The Angry Left

Nation’s Mood at Lowest Level in Two Years, Poll Shows

AMERICANS ARE MORE PESSIMISTIC ABOUT THE NATION’S ECONOMIC OUTLOOK AND OVERALL DIRECTION THAN THEY HAVE BEEN AT ANY TIME SINCE PRESIDENT OBAMA’S FIRST TWO MONTHS IN OFFICE, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Amid rising gas prices, stubborn unemployment and a cacophonous debate in Washington over the federal government’s ability to meet its future obligations, THE POLL PRESENTS STARK EVIDENCE THAT THE SLOW, IF UNSTEADY, GAINS IN PUBLIC CONFIDENCE EARLIER THIS YEAR THAT A RECOVERY WAS UNDER WAY ARE NOW ALL BUT GONE

.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/us/22poll.html?_r=1


If you are looking for Obama to be reelected, this is not good news.



Where are the angry Liberals?

These are good days to be a member of Congress. Your job is not popular, per se, and neither is the institution you work for. But AT LEAST YOU'RE NOT GETTING YELLED AT. A controversial Republican budget just passed the House, you're home in your district, and THE ANGER THAT CURDLED TOWN HALL MEETINGS FOR MEMBERS OF THE LAST CONGRESS IS REALLY NOWHERE TO BE SEEN….

http://www.slate.com/id/2291844/

An interesting observation here. Where are the angry liberals protesting?



Here are the angry liberals

A crowd of half a dozen protesters concerned with the Wikileaks story disrupted the Obama event at the St. Regis Hotel, with Oakland activist Naomi Pitcairn organizing the event for the GROUP WHICH CALLS ITSELF FRESHJUICEPARTY.COM; SHE PERSONALLY PAID $76,000 TOTAL FOR TICKETS FOR THE GROUP TO GAIN ENTRY TO THE HIGH PRICED FUNDRAISER, SHE TOLD US.

THE PROGRESSIVE GROUP PROTESTED what they called the inhumane treatment of Pvt. Bradley Manning in the Wikileaks case. Their protest song — which included lyrics: “WE PAID OUR DUES..WHERE’S OUR CHANGE?” — was sung in its entirety for Obama, who thanked them at the end of the a capella performance

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/A-76000-Obama-Protest-Song-120376699.html


This is another problem for Obama. Those who should be protesting the Republicans instead are protesting him. From the sound of who wasn’t there, that billion dollar fund raising goal may not be realistic.



The Unhappy President

ONE CAN UNDERSTAND HIS FRUSTRATION. The guy who once said to a reporter during the 2008 campaign, “You know, I actually believe my own bulls***” about fundamentally transforming America, is now forced to run as a reactionary, defending “Medicare as we know it” from “radicals” who — gasp! — want to change America. The overrated and inexperienced politician, accustomed to nothing but adulation, who was swept into office thanks to discontent with the incumbent, IS NOW HIMSELF THE INCUMBENT DESPERATELY TRYING TO EXPLAIN HOW HE’S DONE NOTHING WRONG.


He demonized George W. Bush as an evil fool, but Obama has been forced to adopt many of the very policies he derided as evil and foolish. THE “CHANGE” CANDIDATE IS NOW THE “MORE OF THE SAME” GUY….

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/265430/unhappy-president-jonah-goldberg

I enjoy Jonah Goldberg’s writing. Here’s another good one.



And more protests on Earth Day

It probably won't get much press coverage, but today President Barack Obama will be met at the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City WITH A PROTEST (FEATURING KIM KARDASHIAN!) THAT SPECIFICALLY–AND ACCURATELY–ACCUSES HIM OF BREAKING AN EXPLICIT CAMPAIGN PROMISE: TO OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZE AS PRESIDENT THE TURKISH GENOCIDE OF ARMENIANS nearly a century ago.

http://reason.com/blog/2011/04/21/kim-kardashian-others-protest


Hey, wait a minute, these folks are protesting a Nobel Prize winner!!



Medicare: Here’s the truth

….Reforming Medicare is a comparative issue. It is (or ought to be - if the Republicans are minimally competent) a choice and not a referendum on one particular approach. WE AREN'T REALLY ARGUING ABOUT MEDICARE CUTS. WE AREN'T EVEN ARGUING ABOUT MEDICARE CUTS VS. TAX CUTS. PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS ALREADY CUT MEDICARE BY HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS. HE HAS NOW PROPOSED TO CUT MEDICARE BY OVER A TRILLION MORE. He has proposed to give a panel of unelected bureaucrats the power to impose service cuts. So our choice is a market-oriented reform in which seniors would have more options (and maybe more disposable income) and a centralized government system in which the government slams the door in your face when and how the government decides. Even so, the Republicans could still lose this argument because...

http://nlt.ashbrook.org/2011/04/a-better-strategery-and-better-chosen-ground.php

We are arguing about saving medicare.

