It’s the Economy, Stupid
In a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, MITT ROMNEY LEADS PRESIDENT OBAMA among registered voters, 49 percent to 46 percent…
Matthews: Maybe the wife was partly responsible
MSNBC's CHRIS MATTHEWS BELIEVES REP. ANTHONY WEINER'S WIFE MAY BE "PARTLY RESPONSIBLE" FOR HIS SEXUAL MISCONDUCT BECAUSE THE CONGRESSMAN SAID SHE WAS AWARE OF HIS BEHAVIOR BEFORE THEY WERE MARRIED. Transcript below:
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC: "Yeah, but he says his wife knew. He laid it out on her."
JOHN FEEHERY, Republican strategist: "Which is a terrible, terrible mistake."
MATTHEWS: "WELL, MAYBE SHE'S PARTLY RESPONSIBLE if she knew about it?"
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/06/06/chris_matthews_on_weiners_wife_maybe_shes_partly_responsible.html
Isn’t this the equivalent of telling a woman who has been raped, not to dress so provocatively? I used to like Chris Matthews a long time ago when he was tough on everyone and hadn’t become a liberal stooge.
Weiner’s fall and what it represents
NEMESIS IS ALWAYS HOT ON THE TRAIL OF HUBRIS, across time and space, and the goddess has been particularly busy in destroying the carefully crafted images of Bono, John Edwards, Timothy Geithner, Al Gore, Eliot Spitzer, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Anthony Weiner, and a host of others. What do their tax hypocrisies, sexual indulgences, and aristocratic socialist lifestyles all have in common?
Collectively, they represent A SELF-APPOINTED OR ELECTED GLOBAL ELITE THAT OVERSEES, LECTURES ABOUT — IN SANCTIMONIOUS FASHION — THE ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE REDISTRIBUTIVE STATE.
http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/the-collapse-of-a-rotten-edifice-2/
In other words, we have the “do as I say, not as I do” crowd is telling us they should be in charge of telling us what to do.
Weiner lies shamelessly to ABC about what happened
....How creepy? CREEPY ENOUGH THAT ABC POSTED THIS FOOTAGE (which was recorded a few days ago, of course) just within the past hour and then sent around the link via e-mail. I didn’t go hunting through their archives for it, in other words; they’re pushing it on people tonight themselves because, understandably, THEY (A) WANT TO ATONE FOR HAVING AIRED THIS GUY’S LIES AS NEWS LAST WEEK AND (B) PRESUMABLY WANT THE WORLD TO SEE WHAT AN ALMOST PATHOLOGICALLY FLUID LIAR HE WAS WHEN CORNERED. The last 80 seconds of it will have you squirming in your seat — not only the way he claims to be the innocent target of a hoax but HIS INSISTENCE ON LECTURING THE INTERVIEWER FOR ASSUMING THE WORST, TAKING CARE TO MAINTAIN ACCUSATORY EYE CONTACT THE WHOLE WAY. It’s genuinely disturbing
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/06/06/creepy-must-see-flashback-weiner-lies-shamelessly-to-abc-about-what-happened/
I do believe it was this ability that made him a perfect spokesperson for the hard left in congress. He can lie not just without remorse, but with conviction!
Democratic leaders struggle with Weiner situation
So far, House Democratic leaders haven't publicly demanded Rep. Anthony Weiner resign after admitting he sent suggestive photos of himself in his underwear via Twitter and then lied about it to everyone within earshot.
BUT THEY'VE MADE IT CLEAR THEY'D APPRECIATE IT IF HE'D GO AWAY. AND SOON.
In statements within an hour of Weiner's stunning admission on Monday, NOT A SINGLE DEMOCRAT VOLUNTEERED SUPPORT FOR THE MAN LONG MENTIONED AS A POSSIBLE FUTURE MAYOR OF NEW YORK. And notably, none chose to comment on his defiant vow: "I am not resigning."
