Obama's conundrum

Obama's conundrum

The Democrat Party is facing a bleak November. You hear reasons for it but let's look at the record.

Here's the accomplishments of the Obama Administration

The TARP program to prevent a meltdown on Wall Street

The Stimulus Package which the President claims has created or save 2.5 million jobs

The Healthcare Package which Democrat Presidents since FDR have been trying to pass

The Financial Reform Package

Actually these are an impressive list of accomplishments. So what this is the problem with the Democrats running on these accomplishments.

To put it simply, these are the Democrat priorities, not the American people's priorities. The American people are very concerned about unemployment, the size of the deficit, and illegal immigration. Add to this, Obama's pledge not to raise taxes on anyone earning under $250,000 per year which appears to be one of the casualties of the enormous increase in the deficit and the federal government's suing Arizona for a law that 70% of American's agree with and you have the perfect storm if you are a democrat running for office this year.

Democrat financial logic?

With the wedding this week of Chelsea Clinton, it seems a little strange that Hillary Clinton is still trying to get doners to retire her debt from the 2008 campaign. The wedding is estimated to cost between 3 and 5 million dollars. But if you do make a $35 or more donation for this, you get a free DVD of Hillary's speech at the 2008 convention.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/hillary-clinton-still-begging-supporters-to-retire-campaign-debt-as-clintons-spend-3-5-million-on-daughters-wedding-99557349.html

Is Obama a Socialist?

Here's an interesting take on it.

Two years of research into Obama’s past forced me to change my mind. The
truth is that Obama’s political rise is so profoundly enmeshed in a decidedly
(if often stealthily) socialist world that the issue simply must be addressed.
Radical-in-Chief is no mere rehash of my writings during the campaign.
Overwhelmingly, it consists of new evidence, all of which forces us to explore
the little-known world of post-1960′s American socialism. Organized American
socialism may have limited public influence in the country at large (although
its behind-the-scenes role is significantly greater than is generally realized),
but it had an immense impact on the political development of Barack Obama. That is what I have discovered.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/242123/answering-eugene-debs-stanley-kurtz


Here's a situation that is analogous to Arizona's Immigration law.

Dupree allegedly stole a bicycle locked inside and was apprehended after the
owner, Anthony McKoy, saw him with the bike down the street.

Dupree says McKoy and two others pointed a gun at him, handcuffed him and placed a knee painfully in his back. He's seeking $500,000 for disabilities and distress suffered during the takedown.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100730/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_citizens_arrest_lawsuit_2

McKoy is in the situation that the people of Arizona are in except to make the analogy work, it would be the DA who would be bringing the charges against him.

Nothing but bad news for someone

Are you a snob or a slob

Remember that question? Well the I-pad may be bringing it back.

It’s not exactly official, but should also surprise no one: According to a
new study the psychological profile of iPad owners can be summed up as “selfish
elites” while have-not critics are “independent geeks.”

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/07/ipad-owner-are-selfish-elites-critics-are-independent-geeks-says-study/

Americans going to the Doctor's less

This may sound like good news (and in one sense it is), but in the article they attribute it to the economic downturn.

Insured Americans are using fewer medical services, raising questions about
whether patients are consuming less health care as they pick up a greater share
of the costs.

The drop in usage is showing up as health-care companies
report financial results. Insurers, lab-testing companies, hospitals and
doctor-billing concerns say that patient visits, drug prescriptions and
procedures were down in the second quarter from year-ago levels.

"People just aren't using health-care like they have," said Wayne DeVeydt, WellPoint Inc.'s chief financial officer, in an interview Wednesday. "Utilization is lower than we expected, and it's unusual."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703940904575395603432726626.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories

Economist grow gloomier about the Economy

The U.S. economic recovery will remain slow deep into next year, held back
by shoppers reluctant to spend and employers hesitant to hire, according to an
Associated Press survey of leading economists.

The latest quarterly AP Economy Survey shows economists have turned gloomier in the past three months. They foresee weaker growth and higher unemployment than they did before. As a result, the economists think the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates near zero until at least next spring.

This is really bad news for Democrats. As the party in power they get credit or the blame for a bad economy. I don't think the "It could be worse" or "Blame Bush" as a strategy will work for them.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioRXliVfpQrwlEITOiWDGlofCQfAD9H8FSJ80

From war crimes to climate change

Obama the War Criminal?

