassing Candidates" Making Obama Look Presidential

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/12/28/krauthammer_embarrassing_candidates_making_obama_look_presidential.html

___________________________________________________________________________

ARTICLES

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/european_health_care_economic_malpractice.html#ixzz1i8GQ5i6z

Chris Christie: "Let's be real clear. President Barack Obama came out to Iowa three years ago, and he talked to you about hope and change. Well, let me tell you, after three years of Obama, we are hopeless and changeless, and we need Mitt Romney to bring us back, to bring America back," Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) said in Iowa today at a Romney rally.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/12/30/christie_after_three_years_of_obama_we_are_hopeless_and_changeless.html

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Must see video, explains all.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100126299/occupy-are-not-the-solution-they-embody-the-problem/

D’oh! “Stunned Scottish couple unearth '800-year-old' stone head in their garden... and it looks like Homer Simpson.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2077626/Doh-Stunned-couple-unearth-800-year-old-stone-head-garden--looks-like-HOMER-SIMPSON.html#ixzz1hZjvoHAl

____________________________________________________________________________

HUMOR

_____________________________________________________________________________

WISE WORDS

"There are two places only where socialism will work; In Heaven, where it is not needed, and in Hell, where they already have it."

-Winston Churchill

op ed review 12/25

2011-12-24T11:33:00.001-08:00

A JOYOUS CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

President Obama will be a one-term president, said nearly half of registered voters polled by The Hill. When it comes to grading his first term, 51 percent of polled voters said Obama was either a failure (37 percent) or not very successful (14 percent),

http://thehill.com/polls/200183-the-hill-poll-obama-more-likely-to-lose-than-win-again-say-voters

Now, 91 congressmen have ‘no confidence’ in Attorney General Eric Holder and believe he should quit

http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/20/now-90-congressmen-have-no-confidence-in-holder-or-believe-he-should-quit/#ixzz1hDmA8qCh

President Obama thinks he’s the fourth best president, ever.

http://www.indecisionforever.com/2011/12/20/barack-obama-is-the-fourth-best-president-ever-according-to-barack-obama/

Mr Obama and his family travelled separately to a 17 day vacation in Hawaii because he wanted to resolve the payroll tax cut issue before leaving Washington – and first lady Michelle didn't want to hang around waiting. The Hawaii Reporter estimates that the cost of travel in total is $3,629,622.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075958/With-days-separate-travel-price-Obama-s-Hawaiian-holiday-soars.html

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Texas Congressman Ron Paul are leading the pack in Iowa with just two weeks to go until Caucus Day. But large numbers of voters remain uncommitted and lots could change between now and January 3.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/iowa/2012_iowa_republican_caucus

House Republicans back down on a temporary extension of the payroll tax cut without extracting additional concessions from Democrats. “CBS Team Laughs at House GOP 'Cave,' ABC Plays Up Republican Defeat”

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2011/12/23/cbs-team-laughs-house-gop-cave-abc-plays-republican-defeat

Washington Post: “The agreement represented a remarkable capitulation on the part of House Republicans, who had two days earlier rejected such a deal with Democrats as the kind of half-measure that their new majority was elected to thwart…..a Christmas gift for President Obama..”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/boehner-2-month-tax-cut-would-hurt-small-businesses/2011/12/22/gIQA5ClZBP_story.html

You tax dollars at work: Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it – a total of $3 billion altogether, according to a new analysis. “(the) analysis included 18 government deals that included loans, rebates, grants and tax credits. The amount of government assistance does not include the fact that General Motors is currently 26 percent owned by the federal government.

http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/16192

BP has decided to draw the curtains on its solar business after 40 years, shutting down what was once earmarked as a key division in its quest to develop greener sources of energy. "We've tried and struggled to make money from it…"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204464404577112892260821850.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Another Wall Street genius runs a business aground and can't remember what happened to over a billion dollars of investor money. Forget that he was a U.S. Senator (D-N.J.) and governor of the great state of New Jersey.

http://www2.hernandotoday.com/news/hernando-news/2011/dec/18/haopino1-case-of-the-vanishing-billion-ar-335993/

It's been 30 years since gasoline took such a big bite out of the family budget. The typical American household will have spent $4,155 filling up this year, a record. That is 8.4 percent of what the median family takes in, the highest share since 1981.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45727242

The 63-foot official 2011 Capitol Christmas Tree includes a prominently displayed ornament paying homage to President Barack Obama, but includes no ornament readily visible to a person standing near the tree's base that uses the word “Christmas,” or includes an image of the Nativity, or bears the name or image of Jesus Christ.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/us-capitol-christmas-tree-pays-homage-obama-not-jesus

In a Sept. 14 policy memorandum, the chief of staff of Walter Reed National Medical Center, banned family members from bringing Bibles and other "religious items" when visiting wounded military personnel at the facility. After conservative groups got a copy of the memo and shared it with members of Congress, the military issued a statement saying it was rewriting the policy because it was “incorrect.”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/walter-reed-banned-family-members-bringing-bibles-wounded-warriors

As many as 5,000 attended a rally in a small Texas community to show their support for a Nativity scene under attack by a Wisconsin-based atheist group.

http://nation.foxnews.com/war-christmas/2011/12/19/thousands-rally-save-nativity

A Massachusetts school system banned Santa Claus from visiting schools this year over “religious” concerns.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/12/it-begins-school-bans-santa-over-religious-concerns/

Apparently, the FAA didn’t received the memo. “Safety inspectors have cleared the reindeer-powered sleigh known as 'Santa One' to fly on Christmas Eve so Santa Claus can deliver presents to children around the world”, the FAA announced on Thursday. “The satellite-based technology the elves have installed on Santa One will ensure that Santa stays safe and reaches all of his rooftops on time,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/faa-clears-santas-sleigh-fuel-efficient-christmas-eve-take

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn released his annual "Wastebook" highlighting what he's labeled some of the government's most wasteful spending items, including $113,000 for a video game preservation center and $765,000 to subsidize "pancakes for yuppies" in Washington. Coburn, a Republican who is known around Washington as "Dr. No" for his opposition to excess spending, said in a press release Tuesday that his "Wastebook 2011" details the "most egregious ways your taxpayer dollars were wasted" -- items he claims total more than $6.5 billion in "unnecessary" spending.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/20/coburn-releases-wastebook-detailing-more-than-65-billion-in-unnecessary/#ixzz1h7KIRmJu

Statistics show that Americans worry less about inequality than they used to. In a Dec. 16 Gallup poll, 52 percent of Americans called the rich-poor gap “an acceptable part of our economic system.” Only 45 percent said it “needs to be fixed.” This is the precise opposite of what Gallup found in 1998, the last time it asked the question, when 52 percent wanted to “fix” inequality. “In short, the public wants fairness but retains a healthy skepticism about the federal government’s ability to achieve it…..Gallup’s numbers do not bode well for President Obama’s effort to win reelection as a soak-the-rich populist.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-simplistic-view-of-income-inequality/2011/12/19/gIQAeVmR5O_story.html?hpid=z4

An actress and former international beauty pageant queen had a heated run-in with actor Sean Penn at LAX. “I said 'You're a communist a**hole.’" She added that she later regretted using profanity, but is not sorry. Alonso's criticism of Penn stems from comments he made on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" in which he praised Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.

http://wmal.com/Article.asp?id=2357687

_______________________________________________________________________________

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Capitalism and the Right to Rise: In freedom lies the risk of failure. But in statism lies the certainty of stagnation.

By JEB BUSH

Congressman Paul Ryan recently coined a smart phrase to describe the core concept of economic freedom: "The right to rise."

Think about it. We talk about the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, the right to assembly. The right to rise doesn't seem like something we should have to protect.

But we do. We have to make it easier for people to do the things that allow them to rise. We have to let them compete. We need to let people fight for business. We need to let people take risks. We need to let people fail. We need to let people suffer the consequences of bad decisions. And we need to let people enjoy the fruits of good decisions, even good luck.

That is what economic freedom looks like. Freedom to succeed as well as to fail, freedom to do something or nothing. People understand this. Freedom of speech, for example, means that we put up with a lot of verbal and visual garbage in order to make sure that individuals have the right to say what needs to be said, even when it is inconvenient or unpopular. We forgive the sacrifices of free speech because we value its blessings.

But when it comes to economic freedom, we are less forgiving of the cycles of growth and loss, of trial and error, and of failure and success that are part of the realities of the marketplace and life itself. Increasingly, we have let our elected officials abridge our own economic freedoms through the annual passage of thousands of laws and their associated regulations. We see human tragedy and we demand a regulation to prevent it. We see a criminal fraud and we demand more laws. We see an industry dying and we demand it be saved. Each time, we demand "Do something . . . anything."

As Florida's governor for eight years, I was asked to "do something" almost every day. Many times I resisted through vetoes but many times I succumbed. And I wasn't alone. Mayors, county chairs, governors and presidents never think their laws will harm the free market. But cumulatively, they do, and we have now imperiled the right to rise.

Woe to the elected leader who fails to deliver a multipoint plan for economic success, driven by specific government action. "Trust in the dynamism of the market" is not a phrase in today's political lexicon. Have we lost faith in the free-market system of entrepreneurial capitalism? Are we no longer willing to place our trust in the creative chaos unleashed by millions of people pursuing their own best economic interests?

The right to rise does not require a libertarian utopia to exist. Rather, it requires fewer, simpler and more outcome-oriented rules. Rules for which an honest cost-benefit analysis is done before their imposition. Rules that sunset so they can be eliminated or adjusted as conditions change. Rules that have disputes resolved faster and less expensively through arbitration than litigation. In Washington, D.C., rules are going in the opposite direction. They are exploding in reach and complexity. They are created under a cloud of uncertainty, and years after their passage nobody really knows how they will work.

We either can go down the road we are on, a road where the individual is allowed to succeed only so much before being punished with ruinous taxation, where commerce ignores government action at its own peril, and where the state decides how a massive share of the economy's resources should be spent. Or we can return to the road we once knew and which has served us well: a road where individuals acting freely and with little restraint are able to pursue fortune and prosperity as they see fit, a road where the government's role is not to shape the marketplace but to help prepare its citizens to prosper from it.

In short, we must choose between the straight line promised by the statists and the jagged line of economic freedom. The straight line of gradual and controlled growth is what the statists promise but can never deliver. The jagged line offers no guarantees but has a powerful record of delivering the most prosperity and the most opportunity to the most people. We cannot possibly know in advance what freedom promises for 312 million individuals. But unless we are willing to explore the jagged line of freedom, we will be stuck with the straight line. And the straight line, it turns out, is a flat line.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203893404577100330414585006.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

_______________________________________________________________________________

FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"One of the oldest economic maxims, 'if you subsidize something, you get more of it' has created the next trillion dollar-plus bubble for which American taxpayers will be on the hook. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education discovered that published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, while median family income rose 147 percent. What is driving those costs? The idea that every high school graduate should attend college, and that government -- meaning taxpayers -- will guarantee loans made to those students. ... [A]s college tuition costs increase, the government makes more funding available to students to pay for them. The more funding available -- guaranteed by the taxpayers, so that colleges never face the possibility of a loan default -- the more they can raise their tuition costs without ever having to worry about getting stiffed. ... If college tuition, aided and abetted by government subsidies, continues to almost triple relative to family income, at some point the amount of debt incurred to obtain a college degree will surpass the additional income one may derive from it. Considering that any attempt to reign in government's role in facilitating these runaway costs is inevitably characterized as 'depriving needy students of critically needed funds,' the trend is likely to continue. Or at least it will until the bubble pops, exactly like the government-abetted housing bubble did. Are Americans ready for another trillion dollar bailout precipitated by irresponsible government?"

