Palin to tour: Possible candidate?
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R), who has been largely out of the public eye through much of the spring, WILL REEMERGE SUNDAY AS SHE BEGINS A NATIONAL BUS TOUR THAT WILL PUT HER BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT and no doubt renew speculation about a possible presidential bid.
The tour, the first of what will be A SERIES OF SUCH JOURNEYS OVER A PERIOD OF WEEKS, will start on Sunday in Washington at the annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally and work its way north along the East Coast. She will visit other parts of the country later, stopping at symbolically important sites in the nation’s history.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/palin-readies-east-coast-tour-amid-presidential-speculation/2011/05/26/AGGhZ5BH_story.html
Things are getting interesting.
Is it legal?
Capping a week of political bickering and parliamentary delays, the House joined the Senate on Thursday to approve a four-year extension of key provisions of the Patriot Act that are set to expire at midnight.
BECAUSE PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA IS TRAVELING IN EUROPE, A WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL SAID THE BILL WILL QUICKLY BE SIGNED INTO LAW USING AN AUTOPEN, a machine that replicates the president’s signature.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55803.html#ixzz1NXpnvENg
This is a bit like someone using the king’s seal.
DNC chairwoman doesn't drive American
THE CHAIRWOMAN OF THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE (DNC) APPEARS TO DRIVE A FOREIGN CAR, DESPITE CRITICIZING REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES FOR SUPPOSEDLY FAVORING FOREIGN AUTO MANUFACTURERS.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the chairwoman of the DNC, ripped into Republican presidential contenders who opposed President Obama's 2009 bailouts for General Motors and Chrysler.
"IF IT WERE UP TO THE CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT ON THE REPUBLICAN SIDE, WE WOULD BE DRIVING FOREIGN CARS; they would have let the auto industry in America go down the tubes," she said at a breakfast for reporters organized by The Christian Science Monitor.
But according to Florida motor vehicle records, the Wasserman Schultz household owns a 2010 Infiniti FX35, a Japanese car whose parent company is Nissan, another Japanese company. The car appears to be hers, since its license plate includes her initials.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/163567-dnc-chairwoman-doesnt-drive-american
Debbie is probably one of the best things to happen to the GOP.
Wasserman Schultz: GOP wars on women
In an emotional assault on the Republicans, new DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIRWOMAN REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SHULTZ TODAY CALLED THE GOP AGENDA "ANTI-WOMEN" AND "A WAR ON WOMEN" that will backfire on Republicans in the 2012 election and provide a cushion for President Obama's re-election bid.
"IT'S JUST SO HARD FOR ME TO GRASP HOW THEY COULD BE SO ANTI-WOMEN AS THEY ARE," she said at a breakfast roundtable with reporters.
"The pushback and the guttural reaction from women against the Republican's agenda out of the gate, the war on women that the Republicans have been waging since they took over the House, I think is going to not only restore but possibly helps us exceed the president's margin of victory in the next election," added the popular Florida congresswoman.
THE BASIS OF HER CHARGE WAS THE RECENT VOTE TO DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD AND TITLE 10 FUNDING FOR CLINICS THAT PERFORM ABORTIONS.
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/05/26/new-dnc-boss-calls-gop-anti-women
Little Debbie is at it again. Yesterday the GOP was against American Exceptionalism because they didn’t want to raise taxes, and now they are against women because they don’t want to fund abortion. I believe there is a pattern emerging.
Meanwhile MSNBC is really anti-woman
On Tuesday, MSNBC HOST ED SCHULTZ REFERRED TO RADIO SHOW HOST LAURA INGRAHAM AS A “SLUT.” In fact, the word flowed so effortlessly off his tongue, he referred to her as a “slut” twice in two sentences! Yesterday, Schultz made an on-air apology and took a self-imposed one-week suspension without pay.