IPAB Is an Acronym for 'Death Panel'

Contemplating the 2012 election that can already be seen looming on the distant horizon, the President's advisors were no doubt hoping that the "death panel" debate was… well… dead. But OBAMA HIMSELF INADVERTENTLY RESURRECTED IT WHEN, IN RESPONSE TO REPUBLICAN BUDGET PROPOSALS, HE CLAIMED THAT MEDICARE COSTS WILL BE KEPT UNDER CONTROL BY THE INDEPENDENT PAYMENT ADVISORY BOARD (IPAB). Obamacare opponents have been screaming about this committee since it was first added to the "reform" bill. And, since that time, anyone with the temerity to call it by its proper name -- death panel -- has been vilified by the Democrats and the "news" media. Nonetheless, that's precisely what IPAB will be. ITS SOLE PURPOSE IS TO CUT FUNDING FOR SOME HEALTH CARE SERVICES SENIORS NOW TAKE FOR GRANTED. AND THOSE CUTS WILL KILL PEOPLE.

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/04/22/ipab-is-an-acronym-for-death-p

This is a big deal. You’ll be hearing a lot more about the IPAB in the future. Obama has already decided to have a fixed Medicare budget and these folks will be able to ratchet down the budget even further. What this means is rationing and this rationing will kill older Americans. Death Panels is the correct term for what they will do.



What do Light Bulbs Have to do with the Commerce Clause?

Rand Paul, freshman US Senator from Kentucky, at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing last month, summed up in a few choice sentences the Democratic Party progressive agenda:

You're really anti-choice on every consumer item that you've listed here, including light bulbs, refrigerators, toilets -- you name it, YOU CAN'T GO AROUND YOUR HOUSE WITHOUT BEING TOLD WHAT TO BUY... You raise the cost of all the items with your rules, all your notions that you know what's best for me….

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/04/what_do_light_bulbs_have_to_do.html

This is well worth reading. The Commerce Clause will be redefined one way or another when Obamacare is decided by SCOTUS.



Earth Day: A secular religion

….As all this suggests, environmentalism has become our newest religion. According to Joel Garreau, professor of law, culture and values at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, A RELIGION IS CHARACTERIZED BY “A DISTINCTION BETWEEN SACRED AND PROFANE OBJECTS; A MORAL CODE; FEELINGS OF AWE, MYSTERY AND GUILT; ADORATION IN THE PRESENCE OF SACRED OBJECTS AND DURING RITUALS; A WORLDVIEW THAT INCLUDES A NOTION OF WHERE THE INDIVIDUAL FITS; AND A COHESIVE SOCIAL GROUP OF THE LIKEMINDED.” Environmentalism, Garreau concluded in an article last year, fits this definition of religion very well.

Environmental historian William Cronon of the University of Wisconsin, Madison — president-elect of the American Historical Association — writes of environmentalism that it has “certain landscapes — usually the wildest and most natural ones — [that] are celebrated as sacred”; it is “openly prophetic”; it develops frequent “parallels to biblical prophecy in the Hebrew and Christian traditions”; AND IT OFFERS “PRACTICAL MORAL GUIDANCE ABOUT VIRTUALLY EVERY ASPECT OF DAILY LIFE….FROM THE APOCALYPTIC TO THE MUNDANE…..”

http://dailycaller.com/2011/04/21/earth-day-a-national-establishment-of-religion/#ixzz1KFLBrRwS

And this religion is not simply allowed in our schools, it is celebrated there.



Global Warming: Earth Day’s secular sacred belief

Our government is in the process of imposing strict controls to reduce greenhouse gases in hopes of staving off global warming even though earth's atmosphere is cooling.

Monday's Washington Post included an op-ed piece by Fred Hiatt titled On climate change, the GOP is lost in never-never land. IT WASN'T A PARTICULARLY GOOD ARTICLE BECAUSE IT WAS UNFOCUSED AND DISJOINTED, BUT ITS THEME WAS CLEAR. HIATT THINKS REPUBLICANS LIVE IN A FANTASY WORLD AND THAT CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL IS JUST ONE EXAMPLE OF THEIR GRAND DELUSION.

I'm not a Republican or a Republican Party apologist. I'm an ordinary citizen who's interested in the facts, AND THE FACTS ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE TELL A TALE THAT MR. HIATT AND PEOPLE OF HIS ILK CAN'T OR WON'T ACCEPT. THE CLIMATE IS CHANGING ALRIGHT, BUT IT'S GETTING COOLER - NOT WARMER. At this point, the only way to have missed that fact is to have bought into the liberal progressive lie that global warming is destroying the planet so completely that you refuse to even consider evidence calling it into question.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/04/the_climate_is_changing_alrigh.html


Climate change from a political viewpoint is dead. People are worried about the economy, about the deficit, about their children’s future. Here’s a face saving idea for the left. Declare that the Kyoto Accord worked and the climate is actually getting cooler. Declare victory.




SEC off the hook for Madoff

In Molchatsky v. U.S. (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 19, 2011), the federal district court held that two Madoff victims could not sue the U.S. government under the Federal Tort Claims Act for the SEC's "gross negligence" in failing to discover the fraud. The opinion recounts at some length the allegations of the agency's ineptitude, largely taken from the SEC Office of Inspector General's Report, but nevertheless ultimately agrees with the government that the agency's conduct is protected under the Discretionary Function Exception (DFE) of the Federal Tort Claims Act. Because the SEC's decision regarding whom to investigate and how to conduct an investigation are discretionary, any negligence or even abuse of that discretion is shielded from suit by sovereign immunity.

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/securities/2011/04/madoff-victims-cant-sue-government-for-secs-incompetence.html/


Sovereign immunity is something that lets the government skate where a private concern would find itself sued and frequently criminally liable. And yet the left keeps looking to turn more over to the government