-Arnold Ahlert

"There's a basic rule in business: If you tell people that a product is free, they treat it like it has no value. We've spent the last 70 years in this country telling our poor that money and property are free. Of course, they don't attribute any value to money or property, then. Of course, they treat others' property as though it's valueless, to be stolen or taken at whim. The liberalism of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson and President Obama hasn't turned thieves into sudden lovers of big-band swing. It's turned more and more Americans into thieves. Don't blame poverty. Blame morality. And blame a government and a society that have abandoned the notion of responsibility for juvenile delinquency."

-Ben Shapiro

"It's a shame Kim Jong-Il died before Obama ever got a chance to bow down to him or to even apologize to him. It's the one guy that Obama didn't get to apologize to or bow down to. How did our State Department ever let that happen? ... Obama did promise -- I'm not making this up -- Obama did promise that he would meet with Kim Jong-Il during one of the 2008 debates. Maybe Kim died holding his breath waiting for that to happen."

-Rush Limbaugh

_________________________________________________________________________

ISLAM

A British court on Wednesday apparently made legal history -- ordering an out-of-wedlock Muslim baby adopted out to prevent it from suffering an "honor killing."

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/12/british_court_orders_baby_adopted_to_prevent_honor_killing.html

Vice President Biden says the Taliban is not our enemy “per se”.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/biden-taliban-se-not-our-enemy_613579.html

_________________________________________________________________________

BOOKS

“Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV” by Ben Shapiro. The inside story of how the most powerful medium of mass communication in human history has become a propaganda tool for the Left The story—told in their own words—of how television has been used over the past sixty years by Hollywood writers, producers, actors, and executives to promote their liberal ideals, to push the envelope on social and political issues, and to shape America in their own leftist image.

http://www.amazon.com/Primetime-Propaganda-True-Hollywood-Story/dp/0061934771/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324666338&sr=8-1

_______________________________________________________________________

LEFTIST WATCH

With a record 46 million Americans now receiving food stamps and rampant abuse resulting in what the Wall Street Journal calls a “food stamp crime wave,” Nation reporter Lizzie Ratner believes that “deep racism” is “at the heart of conservative food stamp critiques”

http://biggovernment.com/whall/2011/12/19/nation-reporter-deep-racism-at-the-heart-of-food-stamp-reform/

Frances Fox Piven, one of the co-authors of the Cloward-Piven strategy to overwhelm the state with millions of additional welfare claimants, has published an article in the Nation calling for the Occupy Wall Street movement to re-invigorate itself by recruiting the poor. In a telling admission that Occupy does not, in fact, represent the poor, Piven criticizes both liberals and unions for their repeated use of the term “middle class” in their political campaigns.

http://biggovernment.com/tag/cloward-piven-strategy/

Seattle City Council Bans Plastic Shopping Bags (again)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017051358_plasticbag20m.html

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) has sent a letter to the mayor of Warren, Mich., threatening legal action against the city unless the mayor allows an “equal time” anti-religion sign next to a nativity scene in the city hall lobby.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/21/atheist-group-threatens-to-sue-if-city-fails-to-put-up-an-anti-religion-sign/

Although he later made it clear he was joking, CBS Sports columnist Gregg Doyel said Sunday, "If [Tim] Tebow had more class he’d just kill dogs or get drunk and run over somebody and maybe end their life." Appearing on CNN's Reliable Sources, Doyel also said of the Denver Broncos quarterback, "He's got a lot of nerve talking about some higher power in his life"

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/12/18/cbs-sportswriter-if-tebow-had-more-class-he-d-just-kill-dogs-or-get-d#ixzz1gzdAIW00

__________________________________________________________________________

GLOBALONEY

Ronald Reagan was right. Well, nearly. One of the former US president's most ridiculed statements was that acid rain came from trees. Up to half the acidity in rainfall over the US in summer does indeed come from volatile compounds given off by plants – just not the compounds Reagan was thinking of. New satellite data shows more than 100 million tonnes of formic acid is produced naturally each year – far more than thought and 10 times the total from all known sources.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21298-trees-do-bear-some-blame-for-acid-rain.html

I think most people would be surprised by the extent to which misguided local environmental regulations have become a major source of environmental damage in the United States.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2011/12/17/when_environmental_regulations_promote_ecological_devastation.html

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson announced a new rule on power plant emissions, that lawmakers say could cost approximately 1.65 million jobs over an eight year period and threaten the reliability of the electric grid.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/epa-releases-new-rule-threatens-165m-jobs/269721

The UN’s global warming unit, IPCC, is so discredited that “it is not clear how much additional benefit there is to having a huge bureaucratic scientific review effort under UN auspices” said Ken Caldeira in announcing that he is resigning as one of its leading authors on the next IPCC report.

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/48534

________________________________________________________________________

THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE

A poll of likely Iowa caucus-goers released this week shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leading with 25 percent support, followed by Texas Congressman Ron Paul at 20 percent and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 17 percent.

http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/12/22/rasmussen-poll-romney-paul-gingrich-are-top-3-in-iowa/

Mitt Romney said he has no plans to reverse the Obama administration’s repeal of the pro-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for the military.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/romney-not-planning-reversing-don-t-ask-don-t-tell

Requiring people to have health insurance is "conservative," GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney told MSNBC on Wednesday, but only if states do it.

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/politics-elections/200793-romney-doubles-down-on-argument-that-state-health-mandate-is-conservative

Mitt Romney needs a lot more of the headlines like the one he got in the Drudge Report yesterday: “Romney: I’d Deport Obama’s Uncle.” It made me feel pretty good, too, since I’m the one who asked (Mitt) the question on my radio show Wednesday afternoon. Think of it as my Christmas present to you, Mitt…..The fact that the president of the United States has not one, but two relatives who came into the country illegally tells you absolutely everything you need to know about Barack Obama….”

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1390641

Des Moines Register: “Sobriety, wisdom and judgment. Those are qualities Mitt Romney said he looks for in a leader. Those are qualities Romney himself has demonstrated in his career in business, public service and government. Those qualities help the former Massachusetts governor stand out as the most qualified Republican candidate competing in the Iowa caucuses.”

http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/12/17/23902/

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday that he's "delighted" the Des Moines Register endorsed his opponent Mitt Romney. "The Manchester Union Leader, which is a reliably conservative newspaper, endorsed me," he told Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation." "The Des Moines Register, which is a solidly liberal newspaper did not endorse me." He said those endorsements indicate who the "real conservative" in the race is.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2011/12/gingrich-on-dmr-romney-endorsement-delighted-107914.html

Rick Perry’s new Iowa television ad leans heavily on images of the military, church crosses, flags, the candidate himself – and a flash to former President George Bush. The 60-second spot, entitled “President of Honor,” will appear on broadcast and cable stations throughout the Christmas holiday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypXu2IU68CU

Texas Gov. Perry vowed that if he is elected president he will only appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices who support the Second Amendment rights of gun owners.

http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/12/19/perry-in-iowa-i-will-only-appoint-pro-gun-judges-to-u-s-supreme-court/

Will New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez be the next vice president? A conservative former prosecutor, Martinez is the most popular of the new Republican governors elected last fall, with an approval rating at or above 50 percent in a traditionally liberal state.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/22/martinez-mentum-popular-new-mexico-governor-could-be-on-vp-shortlist/#ixzz1hMGUuNRV

Yes, that Rice: Condi. She’s rested and ready - and buff. America’s first black female secretary of state is quietly positioning herself to be the top choice of the eventual Republican presidential nominee, ready to deliver bona fide foreign-policy credentials lacking among the candidates. The 56-year-old has recently raised her profile, releasing her memoir in November and embarking on a monthlong book tour.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/18/curl-one-president-please-with-a-side-of-rice/

Ann Coulter: “Every few years, heinous Democratic policies — abortion, gay marriage, affirmative action, Hillarycare, Obamacare, to name a few — compel previously uninvolved Americans to leap into politics……Newly active right-wingers would do well to spend a little more time quietly reading up on Newt’s political career, and a little less time shaking their fists at some imaginary “Establishment” — which now apparently includes Michael Savage, Mark Steyn, Christine O’Donnell, Ramesh Ponnuru, Glenn Beck and me, all of whom oppose Newt’s candidacy. (By the way, guys, are we car-pooling to the next Trilateral Commission meeting?”

http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/21/gingrich-is-as-unelectable-as-he-is-delusional/

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won a straw poll hosted by the Tea Party Patriots Sunday. The Tea Party Patriots announced the results Monday following a conference call held late Sunday when more than 23,000 supporters across the country voted on their selection for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/19/gingrich-wins-tea-party-patriots-straw-poll/

As gay Army soldier Bradley Manning’s treason trial continues at Fort Meade, Maryland, the support he has received from Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has been curiously ignored by the major media. . Paul has called Manning, a crossdresser with acknowledged mental problems, a “hero” and “patriot” for stealing government secrets and providing them to WikiLeaks.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/43373

Dorothy Rabinowitz: “What Ron Paul thinks of America” “There is among some supporters now drawn to Dr. Paul a tendency to look away from the candidate's reflexive way of assigning the blame for evil—the evil, in particular, of terrorism—to the United States. One devout libertarian told me recently that candidate Paul "believes in all the things I do about the menace of government control, and he's a defender of the Constitution—I just intend to take what I like about him……"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204552304577112761003972028.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

___________________________________________________________________________

ARTICLES

“America is by far the most charitable country on Earth. We give about 2% of our national income to charity; most other countries give 1% or much less..”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204464404577116710690931258.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_BelowLEFTSecond

Here’s the chart: numbers one thru four: USA, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand

https://www.cafonline.org/pdf/1057C_WorldGvingMap2011_131211.pdf

“Central Control Caused USSR's Collapse — And May Cause Ours” The biggest reason the communist empire fell was centralization. More than anything else, the Soviet Union of the Khrushchev-Brezhnev era strove for central control. Gosplan in Moscow made the major decisions, and nearly every field of human endeavor was organized for the administrative convenience of these central planners. A single corporation owned every airplane, from jumbo jets to crop dusters. One massive plant manufactured almost every civilian automobile. A government ministry even told restaurants what recipes to use. In the decade before its collapse, the Soviet Union had the world's largest bank, the biggest newspaper and the largest hotel. And it didn't stop there.

http://news.investors.com/Article.aspx?id=595799&p=1

Stossel: “President Obama says his health care "reform" will be good for business. Business has learned the truth. Three successful businessmen explained to me how Obamacare is a reason that unemployment stays high. Its length and complexity make businessmen wary of expanding. Mike Whalen, CEO of Heart of America Group, which runs hotels and restaurants, said that when he asked his company's health insurance experts to summarize the impact of Obamacare, "the three of them kind of looked at each other and said, 'We've gone to seminar after seminar, and, Mike, we can't tell you.'

http://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2011/12/21/creators_oped/page/full/

Obamacare and the Ratchet Theory of History “…the idea that history is like a great ratcheted wheel that the enlightened must painstakingly turn, notch by notch, in order to haul the ignorant masses up out of brutality and chaos is inherent in the liberal project…”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/m-obamacare_and_the_ratchet_theory_of_history.html

George Will on Sunday marvelously told liberal economist Robert Reich something that many conservatives have been dying to say for years. During a fascinating Right vs. Left debate on ABC's This Week, after Reich predictably pined for higher income tax rates to solve all that ails us, Will struck back with the line of the weekend, "You are a pyromaniac in a field of strawmen"

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/12/18/george-will-demolishes-robert-reich-you-are-pyromaniac-field-strawmen

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Ronald Reagan Christmas address, 12/23/81

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU0tuah-x7M

Top 10 Christmas Gifts for Leading Liberals

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48322

Bozell: Cultural Winners and Losers, 2011

http://townhall.com/columnists/brentbozell/2011/12/23/cultural_winners_and_losers_2011/page/full/

GOP presidential election endorsement tracker.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/endorsements-tracker-game-2012/

NORAD Santa tracker.