A recent ruling by a federal judge has confirmed the CIA Interrogation policy for high value Al Qaeda assets is legal.

On Dec. 18, 2009, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York,
Preet Bharara, made the secret filing in response to a motion by Ahmed Ghailani,
an al-Qaeda terrorist facing charges for his role in the U.S.-embassy bombings
in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Ghailani argued that those charges should be
dropped because lengthy CIA interrogations denied him his constitutional right
to a speedy trial.

This claim was denied by the judge. It appears while many on the left thought GWB was a war criminal, evidently President Obama must be one as well.

http://article.nationalreview.com/438740/cia-interrogations-have-brtheir-day-in-court/marc-a-thiessen-brdavid-b-rivkin-jr?page=2

Blaming Bush appears to be hitting the expiration date

The polls continue to drop for President Obama. It now appears that Hispanics are blaming the President for doing a less than stellar job.

Support for Mr. Obama has eroded among whites, independents, men and now
Hispanics, who were part of the coalition that powered him to the White House in
2008.

While the AP-Univision poll found that 57 percent of Hispanics
still approve of Mr. Obama, it revealed deep skepticism among the key Democratic
voting bloc. Only 43 percent of Hispanics said Mr. Obama is meeting their needs,
according to the poll, while 32 percent were unsure and 21 percent said he has
done a poor job.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/27/obamas-base-quits-blaming-bush/

This is not good news for the President and the Democrats. As the midterm election looms it appears the Democrats were hoping to run one more time against President Bush, but more and more voters are looking at the current state of America and crediting this Administration.

House Democrats head for a thumping at the polls

Here's a piece by Michael Barone that tends to back up my prediction from yesterday. He compares what is going on now to what happened in 1994 and the Democrats appear to be in much worse trouble.

So the Republicans' current lead in the generic ballot question suggests
they may be on the brink of doing better than in any election since 1946, when
they won a 245-188 margin in the House -- larger than any they've held ever
since

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/House-Democrats-head-for-a-thumping-at-the-polls-1004124-99388554.html#ixzz0uyVfjWnL

Why Climate Change is finding itself in the Garbage Bin of History

As fewer and fewer people take AGW seriously, warmist keep raising the ante.
Here is how the LA Times breathlessly opened its news story on a new PNAS paper:

Climbing temperatures are expected to raise sea levels and increase
droughts, floods, heat waves and wildfires.

Now, scientists are predicting another consequence of climate change: mass migration to the United States.

Between 1.4 million and 6.7 million Mexicans could migrate to
the U.S. by 2080 as climate change reduces crop yields and agricultural
production in Mexico, according to a study published online this week in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The number could amount to 10% of the current population of Mexicans ages 15 to 65.

Here is how Roger Pielke Jr. replied to it:

To be blunt, the paper is guesswork piled on top of "what ifs" built on a
foundation of tenuous assumptions. The authors seem to want to have things both ways -- they readily acknowledge the many and important limitations of their study, but then go on to assert that "it is nevertheless instructive to predict
future migrant flows for Mexico using the estimates at hand to assess the
possible magnitude of climate change–related emigration." It can't be both -- if
the paper has many important limitations, then this means that that it is not
particularly instructive. With respect to predicting immigration in 2080 (!),
admitting limitations is no serious flaw.

My first inclination was to laugh. Not only is it a ridiculous study, but with 11 million illegals here already it seems like this would be an improvement.

Let's Party! Ole!

Does the Left actually believe in Anthropogenic Global Warming?

The White House has confirmed that Michelle Obama and her daughter Sasha will fly to Spain's Costa del Sol for a 5 day vacation (sans the President) from August 4th to the 8th. This raises the question when the President and others on the left claiming CO2 is an imminent threat to the planet and they want to tax carbon so people will cut back on the use of it, what kind of an example are they setting by flying 5,000 miles on vacation?

A number of other questions come to mind as well. In recession should the president's family be throwing either their money or the tax payer's money (actually both) around so freely? And while the President has admonished people for going to Las Vegas, it isn't nearly as long a flight and any money they spend will go into America's economy, clearly a trip to Spain won't.