But Schultz’s short work leave is hardly fodder for revelry. Schultz is but an annoying gnat in the misogynistic cesspool that is MSNBC. Under MSNBC President Phil Griffin, who has had executive oversight of MSNBC since 2006, THE CABLE NETWORK HAS DISPLAYED A CONSISTENT DISDAIN AND DISRESPECT FOR WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP AND PUBLIC LIFE. Which is why we the people, we the viewers, must demand that Griffin immediately institute corporate governance in the area of sexism — or, barring that, be terminated from his oversight position.
http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/26/msnbc-is-a-cesspool-of-misogyny/#ixzz1NXzWodnU
I guess calling someone a slut is not anti-woman if you are a democrat.
Obama's so smart, he sounds dumb?
In her weekly column, Meghan Daum defends President Obama's dialect and the manner in which he addresses an audience.
But consider this: It's not that Obama can't speak clearly. It's that he employs the intellectual stammer. Not to be confused with a stutter, which the president decidedly does not have, the intellectual stammer signals a brain that is moving so fast that the mouth can't keep up. The stammer is commonly found among university professors, characters in Woody Allen movies and public thinkers of the sort that might appear on C-SPAN but not CNN. If you're a member or a fan of that subset, chances are the president's stammer doesn't bother you; in fact, you might even love him for it (he sounds just like your grad school roommate, especially when he drank too much Scotch and attempted to expound on the Hegelian dialectic!).
http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2011/05/may-26-buzz-obamas-so-smart-he-sounds-dumb.html
One of the comments says it best: “Wow...what a spin. When Bush stumbled he was a dolt. When Obama stumbles he's an intellectual thinking so quickly he can't verbalize.”
Harry Reid’s ‘Pro Forma’ Leadership
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) is up to his usual tricks, opting not to fully adjourn the Senate for what would have been a week-long recess for the Memorial Day holiday. Instead, the SENATE WILL HAVE TO CONVENE FOR THREE SHORT “PRO FORMA” SESSIONS OVER THE NEXT TEN DAYS.
Earlier this week, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, had threatened to withhold his support for the unanimous consent agreement required to adjourn the Senate. SESSIONS DID SO OUT OF PROTEST AGAINST THE SENATE DEMOCRATS’ FAILURE TO PRODUCE A BUDGET RESOLUTION MORE THAN A MONTH AFTER THE APRIL 15 DEADLINE AS REQUIRED BY LAW, NOT TO MENTION THEIR HAVING GONE MORE THAN 750 DAYS WITHOUT PASSING A BUDGET.
Sessions’ threat, however, was merely symbolic in that Reid could always override the objection with a simple majority vote. Even if every single Republican opposed the unanimous consent to adjourn (and they would have), THE DEMOCRATS COULD NOT PREVENT THE SENATE FROM ADJOURNING. SIMPLY PUT, REID CHOSE NOT TO ADJOURN TO SPARE SENATE DEMOCRATS THE INDIGNITY OF VOTING THEMSELVES A VACATION DESPITE HAVING FAILED TO PRODUCE A BUDGET. Not only that, but Democrats did not a cast a single vote in favor of any of the four budget resolutions brought to “pro forma” votes on Wednesday, including the one offered by President Obama, which failed spectacularly, 97 to 0.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/268261/harry-reids-pro-forma-leadership-andrew-stiles
This also prevent BHO from making any recess appointments.
The Courts
Kagan’s conflict of interest
Judicial Watch, a public-interest watch dog group, just unearthed A CACHE OF E- MAILS SHOWING THAT ELENA KAGAN PARTICIPATED IN PREPARING THE GOVERNMENT'S DEFENSE OF OBAMACARE during her time as President Obama's solicitor general. By all precedent -- and her promise to the Senate Judiciary Committee she'd abide by "letter and spirit" of the law -- this should oblige Justice Kagan to recuse herself when the ObamaCare cases come before the Supreme Court.
BEFORE JOINING THE COURT, KAGAN SAID SHE WAS NOT INVOLVED IN THE JUSTICE DEPARMENT'S PREPARATIONS FOR THE INEVITABLE LEGAL CHALLENGES TO THE HEALTH-CARE "REFORM." But the e-mails suggest otherwise….