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/

The incredible tsunami of 'wave' clouds over Alabama that had all eyes on the skies

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2076755/Giant-tsunami-shaped-clouds-Alabama-Incredible-wave-clouds.html

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HUMOR

"In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukkah' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukkah!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!'"

-Dave Barry

"In a new HBO series, Jane Fonda will play a cable news CEO who manipulates news stories for her personal gain, no matter who gets hurt. Not very creative. She already did something like that back in '72."

-Fred Thompson

"The FDA is now warning people not to eat raw cookie dough this holiday season. Is that how fat we're getting in this country? Our ovens are too slow now?"

-Jay Leno

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WISE WORDS

"Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas."

-Calvin Coolidge

“Christmas means so much because of one special child. But Christmas also reminds us that all children are special, that they are gifts from God, gifts beyond price that mean more than any presents money can buy. In their love and laughter, in our hopes for their future lies the true meaning of Christmas.”

-Ronald Reagan

op ed review 12/18

2011-12-17T08:28:00.000-08:00

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

An overwhelming 64 percent of people surveyed said big government was the biggest threat to the country, a new Gallup poll shows.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70318.html#ixzz1gRZjGlHd

With thousands of families struggling to raise funds for Christmas, you would think the Obamas might manage a little thriftiness. But the first family has announced they will fly to their luxury Hawaii vacation on separate flights--at a cost of $100,000 to the taxpayer.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075066/Obama-family-jet-Hawaii-separately-cost-100-000-taxpayer.html

Only last month: “Obama executive order seeks to cut unnecessary travel”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/11/09/executive-order-promoting-efficient-spending

Obamacare will throw 100,000 people out of work come January as private insurers are ordered to trim their office staff by as much as a quarter. This comes at a time when federal mandates pile up, increasing the workload for companies.

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/47845

The real unemployment rate is 11 percent

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/wonkbook-the-real-unemployment-rate-is-11-percent/2011/12/12/gIQAuctPpO_blog.html

Child homelessness up 33% in 3 years

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-12-12/homeless-children-increase/51851146/1?loc=interstitialskip

President Obama trails in head-to-head match-ups against both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in 12 key swing states that he won in 2008, according to a USA Today-Gallup poll released on Tuesday.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/polls/199031-poll-gop-rising-in-key-swing-states

Members of the House of Representatives have been told they can’t wish constituents a "Merry Christmas" if the mailing is paid for with tax dollars.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/congressmen-cant-say-merry-christmas-mail/261466

Atheists put ads on Seattle buses for holiday season

http://www.nwcn.com/news/135574403.html

Senator John Kerry (D., Mass.) is in Egypt, meeting with leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood — the Islamist organization whose goals are to destroy Israel, “conquer Europe” and “conquer America”

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/285730/john-kerry-reporting-duty-muslim-brotherhood-andrew-c-mccarthy

The number of arrests for illegal immigration by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection are down 53% since Barack Obama was elected president.

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/47877

The Obama presidential campaign is launching an effort to collect Republican email addresses by inviting its supporters to submit information about their Republican associates to the Obama 2012 website. ???

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/12/14/obama-campaign-collecting-republican-emails/

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that the Keystone XL oil pipeline project would “only” create five to six thousand jobs and that Republican efforts to force a vote on the project were just a “stick in the eye” to Democrats.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/hoyer-job-creating-keystone-pipeline-stick-eye-house-democrats

Congress has overturned the new rules that were to have banned sales of traditional incandescent light bulbs beginning next year.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/16/congress-overturns-incandescent-light-bulb-ban/

What a concept! In the UK, a new immigration rule requires people to be able to speak English before coming to Britain to live with their spouse.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075061/Ban-immigrants-speak-English-legal-A-victory-common-sense.html

The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would decide whether Arizona's tough law cracking down on illegal immigrants can take effect, a case arising from the fierce national debate on immigration policy ahead of next year's presidential election.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/12/us-usa-immigration-arizona-idUSTRE7BB0XJ20111212

The signatures of Adolf Hitler and Mickey Mouse will be counted in the effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, so long as they are properly dated and bear a Wisconsin address.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/14/signatures-of-hitler-mickey-mouse-acceptable-on-scott-walker-recall-petitions/

EU bureaucrats were mocked last month for ruling that drinking water does not prevent dehydration. Now they’ve ruled that prunes do not have a laxative effect.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8955046/Prunes-are-not-a-laxative-EU-rules.html

_______________________________________________________________________________

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Editors of National Review 12/14

The hard-fought presidential primary campaign is obscuring the uncharacteristic degree of unity within the Republican party. It has reached a conservative consensus on most of the pressing issues of the day. All of the leading candidates, and almost all of the lagging ones, support the right to life. All of them favor the repeal of Obamacare. Most of them support reforms to restrain the growth of entitlement spending. All of them favor reducing the corporate tax rate to levels that will make the U.S. a competitive location for investment. Almost all of them seem to understand the dangers of a precipitate withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, and of a defense policy driven by the need to protect social spending rather than the national interest. Conservatives may disagree among themselves about which candidate most deserves support, but all of us should take heart in this development — and none of us should exaggerate the programmatic differences within the field.

Just as heartening, the White House seems winnable next year, and with it a majority in both houses of Congress, so that much of this conservative consensus could actually become law. A conservative majority on the Supreme Court, a halt to the march of regulation, free-market health-care policies: All of them seem within our grasp. But none of them is assured, and the costs of failure — either a failure to win the election, or a failure to govern competently and purposefully afterward — are as large as the opportunity.

We fear that to nominate former Speaker Newt Gingrich, the frontrunner in the polls, would be to blow this opportunity. We say that mindful of his opponents’ imperfections — and of his own virtues, which have been on display during his amazing comeback. Very few people with a personal history like his — two divorces, two marriages to former mistresses — have ever tried running for president. Gingrich himself has never run for a statewide office, let alone a national one, and has not run for anything since 1998. That year he was kicked out by his colleagues, the most conservative ones especially, who had lost confidence in him. During his time as Speaker, he was one of the most unpopular figures in public life. Just a few months ago his campaign seemed dead after a series of gaffes and resignations. That Gingrich now tops the polls is a tribute to his perseverance, and to Republicans’ admiration for his intellectual fecundity.

Both qualities served conservatives well in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Gingrich, nearly alone, saw the potential for a Republican takeover of Congress and worked tirelessly to bring it about. Even before the takeover, Gingrich helped to solidify the party’s opposition to tax increases and helped to defeat the Clinton health-care plan. The victory of 1994 enabled the passage of welfare reform, the most successful social policy of recent decades.

Gingrich’s colleagues were, however, right to bring his tenure to an end. His character flaws — his impulsiveness, his grandiosity, his weakness for half-baked (and not especially conservative) ideas — made him a poor Speaker of the House. Again and again he combined incendiary rhetoric with irresolute action, bringing Republicans all the political costs of a hardline position without actually taking one. Again and again he put his own interests above those of the causes he championed in public.

He says, and his defenders say, that time, reflection, and religious conversion have conquered his dark side. If he is the nominee, a campaign that should be about whether the country will continue on the path to social democracy would inevitably become to a large extent a referendum on Gingrich instead. And there is reason to doubt that he has changed. Each week we see the same traits that weakened Republicans from 1995 through 1998: I’d vote for Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform; Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform is radical right-wing social engineering; I apologize for saying that, and no one should quote what I said because I was wrong; actually, what I said was right all along but nobody understood me. I helped defeat Communism; anyone who made money in the ’80s and ’90s owes me; I’m like Reagan and Thatcher. Local community boards should decide what to do with illegal immigrants. Freddie Mac paid me all that money to tell them how stupid they were. Enough. Gingrich has always said he wants to transform the country. He appears unable to transform, or even govern, himself. He should be an adviser to the Republican party, but not again its head.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/285787/winnowing-field-editors?pg=2

Tony Blankley has a different view: “….what kind of candidate is most likely to make sense of the terrible events and forces that weigh down our country; be capable of vividly describing our plight and what needs to be done; and convince the public that he or she has the intelligence, courage, experience and sheer willful capacity to force events favorably to America's historic interests and needs? As I have chosen to phrase that question, the question answers itself. It is the GOP candidate currently at the top of the polls -- my former boss, Newt Gingrich. But most Washington politicians don't see it that way. They see a conventional, close election -- not a bold, historic lunge by the voters to save the country. They suggest Mitt Romney may be better positioned to stitch together a safe campaign that noses out Obama by a point or two, or comes up short by a point or two. He might be that candidate. …Thus, Romney received the endorsement of the GOP political types -- congressmen and former congressmen. Now they are doubling down on their early bet and are out telling reporters that Gingrich was never much of a leader and never got much done.…Curious. I remember most of them enthusiastically following his leadership year after year as the Republican whip from 1989-1994. It was the most successful congressional opposition movement since Benjamin Disraeli formed the modern Conservative Party in Britain in the mid-19th century. And after the GOP took back the House for the first time in 40 years (and the Senate, too, by the way), Gingrich's four years as speaker proved to be the most productive, legislative congressional years since at least 1965 to 1967, and they were led by Lyndon B. Johnson from the White House. Working against -- and with -- Democratic President Bill Clinton, we passed into law most of the Contract with America, welfare reform, telecommunications reform (which ushered in the modern cell phone and Internet age), we had the first balanced budget since before the Vietnam War, we cut taxes and lowered unemployment to under 5 percent.

http://townhall.com/columnists/tonyblankley/2011/12/14/newts_past_and_future_leadership/page/2

Jonah Goldberg “Mitt Romney is still the sensible choice if you believe these are rough, but generally sensible, times. If, however, you think these are crazy and extraordinary times, then perhaps they call for a crazy, extraordinary — very high-risk, very high-reward — figure like Gingrich. This helps explain why Newtzilla is so formidable. In order to stop him, you need to explain to very anxious GOP voters that the times don't require him.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-goldberg-stopnewt-20111213,0,3798874.column

_______________________________________________________________________________

FROM OTHER COLUMNS

“The only actual winner so far is Barack Obama, from the perch in the catbird seat reserved for incumbents. He has set out his campaign theme unmolested, wheeling the big artillery pieces into position for the coming class war between “us” and “them.” This is the kind of campaign we’ve never before had in America, setting the “rich” against the “poor,” but it’s the only way Mr. Obama can hope to win, and after that execute the grand scheme for making America an irreversible welfare state—Greece, Italy and Upper Slobbovia on the Potomac. The politics of resentment has never worked here, and maybe it won’t this time. But Mr. Obama intends to give it the old college try.”