Michelle Obama has reserved about 30 rooms for herself and her daughter,
their friends and bodyguards at a five-star hotel in Benahavis near Marbella,
hotel sources said

.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/336549,michelle-obama-vacation-spain.html


Howard Dean Charges that Fox News is racist

Once again the Democrats reach into their tool box to find there only tool they have is charging the other guy with racism.

“I don’t think Newt Gingrich is a racist, and I don’t think you’re a
racist,” Dean told Fox News host Chris Wallace, “but Fox News did something that
was absolutely racist. They took a — they had an obligation to find out what was really in the clip. They had been pushing a theme of black racism with this phony Black Panther crap and this business and this Sotomayor and all this other stuff.”

When Wallace interrupted Dean to point out that Fox News did not
air the excerpted Sherrod footage until after the Obama administration had fired her based on it, Dean shot back: “It was about to go on Glenn Beck, which is what the administration was afraid of.”

So even when it was shown that Fox didn't cover the story until AFTER the White House had fired Sherrod, they were still racists because the White House was afraid of what they would do?

It sounds as if the Democrats have watched Tom Cruise's movie, Minority Report, one too many times (In Minority Report, they would arrest people before they committed a crime).

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0710/Dean_Fox_News_racist.html?showall#

When you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything

When you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything is an old statement to indict people who simply don't take a stand. But what happens when you are so committed to something that you will resort to anything?

The Daily Caller has released the latest batch of JournoList messages, and
it's a shocker: the journalists and other assorted left-wing
intellectuals (!) debating what apparently was the hottest topic of the hour, Sarah Palin's son, Trig. I had thought that the belief that
Trig was really Bristol's baby was an insane idea held only by Andrew Sullivan. It is an insane idea all right, but it turns out that it was believed, or at least taken seriously, by a number of liberal journalists--while some others, to their credit, tried to restore a sense of decency to the liberal
press. Beyond that, the tactics of how to spin Palin's fifth child in a way that
could damage the Republican ticket was seemingly an obsessive concern of these
journalists. It is a sad spectacle.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/07/026854.php

John Kerry and other misconceptions

Kerry for Tax Dodger

Well the man the Democrats wanted to be President in 2004 demonstrates that like a lot of Democrats (ie. the ones who are for taxes, but not for paying the taxes), he doesn't have a clue.

Oh, the hurtfulness. Boston Herald piles on, with New England boat builders
wondering why, in times of hardship, Sen. Thurston Howell … I mean John Kerry,
D-Mass., had to outsource his luxury, going halfway around the world to buy the
$7 million yacht he was berthing across state lines in tax-free Rhode Island:

http://www.julescrittenden.com/2010/07/25/lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-clueless/



I guess Kerry only believes in stimulus spending with other people's money.




Journolist proves the Main Steam Media was in the bag for Obama




The release of postings from Journolist shows how members of the MSM plotted to disparage Sarah Palin and downplay the Rev. Wright story.

Chris Hayes, a top editor for the liberal magazine The Nation, urged his
colleagues in April 2008 to avoid the subject of Wright because talking about it
at all would hurt Obama. Hayes directed his message specifically to the
straight-news reporters reading his post, saying: “Our country disappears
people. It tortures people. It has the blood of as many as one million Iraqi
civilians — men, women, children, the infirmed — on its hands. You’ll forgive me
if I just can’t quite dredge up the requisite amount of outrage over Barack
Obama’s pastor.”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_fix_was_in_gImIPWyKJdEWhZasJmFIUO#ixzz0un9vEpWa


Can the Democrats retain the House?

Noting that he has long been forecasting that the Republicans are close to
bouncing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Cook evaluated the case made by Democratic strategists who insist that their party has a good shot at retaining the House. And it's not a bad argument.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/26/campaign-2010-why-democrats-think-they-can-hold-the-house/

I don't think they can or will. In fact, I think this election will be a tsunami against the Democrats. I'm not looking at the race by race differences, but the election in general. As was said in the article over 50% of the Republicans are jazzed while only 28% of the Democrats are. Add to this how the independents are favoring the Republican candidates by a 46% to 34% margin and you have the makings of a major shift by the country. Look for the Republicans to gain over 60 seats (this is my SWAG).