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the party leader, said she was "disappointed and saddened." She and other Democrats called for an ethics committee investigation to determine whether Weiner had broken any House …
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_weiner_analysis
Somehow I’m hearing Nancy and Harry singing “How do you solve a problem name Anthony? “
'Pig' pol is spanked by the voters
ANTHONY WEINER'S FUTURE IN THE 9TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT IS ABOUT AS SHAKY AS HIS NEW MARRIAGE.
The district he carried without breaking a sweat in November was ready to give him a swift kick to his Jockey boxer-briefs yesterday -- furious over everything from the seven-term congressman's crude online come-ons to younger women to the disrespect he showed his lovely new wife.
Weiner's teary mea culpa left many of his constituents in open-mouthed amazement -- stunned at the turn of events that saw the seemingly settled-down playboy suddenly embroiled in a tawdry sex scandal less than a year after his high-profile marriage to one of the Beltway's brainiest and most beautiful.
"HE'S A PIG," SAID DANIELLE CIONE, 35, A TEACHER WHO SUCCINCTLY SUMMED UP THE FEELINGS OF MANY OF WEINER'S FORMER SUPPORTERS.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/pig_pol_is_spanked_by_the_voters_AL9QMHPqhH23pK2FhMV48H#ixzz1ObyYaMLY
Weiner is unlikely to stay in office much longer.
Carville: 2012 could be very tough on Obama
Who ever thought the saying, “It’s the economy stupid,” from James Carville in 1992 would become a staple in presidential elections 20 years later?
That expression made its way into the campaign in 2008, and according to Carville, it could be the theme of the 2012 campaign as well as President Barack Obama seeks reelection. In an appearance on Monday’s “Imus in the Morning” on the Fox Business Network, the former Clinton adviser said that, based on the May jobs number, IF THE UNEMPLOYMENT PICTURE DOESN’T IMPROVE, 2012 COULD BE ROUGH FOR THE PRESIDENT.
http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/06/carville-2012-could-be-very-rough-for-obama-says-civil-unrest-imminently-possible/#ixzz1OaMI3Uvx
This is not really news, but with the left declaring Obama won reelection with the death of UBL, it’s good to remember what the real issues will be.
Pawlenty: ‘Let’s Grow the Economy by 5 percent’
Tim Pawlenty wants the U.S. to aim for an accelerated economic growth rate. In a speech to be delivered at the University of Chicago this morning, Pawlenty will outline the policies that he thinks can reinvigorate the country’s sputtering economy.
“LET’S START WITH A BIG, POSITIVE GOAL,” Pawlenty will say, according to excerpts of the speech released by Team Pawlenty this morning. “LET’S GROW THE ECONOMY BY FIVE PERCENT, INSTEAD OF THE ANEMIC TWO PERCENT ENVISIONED CURRENTLY.”
Among the proposals Pawlenty will push for are cutting the business tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent and ELIMINATING “SPECIAL INTEREST HANDOUTS, CARVE-OUTS,SUBSIDIES, AND LOOPHOLES” in the tax code. He is calling to change the individual tax rate to two rates: 10 percent for those making $50,000 or less (those who do not currently pay income taxes would still be exempt) and couples at $100,000 or less, and a 25 percent rate for all income above those levels. “A one-third cut in the bottom rate to allow younger, middle, and lower-income families to save and build wealth. And a 28 percent cut in the top rate to spur investment and job creation,” Pawlenty will say.
Pawlenty will also call for the elimination of the capital gains tax, interest income tax, dividends tax, and the death tax.
On spending, after touting his own record in Minnesota, Pawlenty will turn his attention to what he has dubbed “THE GOOGLE TEST,” WHICH PROPOSES THAT “IF YOU CAN FIND A GOOD OR SERVICE ON THE INTERNET, THEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PROBABLY DOESN’T NEED TO BE DOING IT.” Programs that don’t pass the Google threshold in Pawlenty’s mind include the “the post office, the government printing office, Amtrak, Fannie and Freddie.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/269005/pawlenty-let-s-grow-economy-5-percent-katrina-trinko
At first blush, I like this.
WPost Fact-Checker shreds Obama auto recovery claims
President Obama's claims to have saved the U.S. auto industry with government bailouts, takeovers and buyouts in 2009 don't quite square with the facts.