-Wes Pruden, Washington Times

"In the first month of his presidency, Barack Obama averred that if in three years he hadn't alleviated the nation's economic pain, he'd be a 'one-term proposition.' When three-quarters of Americans think the country is on the 'wrong track' and even Bill Clinton calls the economy 'lousy,' how then to run for a second term? Traveling Tuesday to Osawatomie, Kan., site of a famous 1910 Teddy Roosevelt speech, Obama laid out the case. It seems that he and his policies have nothing to do with the current state of things. ... Responsibility, you see, lies with the rich. ... For Obama, these rich are the ones holding back the 99 percent. ... A country spending twice as much per capita on education as it did in 1970 with zero effect on test scores is not underinvesting in education. It's mis-investing. ... In Kansas, Obama lamented that millions 'are now forced to take their children to food banks.' You have to admire the audacity. That's the kind of damning observation the opposition brings up when you've been in office three years. Yet Obama summoned it to make the case for his reelection! Why? Because, you see, he bears no responsibility for the current economic distress. ... This is populism so crude that it channels not Teddy Roosevelt so much as Hugo Chavez."

-Charles Krauthammer

"Last week in Boston, a seven-year-old boy named Mark got into a fight with a bully. The bully put his hands around the boy's throat and began to squeeze. That's when Mark fought back; he kicked his aggressor right in the family jewels. In a normal society, we'd celebrate Mark. Throw him a ticker tape parade or something. ... But in Boston, Mark was charged with sexual assault. ...[The left] treat all violence as equal ... and so they recommend counseling and training, as though a little classroom instruction can solve boys' basic biological urge toward aggression......The fact is that males' aggressive instinct is good for the world, if channeled properly. Without it, Hitler goes unpunished. Without it, millions continue to starve in the Soviet Union. The key to the aggressive instinct is training it to act along proper moral lines, not eradicating it."

-Ben Shapiro

“America is in economic distress. The crisis threatens our national security because a nation that is weak economically cannot be strong in other ways. If only we had an untapped source of wealth, a nest egg we could crack and use to grow the economy, create jobs, raise Americans’ standard of living while providing the resources needed to defend the nation from its enemies. Oh wait: We do. Where is it? It’s is in the ground, under the seas, in our garbage and our agricultural waste.”

-Clifford May

"Ultimately, what voters must decide is this: Does a presidential candidate's personal flaws rise (or fall) to a level that inhibits his ability to do the job of president? Put another way, if you are about to have surgery, do you care if the doctor is a cad, or do you care more whether most of his patients are alive and well? With the multiple challenges Americans face and with the choices presented to us, if the country is to be made well, voters may just have to sacrifice the ideal for the pragmatic."

-Cal Thomas

_________________________________________________________________________

ISLAM

A Saudi Arabian woman was beheaded for "practicing witchcraft.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/woman-beheaded-saudi-arabia-practicing-witchcraft-report-article-1.990253

A jealous husband in Bangladesh chopped off his wife's fingers because she began studying for a degree without his permission.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075435/Husband-chops-wifes-fingers-stop-studying-degree.html#ixzz1go4rClZd

Islamic militants in Pakistan have destroyed over 5000 schools in a five year period.

http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=129692

Forty-five students, among them young children, were discovered held in chains in a basement when police raided an Islamic seminary in Pakistan. The male students, some said to be as young as 12 but appearing even younger, were found in what amounted to a dungeon. Led barefoot from their prison, captives told officers they had suffered regular beatings and been hung upside down as a form of punishment.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2073562/Forty-students-held-basement-chains-police-raiding-Islamic-seminary-thought-Taliban-training-centre.html

A 26 year-old gunman screaming “Allahu Akbar” opened fire on random drivers yesterday in Hollywood until he was shot dead by police.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/12/sudden-jihad-syndrome-hollywood-edition-gunman-shoots-random-drivers-while-screaming-allahu-akbar-video/

_________________________________________________________________________

BOOKS

Suzanne Fields: These are difficult and perilous times for boys. A distorted culture has robbed them of virtue to measure themselves against. The good once associated with masculinity in a patriarchal society has been tossed out with the bad. This, alas, is the era of feminist ascendency. Bill Bennett’s new book, "The Book of Man," is an anthology of literary forces riding to the rescue of a culture in a "crisis of manliness."

http://townhall.com/columnists/suzannefields/2011/11/18/when_manly_virtue_died

_______________________________________________________________________

LEFTIST WATCH

For the low, low price of $2,500, one lucky bidder and five friends are set to have dinner cooked for them by Weather Underground leaders Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. The auction was hosted by the Illinois Humanities Council (IHC), a non-profit founded — and still funded — by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Bidders at 32Auctions.com were invited to, “Enjoy an unforgettable and scintillating dinner for a party of six cooked by veteran activists and educators Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. Fascinating conversation over a meal,” the website promises, “is the agenda for this special evening.”

http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/11/dinner-with-terrorists-2500/

DNC Chair channels Baghdad Bob: “Unemployment Has Not Gone Up Under Obama”

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/12/12/dnc_chair_denies_unemployment_has_gone_up_under_obama.html

"Occupy" A Media Creation Unworthy Of Time’s Person Of The Year” Unlike the far larger and more politically potent Tea Party movement, which Time often ignored, Occupy is the thin gruel of radicalism writ large by unwarranted media attention. It has no demands other than socialist utopia, has elected no one, has failed to draw support from middle Americans and has proven itself mainly a public nuisance. Had the media not showered Occupy with attention, it wouldn't be news at all.

http://news.investors.com/Article.aspx?id=595134&p=1

Police deployed stun grenades and pepper spray to disperse protesters at the Port of Seattle, where several hundred anti-corporate demonstrators briefly blockaded a major shipping terminal and then swarmed toward another.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/12/seattle-port-occupy-protests.html

__________________________________________________________________________

GLOBALONEY

SolyndraGate was no isolated case of corrupt government misspending. The U.S. Navy was just forced to buy 450,000 gallons of biofuels from an Obama-connected firm at an outrageous $16 per gallon.

http://news.investors.com/Article/594703/201112131858/navy-biofuel-gate-latest-obama-green-scam.htm

Conferees at the climate talks in Durban, South Africa feared that they would close the conference with no deal, but on Sunday in the waning moments after a heated debate, they were able to stitch together a package that the chair said "saved tomorrow, today." That's lofty rhetoric for an arrangement that is less about preventing global warming than it is about redistributing global wealth.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/12/climate_change_debate_about_global_wealth_redistribution.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Canada on Monday became the first country to announce it would withdraw from the Kyoto protocol on climate change, dealing a symbolic blow to the already troubled global treaty.

http://articles.boston.com/2011-12-13/news/30512498_1_kyoto-commitments-climate-talks-climate-change

________________________________________________________________________

THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE

A few days ago, Newt Gingrich looked to be rolling to the nomination and Mitt Romney seemed headed for an inevitable loss. But the last debate before the Iowa caucus ended with the former speaker headed back to the pack. Gingrich had some strong moments in Sioux City but the beating he took on his consulting work for Freddie Mac from Michele Bachmann brought into focus the questions about his record that many Republicans have been ignoring in recent weeks. Mitt Romney recovered from his poor performance last Saturday and was back to the steady, confident debater

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/12/16/debate-iowa-gingrich-romney-last-dance/#more-778077

Ann Coulter: “…of the available candidates, Romney is by far the most conservative, tied with Michele Bachmann. And he has the proven ability to win in a state like Massachusetts.”

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/12/13/coulter_romney_the_most_conservative_candidate_in_gop_field.html

George Will: Newt Gingrich provided on Monday redundant evidence for the proposition that he is the least conservative candidate seeking the Republican presidential nomination: He faulted Mitt Romney for committing acts of capitalism

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/newt-gingrich-commits-a-capital-crime/2011/12/13/gIQAjvVhsO_story.html

Tea Party favorite Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina endorses Mitt. Romney, saying he is "someone who knows what it's like to lead and make a decision, not just to take a vote”

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/dec/16/report-sc-gov-haley-endorse-romney-today/

Brent Bozell: The media elite and the Republican Ruling Class are remarkably similar in their political projection for the coming year. Journalists spent the entire year savaging every fast-rising challenger to Mitt Romney. The GOP’s power pundits became equally agitated at the sniff of a conservative anywhere near the top of the GOP pack. It’s the odor of extremism that both the elites in the media and the GOP have detested – always. So here we are, on the cusp of the election year, and both these groups have one primary target: Newt Gingrich.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-bozell/2011/12/13/bozell-column-newt-vs-ruling-class

Rudy Giuliani says Gingrich could be 'stronger' than Romney.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/15/giuliani-gingrich-most-electable-best-connects-to-reagan-democrats-video/

A devastating video from 2002 has emerged showing Mitt Romney declaring himself as a non-partisan “moderate” and “progressive” candidate as he was courting the liberal Massachusetts electorate in 2002. “I think people recognize that I’m not a partisan Republican. That I’m someone who is moderate and that my views are progressive and that I’m going to go to work for our senior citizens,"

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/mitt-%E2%80%98progressive%E2%80%99-%E2%80%98conservative%E2%80%99-27-months/254051

Newt Gingrich’s past endorsement of an individual mandate has drawn fire from conservatives. But that's not his only health care heresy. In 2008, Gingrich made the case for another idea that became part of Obamacare and, in due time, the focus of right-wing attacks. Worse still, at least from the standpoint of conservatives, he did so by writing an op-ed for The New York Times. Oh, and did I mention he had some help? Gingrich had a co-author: John Kerry, the Democratic senator and former presidential nominee.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/98507/newt-gingrich-health-care-comparative-effectiveness-rationing#.Tuir_lS9Gdw.twitter

Mitt Romney’s campaign dug into the video vault to replay Newt Gingrich’s moment on the couch with Nancy Pelosi, urging Americans to take global warming seriously.

http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/12/14/mitt-romney-replays-newt-and-nancy-sittin-on-a-couch/

MSNBC daytime anchor Thomas Roberts seizes on Mitt Romney's use of the phrase "Keep America American." The network claims the phrase plays homage to the Ku Klux Klan slogan of "Keep America American."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/12/14/msnbc_likens_romney_to_the_kkk_with_his_keep_america_american_slogan.html

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ARTICLES

Frank Miele: For the sake of simplicity, let’s just say that the Tea Party represents the originalists of American history, the Founding Fathers, and that Occupy Wall Street represents the progressivists, the Rebellious Adolescents who think they have a better idea. For the Tea Party, the idea of “reform” means to restore the country to its original shape — to re-form that which has been distorted by manipulation, forgetfulness and good intentions gone wrong. To the Progressives, the idea of “reform” means literally to re-shape the nation into a new form altogether, to transform that which they believe has never worked in the first place. If you think that America and the Constitution never worked in the first place and need to be “re-shaped,” then you join Barack Obama, the Progressive Movement and Occupy Wall Street in their task of “fundamentally transforming” America. If, on the other hand, you think that the original concept of America as sculpted by our Founding Fathers has never been surpassed, then you should stand for the Constitution, stand with the Tea Party, and work to restore our fundamental greatness. It’s not too late.