NHS to Ration Basic services

Some of the most common operations — including hip replacements and cataract surgery — will be rationed as part of attempts to save billions of pounds, despite government promises that front-line services would be protected.

Patients’ groups have described the measures as “astonishingly brutal”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/7908742/Axe-falls-on-NHS-services.html

Dr. Donald M. Berwick, the new head of Medicare in the United States admires the NHS and believes in rationing. Perhaps this explains why Obama decided to make him a recess appointment before he answered a single question in the Senate. And it should make anyone who is paying attention nervous about Harry Reid's promise that there will be a public option.

Out of step

Out of Touch with Ordinary Americans.

75% of Likely Voters prefer free markets over a government managed economy. Just 14% think a government managed economy is better while 11% are not sure according to a recent survey by Rasmussen.

Not surprisingly, America’s Political Class is far less enamored with the
virtues of a free market. In fact, Political Class voters narrowly prefer a
government managed economy over free markets by a 44% to 37% margin. However, among Mainstream voters, 90% prefer the free market.

Outside of the Political Class, free markets are preferred across all demographic and partisan lines. This gap may be one reason that 68% of voters believe the Political Class doesn’t care what most Americans think. Fifty-nine percent (59%) are embarrassed by the behavior of the Political Class.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/july_2010/75_say_free_markets_better_than_government_management_of_economy_political_class_disagrees

So next time you hear Joe Biden say that the Republicans are "wildly out of step" with popular opinion on a number of issues, remember this is the guy and the party that thinks American's would be better off with a government run economy.

Today's craziness in the news

The left may be abandoning the left

It seems the netroots aren't happy with Obama and the Democrat Party.

But as Netroots Nation, a conference of 2,100 liberal activists, opened here
Thursday, it was clear that anger among some prominent progressives is still raw -- and it could imperil some Democrats this fall.

Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos blog and an organizer of the
first such annual conference five years ago, said he and his followers are
disinclined to help Democratic candidates simply to preserve the party's big
majorities.

"There's a lot of Democrats I'll be happy to see
go," Moulitsas said in an interview. "I'll celebrate when Blanche
Lincoln is out of the Senate. There is a price to be paid for inaction and
incompetence. We're not getting much done with 59 [Democratic senators], so if we're down to 54, who cares?"

http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2010/07/what-happens-in-vegas-netroots-meltdown.html

The Myth of White Privilege

An op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal today by Jim Webb addresses this issue.

The injustices endured by black Americans at the hands of their own
government have no parallel in our history, not only during the period of
slavery but also in the Jim Crow era that followed. But the extrapolation of
this logic to all "people of color"—especially since 1965, when new immigration laws dramatically altered the demographic makeup of the U.S.—moved affirmative action away from remediation and toward discrimination, this time against whites. It has also lessened the focus on assisting African-Americans, who despite a veneer of successful people at the very top still experience high rates of poverty, drug abuse, incarceration and family breakup.

Those who came to this country in recent decades from Asia, Latin America and Africa did not suffer discrimination from our government, and in fact have frequently been the beneficiaries of special government programs. The same cannot be said of many hard-working white Americans, including those whose roots in America go back more than 200 years.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703724104575379630952309408.html

This is probably very timely with the NAACP charging the TEA Party with racism, etc.

No Great Right Wing Conspiracy, but It Appears the Left Had One.

A good review of what the Journolist scandal is all about.

In other words, JournoList is a symptom, not the disease. And the disease is
not a secret conspiracy but something more like the "open conspiracy" H. G. Wells fantasized about, where the smartest, best people at every institution
make their progressive vision for the world their top priority.

As James DeLong, a fellow at the Digital Society, correctly noted on the Enterprise Blog, "The real problem with JournoList is that much of it consisted of exchanges
among people who worked for institutions about how to best hijack their
employers for the cause of Progressivism."

For a liberal activist, that's forgivable, I guess. But academics? Reporters? Editors? Even liberal opinion writers aren't supposed to "coordinate" their messages with the mother ship.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/07/23/journolist__the_liberal_mother_ship.html


Population experts and the Mainstream Media

"Population Expert" Paul Ehrlich? How absolutely and totally wrong do your predictions have to be before the Mainstream Media stops calling you an “expert” in your field? The New York Times laid down a marker in its deeply sympathetic Tuesday obituary for alarmist climatologist Stephen Schneider, in which writer Douglas Martin identified Paul Ehrlich as a “biologist and population expert.”