Actually, according to The WASHINGTON POST'S FACT CHECKER BY GLENN KESSLER, OBAMA'S CLAIMS ARE "ONE OF THE MOST MISLEADING COLLECTIONS OF ASSERTIONS WE HAVE SEEN IN A SHORT PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH. Virtually every claim by the president regarding the auto industry NEEDS AN ASTERISK, just like the fine print in that too-good-to-be-true car loan."
Obama routinely claims these days that U.S. taxpayers have received back more than the $8.5 billion loaned to Chrysler by the current occupant of the Oval Office. But, as Fact Checker points out, that doesn't include $4 billion from the government under President Bush....
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/06/wpost-fact-checker-shreds-obama-auto-recovery-claims#ixzz1ObbvHXXO
Honesty and the Democratic Party don’t seem to be close personal friends.
Obamacare
Kids are more important than seniors
The administration's regulatory czar tries to disavow his statement that A PROGRAM THAT SAVES YOUNG PEOPLE IS BETTER THAN ONE THAT SAVES THEIR PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS. IT'S CALLED RATIONING, AND ITS NAME IS OBAMACARE.
A commercial showing granny being pushed over a cliff by a person resembling Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was recently put out by the Agenda Project, implying that the Ryan budget will kill old people by changing Medicare.
For the sake of accuracy, granny should have been dispatched by a character resembling Cass Sunstein, President Obama's head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
The Ryan budget attempts to curb the explosive growth of entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security so they are there for granny without burdening the grandchildren with unconscionable debt. SUNSTEIN, AS WAS POINTED OUT DURING CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY LAST FRIDAY, LITERALLY BELIEVES GRANNY SHOULD BE SACRIFICED IN FAVOR OF THE KIDS.
Rather than ensuring that everyone get the best care possible, Sunstein wrote that government should rely instead on THE "VALUE OF A STATISTICAL LIFE YEAR" (VSLY), which would likely result in significantly lower benefit calculations for elderly people and significantly higher benefits for children.
GOVERNMENT WOULD ASSIGN A DOLLAR VALUE TO YOUR LIFE IN TERMS OF WHAT IT'S WORTH, AND IF YOU EXCEEDED THAT LIMIT, WELL, TOO BAD. Britain's National Health Service has a similar measure of cost-effectiveness called the "quality adjusted life year" to see if your life is worth saving….
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/574539/201106061903/Valuing-Seniors-Lives.htm
It appears Palin wasn’t just correct about Paul Revere, but she was correct about death panels as well and the Democrats are in the process of rationalizing pulling the plug on grandma.
The Ohio Farmer: The Lost Art of Legislation
To the Members of the 112th Congress:
One of the head-scratching moments of the congressional debate leading up to the passage last year of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as “Obamacare”) was then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s response when asked about the contents of the 2,000-page draft law [see Ohio Farmer Letter, "Reconstitutionalizing America"]. You recall that Speaker Pelosi said, “WE HAVE TO PASS THE BILL SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT’S IN IT.” She was not alone with this thought. Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee that had key jurisdiction over the health care bill, said something similar: “I DON’T THINK YOU WANT ME TO WASTE MY TIME TO READ EVERY PAGE OF THE HEALTH CARE BILL. YOU KNOW WHY? IT’S STATUTORY LANGUAGE. WE HIRE EXPERTS.”
Both comments generated considerable ridicule, especially from people who opposed the legislation. But both comments bring to light a fundamental fact of modern American government: CONGRESS NO LONGER “LEGISLATES” (that is, passes binding universal laws) in the way the Founders intended when they wrote the Constitution. Instead, CONGRESS PASSES GENERAL STATUTES CONTAINING POLICY GOALS, BUT DELEGATES THE POWER TO WRITE THE ACTUAL OPERATING LAWS TO EXECUTIVE BRANCH ADMINISTRATORS AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES. In practical terms, this means that the executive branch and independent administrative agencies, rather than Congress, actually determine the details—the real law as it will operate on citizens. This might be acceptable except that the process of administrative government is increasingly arbitrary, and arbitrary government is the very definition of lawlessness.