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/opinion/columns/frank/article_7c43f68c-239d-11e1-b727-001871e3ce6c.html

Solyndra, Lightsquared, and now Solayzme are all companies that are closely connected to the Obama campaign and all got government money. While the Obama Administration has been attacking Republicans as "crony capitalists" and using an army of left-wing pseudo-journalists to make the attacks, the Obama Administration has been rewarding campaign friends with government contracts. In Barack Obama's America, he, not the marketplace, picks the winners and losers.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48174

“Boeing Pays it’s Ransom:” The Obama administration was saved from yet another pre-election embarrassment late last week when the National Labor Relations Board dropped its suit against Boeing’s efforts to build an aircraft manufacturing plant in South Carolina….. Of course, Boeing in the end was held hostage until it ransomed its North Charleston plant by approving a new four-year contract with the Machinists in Washington State where the firm also promised to build a new version of the 737 aircraft. And, not surprisingly, the Machinists dropped their bogus charges……Anywhere else it would be called thuggery. But under this administration — with its every move favoring its organized union base — it’s called justice.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view/2011_1212boeing_pays_its_ransom/

“Tim Tebow: God's Quarterback” He has led the Denver Broncos to one improbable victory after another—defying his critics and revealing the deep-seated anxieties in American society about the intertwining of religion and sports.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203413304577084770973155282.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop

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ACTIVISM

Columnist Dick Morris has several online petitions worth signing: Call for the resignation of Eric Holder and demand that Kagan recuse herself from the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare.

http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/

Shop at Lowe’s. Lowe's Home Improvement has found itself facing a backlash after the retail giant pulled ads from a reality show about American Muslims. The retail giant stopped advertising on TLC's "All-American Muslim" after a conservative group known as the Florida Family Association complained, saying the program was "propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-lowes-threatened-with-boycott-for-yanking-ads-from-show-about-muslims-20111212,0,113957.story

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Interesting chart, “Obama’s decline”

http://decoded.nationaljournal.com/2011/12/where-obama-has-slipped.php

Ninety floors... and counting: The breathtaking views from One World Trade Center (and there's still 14 stories to go)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2074825/Ninety-floors--counting-The-breathtaking-views-One-World-Trade-Center-theres-14-storeys-go.html#ixzz1giEHivy4

Bergdorf Goodman goes to the dogs for its annual holiday video. BG Films presents "Unleashed," starring some of New York's most charismatic characters who invade the store in search of perfect gifts for their owners.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vb8kGLfhpM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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WISE WORDS

"Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own."

-Thomas Jefferson

"There is just one condition on which men can secure employment and a living, nourishing, profitable wage, for whatever they contribute to the enterprise, be it labor or capital, and that condition is that some one make a profit by it. ... It cannot be done by law, it cannot be done by public ownership, it cannot be done by socialism. When you deny the right to a profit you deny the right of a reward for thrift and industry."

-Calvin Coolidge

"This spirit of love, as simple as a spoken greeting and as profound as a changed heart, seems so full that it ceaselessly looks for ways to express its power. We respond to it best when we share it with family, friend or stranger -- when we recognize that, under the sheltering evergreen branches of God's love, all are family and no one is a stranger. When we do these things, when we visit the lonely or help those in need, when a family is reconciled, Christmas is real and present, and that is truly what makes it 'the most wonderful time of the year.'"

-Ronald Reagan

op ed review 12/11

2011-12-10T10:20:00.000-08:00

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

President Obama declared that republican supply-side economics is a failure.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-attacks-republican-economic-theory-its-never-worked/2011/12/06/gIQAx1EJaO_print.html

"an administration official conceded the White House had no actual data to back up the president's assertion..."

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2011/12/osawatomie-obama-launches-assault-facts-and-history/1983026

The Washington Post fact checker: “ three Pinocchio’s for Obama’s Kansas speech.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/obamas-kansas-speech-some-suspect-facts/2011/12/06/gIQAUU45aO_blog.html?hpid=z1

Remember Fast & Furious? Now the DEA is laundering drug money for Mexican drug cartels.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/12/dea_now_laundering_drug_money.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#ixzz1fxP1c4cm

President Obama made GQ magazine's list of "The 25 Least Influential People Alive," along with Tiger Woods's ex-caddie, the prosecutor who couldn't convict Casey Anthony, and MTV tart Tila Tequila. Obama "should be the most transformational figure of the century," GQ carped, "Instead, he wields all the power of a substitute teacher at night school."

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/now-its-obama-irrelevant/238921

President Obama’s uphill battle to re-election is getting steeper. A report released today by the centrist think-tank Third Way showed that more than 825,000 voters in eight key battleground states have fled the Democratic Party since Obama won election in 2008

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/voters-flee-democratic-party-in-key-swing-states/

Remember the Food Stamp Lobsters and Porterhouse Steaks that supposedly impoverished-to-near-starvation wards of the state purchased in Michigan using food stamps? In September came the report of Food Stamp Big Macs, Tacos, Pizzas And Fast Food Of Your Choosing, as the Obama administration OK’d using food stamps for purchases at fast food joints. This came a month after the Obama administration vetoed plans by New York State to outlaw using food stamps to buy sodas.

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/47416

Sesame Street Muppet Touts Entitlements: 'I Get A Free Breakfast And Lunch'...

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/sesame-street-muppet-pitches-government-dependence-free-food-school

The latest new federal entitlement: In the last decade, Medicare has spent more than $240 million of taxpayer money on “Male Vacuum Erection Systems,” and will surpass a quarter of a billion dollars this year for costs since 2001. And these are only the costs for external devices, which don’t include implantable devices or Viagra.

http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2011/12/06/quarter-billion-taxpayer-dollars-spent-penis-pumps

A Seattle woman who is receiving welfare assistance from Washington State also happens to live in a waterfront house on Lake Washington worth more than a million dollars.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/seattle-welfare-recipient-lives-million-dollar-home-161252749.html

The average US household lost $21,261 of net worth this summer, the largest decline in family wealth in nearly three years. The drop in the third quarter, tied to falling home values and a cratering stock market, is the second straight quarter of eroding wealth.

http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/money/average-us-family-lost-21k-in-6-months-due-to-property-values-stock-market-ncxdc-120911#ixzz1g3FSGFKV

The House on Thursday approved legislation Republicans said was aimed at ensuring the EPA cannot regulate so-called "farm dust."

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/198217-farm-dust-bill-approved-in-house

Staffers with Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) have been on a binge of embarrassing behavior including insults lobbed by legislative aides at the Congressman himself and accounts of on-the-job drinking, all broadcast for the world to see on via Twitter. 'Dear taxpayers - I hope you don't mind that I'm watching YouTube clips of Nirvana at my government job. Thanks, you're the best'...

http://www.nwdailymarker.com/2011/12/tweets-from-congressional-staffers-describe-on-job-drinking-in-office-of-congressman-larsen/

Immigrant-rights groups and liberal members of Congress have called on the Obama administration to halt deportations until a broad new immigration law can be passed to legalize most illegal immigrants.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/3/us-lawmakers-push-better-treatment-illegal-immigra/

Even in a far-left city such as San Francisco no one listens to progressive talk radio anymore. Green 960 will be replaced by a conservative talker KNEW, and KNEW’s old spot on the dial 910 AM will be relaunched as KKSF AM, another conservative talker. Both stations are owned by Clear Channel, which was obviously tired of bleeding money on the previous failed enterprise.

http://bigjournalism.com/dloesch/2011/12/05/another-liberal-talk-radio-failure-san-fran-lib-station-replaced-with-conservative-talk/

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Steve McCann 12/8

I just returned from the belly of the beast, Washington, D.C. There is not a more parochial or insular city in the country. While there, I had a conversation with two members of what can be described only as the Republican establishment, one in the print media and the other a K Street lobbyist. In short order, the conversation turned to Newt Gingrich and his surge to the top of the ladder.

There is no one more reviled in Washington than Newt. If anyone believes he is part of the establishment, he or she is mistaken. In fact, it would not be a terribly great stretch to say some in the Republican wing of the governing class would prefer to see Obama re-elected than Newt in the Oval Office. However, the vast majority of this class are now in a panic as the preordained choice, Mitt Romney, is truly threatened by the rabble in flyover country constantly looking for anyone but Romney. These people have settled, so it seems, on Gingrich. The increasing volume of commentary of the Beltway insiders and attendant vitriol toward Newt has become a near-hysterical tidal wave rehashing and embellishing Newt's supposed failings and personal "baggage."

Much of this stems from his days as House minority leader and later speaker, when he ruffled many feathers as his, at times, abrasive and assertive personality was on full display. Newt was relentless, with a near-imperious and dictatorial demeanor, in getting many of his and other conservative ideas into law, and he never failed to expound on whatever came to the forefront of his mind. One must realize that there are no more tender egos than those in Congress, in the Washington media, or in the upper reaches of the entrenched bureaucracy. They are all always the smartest in any room (regardless of party affiliation) and do not take kindly to being told otherwise or denigrated by someone who refused to become absorbed by and subservient to the dominant Washington culture.

Thus, many cannot fathom why Newt, of all people, would be in first place in the polls. Since last November, once the midterm elections were over, it was assumed by all sides that Romney would be the one standing at the end, once those fools in the Tea Party movement and other conservative groups, either fiscal or social, had their favorite choices dashed upon the rocks of incompetence, sleaze, ignorance, and innuendo. For the most part, that scenario has indeed come to pass -- except that those same fools are now turning to someone the establishment never thought possible: Newt Gingrich.

This election is no longer about Republicans vs. Democrats, but about the Governing Class vs. the rest of the country. The Republican base has been sold down the river every election cycle since 1988. They have, nontheless, supported whoever was nominated for president. The Bushes turned out to be simply enablers of Democratic economic and spending policies, at best slowing down but never reversing the course that has put the country today on the precipice of failure. The last GOP nominee was unwilling to take on his opponent in a no-holds-barred manner, while the Democrats continuously and successfully demeaned and slandered him. In either case, there was never any passion or commitment to conservative principles these nominees claimed to have during the primary process.

The Republican failures of the past 23 years culminated in the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and a dramatic acceleration toward national insolvency and societal upheaval.

The people who care about America are no longer willing to just settle for a candidate who is a mirror-image of all those who have been chosen since 1988. They want someone who is unafraid, willing to take the blows and deliver them with equal force, with a record of actual accomplishments and the tenacity so vital to reversing the course the nation is presently on. Barack Obama will have the better part of a billion dollars at his disposal to wage a scorched-earth campaign and to do or say anything to win re-election; the rank and file of the conservative movement know this and understand the need for a brawler to take on Obama's glass jaw.

Is Newt the ideal candidate? No. But of all those now on stage, he alone has exhibited those essential traits.