I guess if you still call Ehrlich a "population expert" you need to still call Bernie Madoff a financial genius.

Journolist and other news of the Day

Journalist and Palin

Journalist was a political forum for left wing journalist. It is now shut down, but we are finding out more and more about it and as we do it becomes more apparent that rather than simply a forum where journalist could share ideas, leads, etc. it acted as a if it were part of the Obama campaign staff.

In the hours after Sen. John McCain announced his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate in the last presidential race, members of an online forum called Journolist struggled to make sense of the pick. Many of them were liberal reporters, and in some cases their comments reflected a journalist’s instinct to figure out the meaning of a story.

But in many other exchanges, the Journolisters clearly had another, more partisan goal in mind: to formulate the most effective talking points in order to defeat Palin and McCain and help elect Barack Obama president. The tone was more campaign headquarters than newsroom.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/22/when-mccain-picked-palin-liberal-journalists-coordinated-the-best-line-of-attack/#ixzz0uPdUUmID

Journalist and Palin part 2

Here are a few more specifics we are finding out.

Suzanne Nossel, chief of operations for Human Rights Watch, added a novel
take: “I think it is and can be spun as a profoundly sexist pick. Women should feel umbrage at the idea that their votes can be attracted just by putting a
woman, any woman, on the ticket no matter her qualifications or views.”

Mother Jones’s Stein loved the idea. “That’s excellent! If enough people
– people on this list? – write that the pick is sexist, you’ll have the networks
debating it for days. And that negates the SINGLE thing Palin brings to the ticket,” he wrote. . . .

Time’s Joe Klein then linked to his own piece, parts of which he acknowledged came from strategy sessions on Journolist. “Here’s my attempt to incorporate the accumulated wisdom of this august list-serve community,” he wrote. And indeed Klein’s article contained arguments developed by his fellow Journolisters.

http://volokh.com/2010/07/22/latest-journolist-revelations-attacks-on-palin/

More Bad News if your are a Incumbent and it's even worse if you are an incumbent and in control

Underscoring Congress' image problem, half of Americans now say they
have "very little" or no confidence in Congress, up from 38% in 2009 --
and the highest for any institution since Gallup first asked this
question in 1973. Previous near-50% readings include 48% found for the
presidency in 2008, and 49% for the criminal justice system in 1994.

http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2010/07/congressional-approval-at-historic-low.html

So this Democrat congress has less confidence in it than the Bush administration did as it left office.

Fortunately for Obama there are no Mulligans in elections

The Democrat strategy of trying to "blame Bush" won't work for a number of reasons, but the biggests reason is that the people think Obama should have done a better job. Having spent in less than two years $3 trillion more than he had, Americans are rethinking the whole "hope and change" thing.

Democrats will be gulping this morning at the Quinnipiac Poll’s latest
results. For the first time in the survey’s history, Americans believe by a 48%
to 40% margin that President Obama doesn’t deserve re-election. Almost as stinging, a plurality believe the country would have been better off if John McCain had beaten Mr. Obama in 2008.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/22/plurality-of-voters-believe-the-country-would-have-been-better-off-if-john-mccain-had-beaten-mr-obama-in-2008/#ixzz0uPhCMjEm

Racism?

With all the noise about Shirley Sherrod, you might not have seen this. It appears race and gender were factors used by the government in deciding which dealerships to shut down when they took over GM and Chrysler.

Decisions on which car dealerships to close as part of the auto industry
bailout -- closures the Obama administration forced on General Motors and
Chrysler -- were based in part on race and gender, according to a report by
Troubled Asset Relief Program Special Inspector General Neal M. Barofsky.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/07/race_played_role_in_obama_car.html

It appears post racial as practiced by the Obama Administration means discriminating against a different racial and gender groups.

You Can't Understand the Truth

Chris Dodd Strikes again

Before Dodd retires this January, he put through his financial reform bill. One of the regulations allows clearinghouses access to some of the Federal Reserve's loans.