Some short sections of the health care law will require hundreds of pages of detailed regulations, which administrative experts are going to spend the next several years working out. Sen. Baucus is right: the statutory language does not tell you how the law will operate in practice. THE 2,000 PAGE STATUTE WILL GROW TO PERHAPS 30,000 PAGES BY THE TIME THE ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES FINISH FILLING IN THE BLANKS. Here is another wrinkle: the health care law shows that CONGRESS IS NOW PASSING “LAWS” THAT CANNOT TAKE EFFECT AS WRITTEN, BECAUSE THEY ARE SO WOEFULLY INCOMPLETE….
http://www.ohiofarmer.org/2011/06/the-lost-art-of-legislation.html
Here is something you do want to read and think about. This is very disturbing.
Social Security and Medicare
Reality and Social Security
Policy experts have focused on alternative ways of eliminating Social Security's 75-year financing gap, but lost in the debate is the fact that even under current law Social Security will provide less retirement income relative to previous earnings than it does today. Combine the already legislated reductions with potential cuts to close the financing gap, and Social Security may no longer be the mainstay of the retirement system for many people….
http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/112844/3-ways-social-security-payments-being-cut-smartmoney?mod=fidelity-livingretirement&cat=fidelity_2010_living_in_retirement
Less for everyone in the future.
Medicare: The Ryan Plan
According to analysis of the ObamaCare legislation, if the Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services determines that Medicare expenditures will exceed the target rate of growth specified in the law, THE IPAB MUST DEVELOP PROPOSALS TO REDUCE THOSE EXPENDITURES. While legislation states IPAB proposals cannot specifically ration medical care, IPAB can issue recommendations pertaining to Medicare payments to providers and suppliers which could not help but have the same effect. To make matters worse, CONGRESS SPECIFICALLY INSERTED WORDING ALLOWING IPAB RECOMMENDATIONS TO TAKE EFFECT WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL -- THUS EXEMPTING ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES FROM MAKING THE TOUGH CHOICES NEEDED. …
Ryan seeks to reverse this impending cost disaster by instituting a new program beginning no earlier than January 2021 affecting only those aged 55 and younger. The plan has the following major elements:
• PART A AND PART B TRUST FUNDS ARE COMBINED TO CREATE ONE UNIFIED TRUST FUND. …
• BY JANUARY 2021, INSURANCE COMPANIES MUST ESTABLISH COMPETING HEALTHCARE COVERAGE PLANS WITH SPECIFIED BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS….
• EACH PATIENT WOULD SELECT FROM THE APPROVED LIST A PLAN BEST MATCHING HIS OR HER EXPECTED HEALTHCARE NEEDS FOR THE COMING YEAR….
• Ryan currently estimates the reimbursement amount at an average $11,000 -- with further adjustment determined by income level. HIGHER-INCOME PATIENTS WOULD RECEIVE LESS PREMIUM ASSISTANCE. BENEFICIARIES WITH ANNUAL INCOMES BELOW $80,000 ($160,000 FOR COUPLES) WOULD RECEIVE FULL STANDARD PAYMENT AMOUNTS…
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/ok_just_what_is_the_ryan_medicare_plan.html
A good summary of what's in the Ryan Plan
Science
The edge of the solar system
THE EDGE OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM IS FILLED WITH A TURBULENT SEA OF MAGNETIC BUBBLES, according to new NASA research.
Scientists made the discovery by using a new computer model, which is based on data from NASA's twin Voyager probes. The unmanned Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, which launched in 1977, ARE PLYING THE OUTER REACHES OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, A REGION KNOWN AS THE HELIOSHEATH.
The new discovery suggests that researchers will need to revise their views about the solar system's edge, NASA officials said. A more detailed picture of this region is key to our understanding of how fast-moving particles known as cosmic rays are spawned, and how they reach near-Earth space....
http://www.space.com/11884-nasa-bubbles-solar-system-edge.html
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