That is why, despite the best efforts of the media and the Democratic and Republican establishment, Newt is surging in the polls. I believe that Newt, or any other non-Romney candidate chosen, can win against Obama, who will be forced to defend his record by someone who will be unafraid to highlight it as well as make an issue of his character flaws and radical ideological make-up. It is not in Romney's or the Republican establishment's mindset to take off the gloves in the general election. Perhaps the Republican establishment will win in the end and Mitt Romney will be the nominee -- but it will not be without a fight, and the Republican sector of the governing class will be shaken to its core. If Romney secures the nomination and loses or wins the presidency and the nation does not experience a 180-degree course-reversal, then 2016 will mark the end of the Republican Party. These words were not greeted warmly by my two acquaintances, but as it has been often said: the times are a-changin. Those now safely ensconced within the Beltway are being sent a warning. It is not the deep emotional desire to choose Newt Gingrich that has changed the landscape of the nominating process in 2012, but what he represents -- a threat to the establishment.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/newt_and_the_governing_class.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#ixzz1fxRRgqEH

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"[G]rowing local governments are crushing street vendors. The city of Atlanta, for example, has turned all street vending over to a monopoly contractor. In feudalist fashion, all existing vendors were told they must work for the monopoly or not vend at all. ... In Hialeah, Fla., if you operate a flower stand too close to a flower store or if you're not constantly moving, you can be arrested. ... Raul Martinez, the mayor when the law passed, defended the rule. 'You don't want to have everybody in the middle of the streets competing for space on the sidewalk without some sort of regulations. In the city of Hialeah, we're not overregulating anybody.' He says one purpose of the law is simple fairness: Street vendors don't pay property taxes. Brick-and-mortar stores must. ... Mayor Martinez argued that 'you create an unfair advantage when you allow that vendor selling in the front of a flower shop to sell the same flowers that the flower shop sells, and to sell them at a much reduced price. That's unfair competition.' ... If government destroys all the paths out of poverty, the welfare state will look like the only way to help the poor. Maybe, in addition to helping entrenched interests, that's the bureaucrats' goal."

-John Stossel

"The secular virus has been spreading for years in public and private zones. Shopping malls, which would go broke without Christmas, try their best to attract Christmas shoppers without mentioning Christmas. Hence, we get generic 'happy holidays' and color schemes with blue and silver snowflakes cold enough to freeze the socks off Grandfather Frost. He's the former Soviet Union's made-up patron saint who took over giving gifts to children after the commissars bumped off St. Nicholas. It's rumored (just starting it now) that the Christmas-phobic ACLU tacks up portraits of Grandfather Frost in back offices to inspire them during that darned holiday season that Dare Not Tell Its Name. Driving the whole mess is the growing fear Not to Offend. The war on Christmas, part of the ongoing trend to eradicate anything Christian in the public square, is also driven by a profound misreading of the First Amendment, which says 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' To the ACLU and other pro-atheist groups, that means the government must be hostile to any public expressions of belief that offend atheists. That makes atheism the de facto official religion, something the Founders went out of their way to prevent."

-Robert Knight

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BOOKS

If a mad scientist were to repair to his laboratory to design a machine that would make white liberals uncomfortable, that machine would be Thomas Sowell, whose input is data and whose output is socioeconomic criticism in several grades, ranging from bemused observation to thorough debunking to high-test scorn—all of which are represented in “The Thomas Sowell Reader”.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/thomas-sowell-peerless-nerd/#.TuIDC0i6Rp4.twitter

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ISLAM

Many Afghan women find themselves suffering from violence and abuse, with virtually no legal protection. Recently, authorities sentenced Gulnaz, a 21 year old rape victim, to 12 years in prison for adultery. “I am obliged to marry him, even though I can’t look at him,” 19-year-old Gulnaz said about the man she claims raped her. Gulnaz has been in an Afghan prison cell for about two years. She says she only has one choice if she wants to bring dignity back to her family and tribe: She must marry the man who forced his way into her home, tied her up, and then raped her.

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/07/9252482-afghan-woman-ill-marry-rapist-even-though-i-cant-look-at-him

“Creeping Halal'': Britain's most popular sporting venues, pubs, schools, and hospitals are making ''secretively prepared'' halal meat (the meat of animals ritualistically slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law) without the public's knowledge.'' So prevalently was this tactic employed that some schoolchildren had no non-halal choices beyond a ''vegetarian option.''

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/creeping_halal.html

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LEFTIST WATCH

The New York Times has changed in 100 years: “Roosevelt’s Super-Socialism,” editorial published on September 30, 1913: “Theodore Roosevelt has now brought out and matured his doctrine of Socialism….Mr. Roosevelt achieves the redistribution of wealth in a simpler and easier way. He leaves the land, the mines, the factories, the railroads, the banks — all instruments of production and exchange — in the hands of their owners, but of the profits of their operation he takes whatever share the people at any given time may choose to appropriate for their common use. The people are going to say, we care not who owns and milks the cow, so long as we get our fill of the milk and cream. .”

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9504E4D6113BE633A25753C3A96F9C946296D6CF

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/47534

The Illinois Humanities Council is a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities; It has posted an online fundraising auction with 12 items up for bid. Item 2 is dinner for six with Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, the unrepentant terrorists and former friends of Barack Obama.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/12/what-price-ayers.php

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GLOBALONEY

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.): “The message I have for climate deniers is this: you are endangering humankind.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/197815-boxer-to-climate-deniers-you-are-endangering-human-kind

Bureaucrats at the UN Climate Summit in Durban have outlined plans for the most draconian, harebrained and madcap climate change treaty ever produced, under which the west would be mandated to respect “the rights of Mother Earth” by paying a “climate debt” which would act as a slush fund for bankrolling an all-powerful world government.

http://www.infowars.com/un-calls-for-eco-fascist-world-government-at-durban-summit/

A headmaster in the UK turned the school heating off on one of the coldest days of the year — to save the planet. “Pupils shivered in coats, hats and scarves as temperatures fell to just 1°C (34°F).”

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3980024/School-turns-heating-off-to-save-planet.html

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MEDIA BIAS

“The media maligned the Tea Party rallies as “racist” and provoking violence, but as far as I can tell no one was arrested — much less robbed, raped or murdered — at a Tea Party rally. John Nolte has documented 375 news accounts of anti-social and criminal activities by the Occupy crowd, a media darling and an arm of the Democratic Party that has been blessed by multimillionaires Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.”

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/47332

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ACTIVISM

“As you may know, an effort has been launched by homosexuals and liberal legislators to redefine marriage in Washington State this coming legislative session. What you may not know, is what you can do about it. First, you can call your legislators through the legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000. Then, you can attend one of 13 "Stand for Marriage" meetings happening throughout Washington, in strategic legislative districts, to find out how you can be part of a grassroots effort to protect real marriage in Washington. These meeting locations have been chosen strategically because of the legislative districts involved.”

http://www.fpiw.org/about/family-policy-blog/community-meetings-stand-for-marriage!.html

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THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Newt Gingrich has increased his lead over Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican nomination, yet the former House speaker is weaker than Romney with the general electorate.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12/08/fox-news-poll-romney-bests-gingrich-in-matchups-against-obama/

Gingrich has taken double-digit leads over his Republican rivals in three states, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/08/us-usa-campaign-poll-idUSTRE7B717D20111208?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true

“….here we are, and now it is time to figure out which of these two uninspiring candidates to choose from…..In normal times, Mitt would be perfect. He looks and acts like the president from Central Casting. He is self-assured and predictable. He is steady and competent, almost never makes mistakes and has valuable business experience…..Newt, on the other hand, runs on passion. He flies off after big ideas that border on the crazy. He makes terrible mistakes. He can be petty, petulant and is known for tantrums…. As Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention scolded, Newt must contend honestly with his “turbulent marital history” in order to win over evangelical voters, crucial in a GOP primary. Mitt, meanwhile, is a poster boy of dorky familial bliss….But the problem for Mitt is that these are not normal times. These are desperate times. We don’t need competence. We need a revolution. And this is where Newt shines. Tempestuous and uneven? Certainly. But Newt has a political soul. Sometimes he wanders off, but he has an internal political compass that ultimately hews to conservatism. He has lived his life yearning to be a great figure etched into history. For all of Mitt’s extraordinary accomplishments, he lacks any such political compass. He simply recalibrates his politics for whomever he seeks to serve. If it is the people of Massachusetts, then he is glad to trash Ronald Reagan and embrace abortion rights. The people of America? Then just a few little tinkers and adjustments and dial-twisting and - Presto! - he is all lined up to be your leader. America today is not an ailing company that needs a turnaround artist. It is the beacon of freedom to the world, and her flame is on the verge of flickering out. What we need is a debilitating default to cut us off from all this fantasy loan money that drives us deeper and deeper into cancerous debt every day. What we really need is a shock to the system that forces politicians in Washington to seriously set our priorities and drastically cuts spending. That is just the sort of ugly scenario Mitt Romney would be very good at avoiding. But we need someone to drive us straight into it…”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/6/newt-vs-mitt-a-study-in-contrasts/

Byron York: There's a deep and growing divide in the Republican world between those who are able to reconcile themselves with -- to wrap their heads around -- the possibility of Newt Gingrich becoming the GOP presidential nominee, and those who are not. It's becoming increasingly clear that it is Washington insiders who are having the most trouble imagining a Gingrich nomination, while Republicans outside Washington aren't having a problem. Of course it's the Washington insiders who have the most actual experience dealing with Gingrich…..

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/insider-outsider-divide-over-newt-gingrich/236596

Former Vice President Dan Quayle is endorsing Mitt Romney.

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-ex-vp-dan-quayle-endorse-romney-211756692.html

Sen. Paul Rand: “Republicans would take a giant step backward by choosing Gingrich” http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20111209/OPINION01/312090025/Rand-Paul-Republicans-would-take-a-giant-step-backward-by-choosing-Gingrich

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn says he “will have difficulty supporting (Gingrich) as president of the United States” based on his experience serving in the House during Gingrich’s years as speaker.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-coburn-gingrich-20111204,0,5948958.story

Former New Hampshire U.S. Sen. Bob Smith is endorsing Newt Gingrich for President.

http://unionleader.com/article/20111203/NEWS0605/712039989

Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says she has dirt on Newt. “When the time is right. … I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff."

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/197173-pelosi-plans-to-reveal-information-about-gingrich-when-the-time-is-right

“Yes, he's imperfect. Who's not? But compare Gingrich to Obama. G has a Ph.D. in history (something the leftist media always forgets to tell us) and has written 20 books, some of them good ones, all expressing a deep understanding of the unique American experiment and the U.S. Constitution…..

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/chelsea_clintons_baggage_no_not_them.html

“Romney is sending surrogates to attack Newt. One of them, John Sununu, has his nose out of joint ever since then Minority Whip Newt hung up on him when Chief of Staff Sununu called to inform him that President George H. W. Bush had surrendered on his Read my Lips promise not to raise taxes. It was the refusal to fall in line on that issue that placed Newt on my radar screen as a different kind of Republican.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/12/two_word_response.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

“Unlike the favorites before him, in Gingrich voters have someone steeped in critical policy matters, deeply interested in the problems the nation faces and effective at debating. But as a general-election candidate he is far more damaged than all of the other candidates combined. Most who know him expect Gingrich to soon perform a campaign-ending act of self-destruction, with his trademark recklessness…… “

http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/ab-stoddard/197981-newts-lead-wont-last

As one of the most polarizing figures in modern American politics, Newt Gingrich has racked up a huge inventory of pungent criticism of both his ideas and his character — much of it from his fellow conservatives

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/285198/newt-churchill-steven-f-hayward

Influential Iowa conservative Bob Vander Plaats says he thinks religious voters could still coalesce behind Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich despite his well-publicized history of marital infidelity. “The centerpiece of our faith is forgiveness,” Vander Plaats said during a discussion at a diner here on Wednesday.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/07/influential-iowa-christian-conservative-we-can-look-past-newts-past-infidelity/

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ARTICLES

A study on the viewing habits of Democrats and Republicans found that Dems like “sarcastic” media-savvy comedies and morally murky antiheroes and consistently don’t like shows “about working men doing their jobs under dangerous conditions.”