A provision in the legislation allows clearinghouses that may pose risks to
the broader marketplace to access some of the Federal Reserve's loans, including the discount window. The measure would let clearinghouses overseen by federal market regulators, such as the Options Clearing Corp. and CME Group Inc.'s (CME) clearing venture, potentially tap discount window funds without registering as bank holding companies or being primarily regulated by the Fed.

It seems CME's board of directors has a Jackie Clegg who makes $153,000 per year on it. Jackie Clegg is also known as Mrs. Chris Dodd. Remember the golden rule: "Those with the gold rule."

A Climate Bill--On the ropes?

"The Senate climate bill has been at death’s door several times over the past
year. But with the days before the August recess quickly slipping away, the case
may truly be terminal now. "

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39969.html#ixzz0uKIMyucT

Good riddance!


Some fun with Global Warming Proponents

I found this on the web. It is a satire of the famous Jack Nicholson's speech in the movie "A Few Good Men." It's titled "You can't understand the truth!"

"Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to have
scientific equipment on them to gather data, and that data studied by men with
computers. Who’s going to do it? A layman like you? I have a greater
responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for the global warming
skeptics and curse the climatologists. You have that luxury. You have the luxury
of not knowing what I know.

Have some fun, you can read it here. http://mensnewsdaily.com/2009/12/04/climategate-you-want-the-truth-you-cant-understand-the-truth/

More Bad News if you are a Democrat

It seem any Republican is now in the position to defeat Barack Obama.

"A year after President Barack Obama's political honeymoon ended, his job
approval rating has dropped to a negative 44 - 48 percent, his worst net score
ever, and American voters say by a narrow 39 - 36 percent margin that they would vote for an unnamed Republican rather than President Obama in 2012, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today."

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1478

Race and America

Democrat dirty tricks?

It seems there is a TEA Party candidate who came out of nowhere, is known by no one in the TEA Party movement and is bad mouthing the Republican candidate for the House of Representatives. It appears the Dems are up to no good.

"There also seems to be concrete evidence of Democrat chicanery at work here. DeStefano collected 237 signatures for his candidate petition. Asked if he had campaign staff or volunteers, he said his son is helping him.

Republicans said it was troubling that longtime allies and donors to Adler had signed DeStefano's petition. They include Marshall Spevak, who has worked for the Camden County Democratic Committee, pollster Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, Adler's 2008 congressional campaign, and Adler's state Senate office. He works on the campaign of Chris Coons, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Delaware."

BTW, Adler is the Democrat candidate. Expect more of this type of thing as the Democrats in a panic over the coming election resort to subterfuge to try to get reelected.

http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2010/07/sneaky-dems-plant-phony-tea-party.html

Racism and Journalism

An interesting story here about how the mainstream media attempted to bury the story and the consequences of the Rev Wright scandal when Obama was running for office.

"In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by
changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote,
“Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.” . . . Thomas
Schaller, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun as well as a political science
professor, upped the ante from there. In a post with the subject header, “why
don’t we use the power of this list to do something about the debate?” Schaller
proposed coordinating a “smart statement expressing disgust” at the questions Gibson and Stephanopoulos had posed to Obama.

“It would create quite a stir, I bet, and be a warning against future behavior of the sort,” Schaller wrote."

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/20/documents-show-media-plotting-to-kill-stories-about-rev-jeremiah-wright/


I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting the feeling that the charge of racism has been thrown around so much and so recklessly in the age of Obama that it is losing it's power. The left needs to reread the tale of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." And when it comes to talking points evidently it is the left who has made it into an art form.


Is the Health Insurance Mandate a Tax?

Yesterday the Justice Department laid out it's argument that the mandate on Health Insurance is constitutional because it is a tax and the government has the power to tax. But it appears some lawyers tend to disagree.

"In brief, the argument is: The tax is not an excise tax, and it could not be
a constitutional excise tax because it is not uniform. The tax is not an income tax, and it could not be a constitutional income tax, because it is not a tax on derived income. Accordingly, the tax must be a capitation or direct tax. Article I, section 9 provides: “No capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid,
unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be
taken.” The tax is not apportioned, and therefore is contrary to Article I, section 9."

http://volokh.com/2010/07/20/of-constitutional-decapitation-and-healthcare/

Polling information

Republicans now hold a 9 point lead on Democrats in the generic congressional poll.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/generic_congressional_ballot

Obama is a -17% in the strongly approve/strongly disapprove poll. He's done worse but this appears to be the territory he is in.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

And here's Rasmussen's summary of what the polls told us last week.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/weekly_updates/what_they_told_us_reviewing_last_week_s_key_polls

Does the Obama Administration have a problem with the truth?