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/supreme_conflict_of_interest_BAPvXxWVs8hNxVvvPHlaRL#ixzz1NY1Hu7S5
Now is this lying on her part or just misremembering? It’s a good thing her name isn’t “Scooter.”
Social Security
Social Security permanently in the red
A few weeks ago, the annual reports of the Social Security and Medicare trustees were released. (For a very good explanation about who the trustees are and what these reports are for, read this piece by Chuck Blahous, a trustee.) Here are some of the important points that the reports bring to light:
1. From now on, Social Security will be running a permanent cash-flow deficit, which means that taxes collected for the program aren’t enough to cover the benefits paid to retirees. Starting now, the program will draw from the trust fund balances to keep payments to retirees going; in concrete terms, Treasury will borrow money to pay back the trust funds.
2. The Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted by 2036 — a year sooner than was projected last year. The trust fund determines the spending authority of the program: Without a positive balance in trust fund, the program won’t have the authority to pay out all benefits, only what the program collects in taxes — which means a cut in benefits across the board....
http://mercatus.org/expert_commentary/what-take-away-trustees-reports
Keep reading, it gets worse.
Medicare: The Facts
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS REPEATEDLY CLAIMED THAT THE HEALTH-REFORM BILL IT PASSED LAST YEAR IMPROVED MEDICARE'S FINANCES. Although you'd never know it from the current state of the Medicare debate—with the Republicans being portrayed as the Medicare Grinches—the claim is true only because OBAMACARE EXPLICITLY COMMITS TO CUTTING HEALTH-CARE SPENDING FOR THE ELDERLY AND THE DISABLED IN FUTURE YEARS.
Yet almost no one familiar with the numbers thinks that the planned brute-force cuts in Medicare spending are politically feasible. Last August, THE OFFICE OF THE MEDICARE ACTUARY PREDICTED THAT MEDICARE WILL BE PAYING DOCTORS LESS THAN WHAT MEDICAID PAYS BY THE END OF THIS DECADE AND, BY THEN, ONE IN SEVEN HOSPITALS WILL HAVE TO LEAVE THE MEDICARE SYSTEM.
But suppose the law is implemented just as it's written. In that case, according to the Medicare Trustees, Medicare's long-term unfunded liability fell by $53 trillion on the day ObamaCare was signed.
But at what cost to the elderly? Consider people reaching the age of 65 this year. UNDER THE NEW LAW, THE AVERAGE AMOUNT SPENT ON THESE ENROLLEES OVER THE REMAINDER OF THEIR LIVES WILL FALL BY ABOUT $36,000 AT TODAY'S PRICES. That sum of money is equivalent to about three years of benefits. For 55-year-olds, the spending decrease is about $62,000—or the equivalent of six years of benefits. For 45-year-olds, the loss is more than $105,000, or nine years of benefits.
IN TERMS OF THE SHEER DOLLARS INVOLVED, THE LAW'S REDUCTION IN FUTURE MEDICARE PAYMENTS IS THE EQUIVALENT OF RAISING THE ELIGIBILITY AGE FOR MEDICARE .....
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304066504576345732775990392.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
We may be moving to an Atlas Shrugged moment in healthcare.
The Economy
Joblessness rises again
New U.S. CLAIMS FOR UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS UNEXPECTEDLY CLIMBED TO 424,000 LAST WEEK from a revised 414,000 in the prior week, pointing to a painfully slow improvement in the nation's job markets.
The Labor Department on Thursday revised the prior week's claims number up from an originally reported 409,000. ECONOMISTS SURVEYED BY REUTERS HAD FORECAST THAT CLAIMS LAST WEEK WOULD DECLINE TO 400,000, RATHER THAN RISE.
The four-week moving average of unemployment claims, considered a better measure of trends since it smoothes out weekly variations, eased slightly to 438,500 from a revised 440,250.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43179580
Obamanomics doesn’t seem to be working very well.
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