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/47473

“Plummer said what the commentators wouldn't say. Their dislike for Tim Tebow is not, as they would have us believe, about his throwing motion or his completion percentage; it's all about his open professions of faith and his goody-two shoes image. When it comes right down to it, we don't want heroes who are truly good. We want them to fail the occasional drug test or start a bar fight from time to time. It makes us feel better about ourselves.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2011-12-02/tim-tebow-faith-media/51582844/1?loc=interstitialskip

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

If you’re a conservative or tea partier or libertarian or war veteran who lies awake at night wondering why there’s no band out there that really understands you, The Daily Caller has you covered. Meet Madison Rising. Named for Founding Father James Madison, they’re a “libertarian … pro-American … pro-constitution” rock band…Lead singer David Bray described the band as a “war drum for patriotism”: a constant and uninterrupted pro-American message.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/02/rock-band-madison-rising-puts-conservative-thought-to-music/

http://madisonrising.com/

Astonishing accident involving eight Ferraris: 'world's most expensive car crash'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8934718/Astonishing-accident-involving-eight-Ferraris-worlds-most-expensive-car-crash.html

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POLITICS IN A NUTSHELL

The folks who are getting the free stuff don't like the folks who are paying for the free stuff, because the folks who are paying for the free stuff can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own stuff.

The folks who are paying for the free stuff want the free stuff to stop, and the folks who are getting the free stuff want even more free stuff on top of the free stuff they are already getting!

Now... The people who are forcing the people who pay for the free stuff have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff, that the people who are PAYING for the free stuff, are being mean, prejudiced, and racist.

So... The people who are GETTING the free stuff have been convinced they need to hate the people who are paying for the free stuff by the people who are forcing some people to pay for their free stuff, and giving them the free stuff in the first place.

We have let the free stuff giving go on for so long that there are now more people getting free stuff than paying for the free stuff.

Now understand this. All great democracies have committed financial suicide somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The reason? The voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in exchange for electing them.

The United States officially became a Republic in 1776, 235 years ago. The number of people now getting free stuff outnumbers the people paying for the free stuff. We have one chance to change that. In 2012. Failure to change that spells the end of the United States as we know it.

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WISE WORDS

"Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money."

-Margaret Thatcher

"For, more than just a day, Christmas is a state of mind. It is found throughout the year whenever faith overcomes doubt, hope conquers despair, and love triumphs over hate. It is present when men of any creed bring love and understanding to the hearts of their fellow man. The feeling is seen in the wondrous faces of children and in the hopeful eyes of the aged. It overflows the hearts of cheerful givers and the souls of the caring. And it is reflected in the brilliant colors, joyful sounds, and beauty of the winter season. Let us resolve to honor this spirit of Christmas and strive to keep it throughout the year."

-Ronald Reagan

op ed review 12/4

2011-12-03T09:07:00.001-08:00

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

President Obama's slow ride down Gallup's daily presidential job approval index has finally passed below Jimmy Carter, earning Obama the worst job approval rating of any president at this stage of his term in modern political history.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/11/29/obamas-job-approval-drops-below-carters

Suddenly, President Obama is inserting a stark new tone of drama and urgency into his campaign speeches to loyalists at political fundraisers.

http://news.investors.com/Article/593351/201112010754/obama-fundraiser-speech-needs-more-time.htm

The Obama administration has slashed spending on border fencing, infrastructure and technology, cutting it by more than half since it peaked under President George W. Bush in fiscal 2008, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-has-halved-spending-border-fencing-infrastructure-technology-leaving-1300-miles

President Obama will soon be off to Hawaii for a 17 day vacation, his 10^th this year. Beachfront rental: $3500 per day.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2011/12/03/is_this_a_joke_obama_off_to_hawaii_for_seventeen_day_vacation

You may not have seen the online soap opera “Diary of a Single Mom” but your tax dollars helped pay for it with stimulus cash.

http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/1/online-soap-opera-cleans-up-with-stimulus-broadban/

Cover-up? The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-admin-seals-records-murdered-border-patrol-agent-implicated-fast-and-furious_610783.html

Newt Gingrich has opened a sizable lead over Mitt Romney in the first national poll in the GOP presidential race taken since the former Speaker of the House earned the key endorsement of the New Hampshire Union Leader.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/195585-poll-gingrich-opens-up-nine-point-lead-after-union-leader-endorsement

Newt leads Mitt by more than 20 points in the important early-voting state of Florida, according to a new Insider Advantage poll.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/11/30/gingrich_opens_up_huge_lead_in_florida_poll_112231.html

The Newt Gingrich surge has moved him to the top of the polls in Iowa, and now a two-point edge over President Obama in a hypothetical general election match-up.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/2012_presidential_matchups

Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, a prominent 16-term liberal Democrat and arch-enemy of political conservatives nationwide, announced he does not intend to seek re-election in 2012,

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/28/rep-barney-frank-wont-seek-re-election/

Unfortunately for the banking sector, the next Democrat in line to succeed Frank as the committee's ranking member is none other than Rep. Maxine Waters, the controversial California congresswoman best known for her questionable ethics and apparent lack of understanding about how the U.S. financial system works.

http://www.businessinsider.com/barney-frank-retirement-maxine-waters-banking-finance-replacement-2011-11

The U.S. Senate voted to approve a defense authorization bill which not only included a repeal of the military ban on sodomy, but also repealed the ban on bestiality.

http://www.beaufortobserver.net/Blog-3931.112112-6242.112112-Senate-Repeals-Bans-on-Sodomy-and-Bestiality-in-the-Military.html

A state initiative filed in California offers amnesty to 1 million illegal immigrants.

http://azstarnet.com/article_48fae88f-aedc-59ee-b117-d97c19d9fb94.html#ixzz1fUHA0FBC

Britain's banks and embassies have been told to prepare for the end of the euro.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/money/3970525/Prepare-for-armageddon.html

Former Soviet satellites and republics still pay homage to Ronald Reagan

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/young-conservative-and-spicy/2011/nov/29/former-soviet-satellites-homage-reagan-freedom/

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Lessons of History? By Thomas Sowell

It used to be common for people to urge us to learn "the lessons of history." But history gets much less attention these days and, if there are any lessons that we are offered, they are more likely to be the lessons from current polls or the lessons of political correctness.

Even among those who still invoke the lessons of history, some read those lessons very differently from others.

Talk show host Michael Medved, for example, apparently thinks the Republicans need a centrist presidential candidate in 2012. He said, "Most political battles are won by seizing the center." Moreover, he added: "Anyone who believes otherwise ignores the electoral experience of the last 50 years."

But just when did Ronald Reagan, with his two landslide election victories, "seize the center"? For that matter, when did Franklin D. Roosevelt, with a record four consecutive presidential election victories, "seize the center"?

There have been a long string of Republican presidential candidates who seized the center -- and lost elections. Thomas E. Dewey, for example, seized the center against Harry Truman in 1948. Even though Truman was so unpopular at the outset that the "New Republic" magazine urged him not to run, and polls consistently had Dewey ahead, Truman clearly stood for something -- and for months he battled for what he stood for.

That turned out to be enough to beat Dewey, who simply stood in the center.

It is very doubtful that most of the people who voted for Harry Truman agreed with him on all the things he stood for. But they knew he stood for something, and they agreed with enough of it to put him back in the White House.

It is equally doubtful that most of the people who voted for Ronald Reagan in his two landslide victories agreed with all his positions. But they agreed with enough of them to put him in the White House to replace Jimmy Carter, who stood in the center, even if it was only a center of confusion.

President Gerald Ford, after narrowly beating off a rare challenge by Ronald Reagan to a sitting president of his own party, seized the center in the general election -- and lost to an initially almost totally unknown governor from Georgia.

President George H.W. Bush, after initially winning election by coming across as another Ronald Reagan, with his "Read my lips, no new taxes" speech, turned "kinder and gentler" -- to everyone except the taxpayers -- once he was in office. In other ways as well, he seized the center. And lost to another unknown governor.

More recently, we have seen two more Republican candidates who seized the center -- Senators Bob Dole in 1996 and John McCain in 2008 -- go down to defeat, McCain at the hands of a man that most people had never even heard of, just three years earlier.

Michael Medved, however, reads history differently. To him, Barry Goldwater got clobbered in the 1964 elections because of his strong conservatism. But did his opponent, Lyndon Johnson, seize the center? Johnson was at least as far to the left as Goldwater was to the right. And Goldwater scared the daylights out of people with the way he expressed himself, especially on foreign policy, where he came across as reckless. On a personal note, I wrote a two-line verse that year, titled "The Goldwater Administration:"

Fifteen minutes of laissez-faire,
While the Russian missiles are in the air.

Senator Goldwater was not crazy enough to start a nuclear war. But the way he talked sometimes made it seem as if he were. Ronald Reagan would later be elected and re-elected taking positions essentially the same as those on which Barry Goldwater lost big time. Reagan was simply a lot better at articulating his beliefs.

Michael Medved uses the 2010 defeat of tea party candidates for the Senate, in three states where Democrats were vulnerable, as another argument against those who do not court the center. But these were candidates whose political ineptness was the problem, not conservatism. Candidates should certainly reach out to a broad electorate. But the question is whether they reach out by promoting their own principles to others or by trying to be all things to all people.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/11/29/lessons_of_history_112204.html

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"If you thought Rep. Barney Frank was bad, his likely replacement is worse. Rep. Maxine Waters is Congress' most anti-bank member -- unless she owns stock in one, that is. ... When in 2003, the publicly created mortgage giants [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] became dangerously overleveraged with weak mortgages, Waters pushed them to underwrite even 'more products where you have no down payments.' She accused critics of the quotas of discriminating against minorities and the poor. ... She lobbied to exclude them and their government-mandated affordable housing charter from the 'sweeping financial reforms.' And she got her wish. She also got another wish: a provision exempting minority-owned banks from the new oversight. Quite interesting. Because at the same time she got that little gem added to the bill, she was under investigation for steering federal bailout money to a troubled minority-owned bank in which she and her husband held a large financial stake."

-Investor's Business Daily

"Under a new 893-page proposal unveiled last week, automakers must hit a fleet-wide fuel economy average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 -- double today's 27.3 standard. The government says it would cost automakers $8.5 billion per year to comply, which means a spike in sticker prices of at least $2,000 to $2,800, according to official projections. ... The Obama Administration is pointing to the supposed benefits of the new standards -- including a fuel savings of $1.7 trillion -- but as [Heritage Foundation's Diane] Katz writes, that number is 'pure speculation given that actual savings would depend on the price of gasoline,' which can't be predicted 14 years into the future, much less next summer. ... The EPA should not be in the business of picking and choosing what kind of cars and trucks Americans can drive, and neither should President Obama."