After 18 months in office we can look at some facts and have to wonder about how truthful this administration is.

Healthcare Mandate

Obama swore he wouldn't raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 per year. Now in response to legal cases being brought by the states regarding healthcare, this administration is claiming the requirement to buy healthcare is a TAX. This despite the fact that during the debate on healthcare, the Administration swore this requirement was NOT A TAX. This is a double lie. It wasn't a tax but now it is and no one earning less than $250,000 would see ANY KIND of tax increase.

Abortion

The Obama administration will soon employ tax-payer funds to pay for abortions in Pennsylvania. According to CNS, the “Health and Human Services Department is giving Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new high-risk insurance pool that will cover any abortion that is legal in the state.”

This is despite the fact that Obama said it wouldn't do this and that he issued an executive order to that effect. It turns out that an executive order cannot countermand a law. Now either Obama is a constitutional scholar and knew this, or he is a very bad constitutional scholar.

The War on Man made disasters (previously the War on Terror)

Obama had actually pleasantly surprised conservatives but has disappointed liberals. If you are a liberal this is where you see Obama's lying. You can watch John Stewart here and how he characterizes this.


http://tv.gawker.com/5564642/jon-stewart-blasts-obama-for-war+related-lies-broken-promises

Stimulous Bill

We have been treated to a constantly changing numbers on the number of jobs created or saved. Biden is touting 3 million while on the website he is responsible for it say less than 700,000. And 90% of these were supposed to be in the private sector when Obama was trying to pass the stimulus.

Deficit

Obama and the Democrats in general were budget hawks when they were running for office. After getting in office rather than cutting the Bush deficit they have tripled it. Of course they have a mature explanation for this. Bush started it.

Reality and It's isn't pretty if you are a Democrat

Reality comes a knocking

The Democrats are getting a look at reality as more and more polls show them in huge trouble for the coming election. Robert Gibbs admitted as much last Sunday.

"Liberal radio talk-show host Bill Press has teed up the latter option in
response to Obama's weak poll numbers. According to Press, the American public
doesn't deserve a leader as effective and farsighted as Obama. 'It just shows
once again that the American people are spoiled," Press says. "As a people, we
are too critical. We are too quick to rush to judgment. We are too negative. We
are too impatient.'"

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/07/16/democrats_are_in_denial_about_november_106347.html

I can agree with Press on one thing. The American public doesn't deserve a leader like Barack Obama. We deserve much better.

The Oil flowing into the Gulf has finally stopped.

It's an interesting story on where the solution came from.

"Six weeks ago, Robert Bea, an engineering professor at the University of
California, Berkeley, received a late-night call from an apologetic "mystery
plumber." The caller said he had a sketch for how to solve the problem at the
bottom of the Gulf. It was a design for a containment cap that would fit snugly
over the top of the failed blowout preventer at the heart of the Gulf oil spill.

Professor Bea, a former Shell executive and well-regarded researcher,
thought the idea looked good and sent the sketches directly to the US Coast
Guard and to a clearinghouse set up to glean ideas from outside sources for how
to cap the stubborn Macondo well. "

http://http//www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/oil-has-stopped-moment

In the age of Obama, it is interesting that someone without a lot of degrees or even someone who didn't work for the government came up with a solution that eluded the so called experts. I do believe in America exceptionalism.

Former DOJ Colleagues Confirm Whistleblower Adams’ Accusations

Former FEC Commissioner Hans A. von Spakovsky (pictured at left): “I can confirm a number of facts stated by Mr. Adams in his testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights about the voter intimidation lawsuit filed against the New Black Panther Party and several individual defendants.”

http://http//pajamasmedia.com/blog/affidavit-of-former-fec-commissioner-hans-von-spakovsky/

A brief explanation of the Obama's Justice Department and enforcing Civil Rights Law.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_a9vpo5ec

Liberals should really be concerned

Liberals should really be concerned as a PPP poll shows Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich leading Obama if they ran for President against him. But panic should set in when they see the Sarah Palin is tied with him.