-Mike Brownfield

"It's the Democrats whose position is that the only problem in Washington, D.C., is the peasants aren't sending enough cash in for the king to spend."

-Grover Norquist

"If Democrats could balance the budget tomorrow and quadruple government spending, they'd refuse the deal unless they could also make Republicans break their tax pledge. That is their single-minded goal. But the media are trying to turn it around and say that it's Republicans who are crazy for refusing to consider raising taxes no matter how much they get in spending cuts."

-Ann Coulter

"Congressman Barney Frank accused some members of Congress of being vegetables. Is this wise? If Barney Frank accuses some members of Congress of being vegetables he opens himself up to the deduction that some members of Congress are fruits."

-Argus Hamilton

"Over the weekend, President Obama took his daughters to a bookstore. Barack bought Malia 'The Phantom Tollbooth,' while Malia bought Barack 'Economics for Dummies.'"

-Jimmy Fallon

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BOOKS

"Bowing to Beijing" by Brett M. Decker and William C. Triplett. Tony Blankley reviews: “will change forever the way you think about China….a strictly factual expose of the moral horror being brought down on the Chinese people by their ever-more-powerful Chinese leadership….Here is just one of hundreds of examples offered by the authors of the moral pit that China has become: "It is routine for children as young as 9 years old and for the mentally handicapped to be sold to sweatshops where they work around the clock in slave-like conditions. Tragically, child labor is most common in toy factories. Other workers initially take jobs voluntarily but then are padlocked in dormitories and forced to work up to 18 hours a day in a subhuman environment." Those cheap toys found on American shopping shelves come at a horribly high price…..will stiffen your resolve to be part of the struggle to never let such a malignancy spread to the rest of the world -- let alone to America.”

http://townhall.com/columnists/tonyblankley/2011/11/16/an_important_new_book

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LEFTIST WATCH

Andy Stern, former head of the Service Employees International Union, says we should dump capitalism in favor of the China model: "China's Superior Economic Model."

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2011/12/01/obama_crony_andy_stern_abandon_capitalism_for_chicom_model

This is how they think: "[U]nemployment insurance has been recognized by outside economists and by members of both parties as vital assistance to an economy to help it grow and create jobs."

-White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

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GLOBALONEY

Another defection from the gospel of renewable energy, and it's a biggie: no less than the head of the Brookings Institution's energy initiative. Brookings is the most prestigious of the liberal think tanks in Washington, and carries considerable weight in elite media and political circles.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/11/prominent_dem_dems_need_to_get_real_on_energy.html

Chevy Volt recall? Sure, why not. This electric Edsel (Motor Trend Car of the Year — awarded before even one was sold) is a bad idea being promoted to fix a non-existent problem (global warming is a farce and a lie) the wrong way (half the electricity in the USA comes from fossil fuels) by taking from the taxpayer and giving to the rich ($7,500 tax credits are given for cars whose average driver earns $175,000 annually).

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/46910

Britain’s leading green activist research centre spent £15,000 on seminars for top BBC executives in an apparent bid to block climate change skeptics from the airwaves, a vast new cache of leaked ‘Climategate’ emails has revealed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066706/BBC-sought-advice-global-warming-scientists-economy-drama-musicgame-shows.html

Is the global warming scare the greatest delusion in history?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/8917737/Is-the-global-warming-scare-the-greatest-delusion-in-history.html

Fred Singer: Things don't look promising for the perennial climate confab which convenes in Durban, South Africa today. There is little chance of extending the expiring 1997 Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Kyoto has turned into a giant international scam that has already wasted hundreds of billions, with little to show for it; in fact, the increase in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases has been accelerating.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/11/durban_climate_conference_the_dream_fades.html

Canada will announce next month that it will formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20111127/durban-south-africa-slimate-conference-setup-111127/#ixzz1eyQ9c2fE

VDH: Given no noticeable heating of the planet during the last decade, and all sorts of questionable research on supposed problems like polar bear population declines and Himalayan glacier melting — not to mention the wind and solar debacles here and in Europe — the man-made-global-warming movement is about done for now. We sometimes forget that the fad gained its traction during the Bush years, fueled in large part by the myth that a Texas Bible-thumper was going to prevent wise technocrats from saving the planet from the neanderthals.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/284351/notes-end-bush-derangement-syndrome-victor-davis-hanson

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THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE

Manchester Union Leader: “This newspaper endorses Newt Gingrich in the New Hampshire Presidential Primary. America is at a crucial crossroads. It is not going to be enough to merely replace Barack Obama next year. We are in critical need of the innovative, forward-looking strategy and positive leadership that Gingrich has shown he is capable of providing. He did so with the Contract with America. He did it in bringing in the first Republican House in 40 years and by forging balanced budgets and even a surplus despite the political challenge of dealing with a Democratic President. A lot of candidates say they're going to improve Washington. Newt Gingrich has actually done that, and in this race he offers the best shot of doing it again….”

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20111127/NEWS/711279999

Krauthammer: Mitt Vs. Newt: A Fight Between Two Flawed Candidates

http://news.investors.com/Article.aspx?id=593407&p=1

George Will doesn’t like either one.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/romney-and-gingrich-from-bad-to-worse/2011/12/02/gIQArsM3LO_story.html

Gingrich presidential run inspires fear and loathing in top GOP circles.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/gingrich-presidential-run-inspires-fear-and-loathing-in-top-gop-circles/2011/12/02/gIQAGt4zKO_blog.html=

Dick Morris: Is Newt Electable? Hell yes.

http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/is-newt-electable-hell-yes/

Newt’s baggage reviewed: “Today we are being suckered into thinking that Gingrich could hold his own in the general election process against Obama. This is a fool's bet. If Gingrich is nominated, the (media) narrative will immediately shift back to the politics of personal destruction and never look back, quickly looking past his platform to his personal life. And there is a lot to talk about when it comes to Gingrich's personal and political baggage! The 2012 media narrative will unload every bit piece-by-piece starting with, at the age of eighteen; Newt was dating his high school geometry teacher, Jackie Battley.

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/political-potpourri/2011/nov/28/gingrich-leads-republicans-slaughter-while-cain-st/

Jed Babbin: When it comes to foreign policy, “Whether you love him or hate him, you have to admit that the only grownup in the room is Newt Gingrich. He has lectured at the National War College for about twenty years. He is the only one of the eight contenders who won't require on-the-job training on defense and national security…….So who do we want answering that 3 a.m. phone call to the White House? On defense and national security, Newt Gingrich is the candidate best prepared to do so…”

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/11/28/newt-gingrich-grownup/

Newt Gingrich's most recent Positive Intensity Score of 20 in Gallup tracking conducted Nov. 14-27 is the highest of any Republican candidate, while Mitt Romney's current score of 9 is his lowest of the year by one percentage point. Gingrich and Romney are essentially tied as the front-runners on Gallup's latest trial-heat ballot measure, but their Positive Intensity Scores this year have followed substantially different patterns.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/151022/Gingrich-Leads-Romney-New-Low-Positive-Intensity.aspx?utm_source=google&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=syndication

Gov. Rick Perry has come under fire from conservatives for some of his immigration policies, but with the endorsement of the infamous and conservative Sheriff Joe Arpaio from Arizona, Perry told voters in New Hampshire he supports tough state laws that give local law enforcement new powers to combat illegal immigration.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/in-n-h-rick-perry-talks-tough-on-illegal-immigrants/

For decades, Democrats have suffered continuous and increasingly severe losses among white voters. But preparations by Democratic operatives for the 2012 election make it clear for the first time that the party will explicitly abandon the white working class. All pretence of trying to win a majority of the white working class has been effectively jettisoned in favor of cementing a center-left coalition made up, on the one hand, of voters who have gotten ahead on the basis of educational attainment — professors, artists, designers, editors, human resources managers, lawyers, librarians, social workers, teachers and therapists — and a second, substantial constituency of lower-income voters who are disproportionately African-American and Hispanic.

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/the-future-of-the-obama-coalition/

The Democratic National Committee released an ad that describes Mitt Romney as “two men trapped in one body.” The 30 second ad, titled “Trapped,” will play in six markets, including Albuquerque, Raleigh-Durham, Columbus, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Washington, DC, and Milwaukee. The DNC declined to specify how large of an ad buy this was or how much was spent on the spot. The DNC accuses Romney of being “Two Mitts willing to say anything,” a reference to his change in stance on abortion. In an extended version of the ad on the new mittvmitt.com website, the DNC edits together clips

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/dnc-to-air-anti-romney-ad-in-six-markets/

Five months ago the Washington Post called for readers to sift through former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's email messages? Now they’re asking readers to send in dirt on Newt Gingrich.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/11/28/washington-post-blogger-asks-dirt-about-newt-gingrich-twitter#ixzz1f6iTrHY3

Should Mitt Romney survive the Newtian Surge and fend off any other challenges from his rivals for the GOP nomination, a preview of what awaits him in the general election can be found in a new television ad crafted by the Democratic National Committee. The line of attack is no surprise: The ad—along with an accompanying website—pounces of Romney’s history of shifting positions rightward as he has pursued the presidency. The short spot “Trapped” is done in the style of a Hollywood teaser trailer, complete with a deep-tone voiceover and mocks the former Massachusetts governor as “two men trapped in one body.” The ad points viewers to a website MittvMitt.com, which features a video that highlights what the DNC says is Romney’s flip-flops on abortion, the economic stimulus package, healthcare, global warming, assault weapons and even the legacy of Ronald Reagan.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-dnc-romney-20111128,0,7402136.story

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ARTICLES

It’s a standard line in Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann’s stump speech. “We live in a world where only 53 percent of Americans pay federal income tax, 47 percent pay nothing,” the Minnesota congresswoman recently said in Iowa. Bachmann’s figures are roughly correct: By most estimates, 46 percent of American households had no federal income tax liability this year, either because they didn’t make enough money or their credits, exemptions and deductions exceeded their tax bill. Some filers without an income tax bill even got refund checks from Uncle Sam. Other Republicans and conservatives have echoed her concerns

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/11/28/3290008/are-too-many-paying-no-taxes-at.html

What You Don't Often Hear About Those 'Greedy' One Percenters. It was presumably F. Scott Fitzgerald who once observed that “the rich are different from you and me.” Yes they are. The rich, or as they say today, the 1 percent, generally work a lot harder and smarter than do the rest of us, and for doing so, make all of our lives easier, cheaper, and more entertaining. What’s not said enough about the 1 percenters is how difficult were their paths, but perhaps even more to the point, how much easier and better our paths will be for what they did ahead of us. Rather than bemoan their wealth, it’s time we start thanking them.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntamny/2011/11/27/what-you-dont-always-hear-about-those-greedy-one-percenters/2/

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Newt’s website:

http://www.newt.org/

If you are interested in keeping up with what Washington State government is doing to us:  a new website/journal:

http://theolympiareport.com/

Not Photoshopped: Beam of Light Shines on Fallen Soldier’s Miracle Dog

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/11/not-photoshopped-beam-of-light-shines-on-fallen-soldiers-miracle-dog/

Becky Kelly asks a fair question in this Christmas music video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=OExXItDyWEY&vq=medium

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WISE WORDS

"Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent."

-Adam Smith

"The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men."

-Alexander Hamilton