"According to the poll, Obama "trails Mitt Romney 46-43, Mike Huckabee
47-45, Newt Gingrich 46-45, and is even tied with Sarah Palin at 46. The only
person tested he leads is Jan Brewer, who doesn't have particularly high name
recognition on the national level at this point."

http://http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/16/poll-obama-losing-to-romney-huck-and-newt-tied-with-palin/

Jobs, AGW, and Budget

Do these people actually believe what they say?

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi declared yesterday that unemployment insurance
"It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name."

I would have to disagree with her. While it may stop unemployment from going higher, I don't think unemployment insurance is enough to start a recovery. So people will use the money for food, rent, etc., but they won't be going out on shopping sprees and buying big ticket items with the proceeds.

What is scary is that these people are running things.

Global Warming Alarmist blames Senator Robert Byrd's death on AGW.

Brad Johnson in a twitter said:

"June's record heat felled Robert Byrd, 18 other Americans. Will we wake up
to the fossil fuel #climate threat?"

Of course the truth always tends to be a bit more complicated. You can read it here:

http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2010/07/alarmist-brad-johnson-suggests-that.html


House Democrats ‘Deem’ Faux $1.1 Trillion Budget ‘as Passed’

Last night, in an act of cowardice, and as part of a procedural vote on the emergency war supplemental bill, House Democrats attached a document that "deemed as passed" a non-existent $1.12 trillion budget. The execution of the "deeming" document allows Democrats to start spending money for Fiscal Year 2011 without the pesky constraints of a budget

Now many democrat supporters thought that the Republicans using "supplemental" bills to finance the war was an attempt to hide the cost of the war. It now appears the Democrats have gone one better and are attempting to hide the cost of their entire budget!

As the World Turns

So What to the Smart people think?

John Horgan, director of the Stevens Institute of Technology Center for Science Writings –

"My students confirm one of Chris’s points: it’s often the smartest and
best-informed who are the most skeptical of global warming. Unfortunately, classroom dialogue usually makes them dig in deeper rather than bringing them around to the “right” (i.e, my own) point of view. "

Is Homosexual Marriage a Human Right?

According to the the European Court of Human Rights the answer is no.

European nations do not have to allow same-sex marriage, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled, though gay rights groups claimed a partial victory Friday because the court acknowledged growing agreement that their relationships should be recognized in law.

Seven judges at the European court ruled unanimously that two Austrian men denied permission to wed were not covered by the guarantee of the right to marry enshrined in Europe's human rights convention.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5igM8F4LEfcn4EMpHF5tI6O5tV8gAD9GID7300

Coloradans favor an Arizona Immigration law for Colorado

61% of people polled favor an Arizona type immigration law for Colorado. 34% oppose it and 5% are undecided. Once again, the Democrat party finds itself on the wrong side of public opinion. November is going to be a nightmare for you if you are a Democrat.

http://www.greeleytribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100621/NEWS/100629974/1051&ParentProfile=1001

Independent voters are now indistinquishable from Republicans

Earlier this month, Resurgent Republic conducted focus groups in five key House districts, measuring how independent voters and, separately, self-identified tea-party members felt about the direction of the country.

What they found wasn't simply bad news for President Obama and congressional Democrats, but simply dismal news. Asked to compare Obama to a car, one Iowan chose an Edsel: “Something that had a lot of hype, but failed to live up to expectations.” Another older man described Obama as “a wrecked Ferrari, something that looked great to many people, but was now ruined.”

“Independents are now thinking about the same issues that Republicans are, and their thinking is virtually indistinguishable from Republicans,” he said. “Independents are really engaged, they are really paying attention. That is not normal; usually independents are a little tuned out.”

Better Late Than Never

On June 29, over seventy days after the Gulf oil spill, the U.S. Department of State released the following statement:

"The National Incident Command and the Federal On Scene Coordinator have
determined that there is a resource need for boom and skimmers that can be met
by offers of assistance from foreign governments and international bodies. The United States will accept 22 offers of assistance from 12 countries
and international bodies, including two high speed skimmers and fire
containment boom from Japan. We are currently working out the particular
modalities of delivering the offered assistance. Further details will be
forthcoming once these arrangements are complete."