Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Obama vs SCOTUS, Oil, the Recovery....

What’s new Today

Story #1 relates how President Obama is going after the Supreme Court.  From his words you have to wonder where anyone got the idea that he is a Constitutional Scholar.  #2 looks at the silver lining of having Barack Obama as president.  He may have ushered in the end of the Progressive movement.  #3 describes how the Democrats while complaining that the economy their inherited was the worst since the Depression fail to mention the recovery is the worst ever.  #4 looks at while liberals are unpleasant to be around.  #5 relates how Obama says one thing regarding oil and does something entirely different with his actions.  #6 is a great example of the MSM bias.  #7 talks of HHS Secretary Sebelius attributing the rise in asthma to violence.  #8 looks at science which attributes the rise in asthma due to acetaminophen.  Finally #9 reviews Sarah Palin’s cohosting on the Today Show (she did well). 



1.  Obama and the Democrats sharpen their knives for SCOTUS




"Ultimately I am confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented extraordinary event by overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected congress," Obama told reporters today while speaking with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon. "I'm confident that this will be upheld because it should be upheld." Obama concluded.




This statement from what the press calls a Constitutional scholar is ridiculous.  I will be upheld because it should be upheld?  What law book did he find that in?  An unprecedented event?  Since when is the Supreme Court ruling a law is unconstitutional unprecedented?  But a president attacking a SCOTUS decisions before it is announced isn’t unprecedented, but it is rare. 









2.  Barack Obama and the end of the Progressive Era

The people of a nation that has experienced unprecedented peace and prosperity for an extended period of time are often lulled to sleep, believing there will never be an end to their good fortune. Many powerful countries throughout history have floundered and decayed as they gradually descended into chaos, not realizing the ultimate fate that awaited them. However, the United States has been granted an opportunity to escape this fate through what appears to be a long-term disaster potentially turning out to be its long-term salvation. That event is the election of Barack Obama as president.

Over the past fifty years, regardless of who was in the White House or in charge of Congress, no one has been able to halt the incessant spread of left-wing radicalism in the nation's institutions, as well as the exponential growth of a federal government with its tentacles increasingly intertwined in the day-to-day lives of all Americans. As long as the people remained largely disengaged, the potential damage to society as a whole and to the financial health of the country was unknown to the vast majority of the population.

Over the past three years, this indifference has begun to change as the reality of the nation's future and the motives and tactics of those on the left have come into focus. But that reality has come to the fore solely as the result of the aggressive implementation of left-wing policies by the current administration combined with a two-year Democrat supermajority in Congress which allowed the progressives to pursue their vision of America unopposed and unencumbered…

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/04/barack_obama_and_the_end_of_the_progressive_era.html#ixzz1qyTDFe83


What is ironic is how the left is unhappy with Obama for not being more leftist in his policies.  They see him as too willing to compromise rather than being too leftist for the country.  He will be the last democrat to be elected President for quite a while and it won’t be because he was too moderate. 









3.   Worst Recession since the Depression or worst recovery ever?




How many times have we heard that this was the worst recession since the Great Depression? That may be true—although the double-dip recession of the early 1980s was about comparable. Less publicized is that our current recovery pales in comparison with most other recoveries, including the one following the Great Depression.

The Great Depression started with major economic contractions in 1930, '31, '32 and '33. In the three following years, the economy rebounded strongly with growth rates of 11%, 9% and 13%, respectively.

The current recovery began in the second half of 2009, but economic growth has been weak. Growth in 2010 was 3% and in 2011 it was 1.7%. Who knows what 2012 will bring, but the current growth rate looks to be about 2%, according to the consensus of economists recently polled by Blue Chip Economic Indicators. Sadly, we have never really recovered from the recession. The economy has not even returned to its long-term growth rate and is certainly not making up for lost ground. No doubt, there are favorable economic numbers to be found, but overall we continue to struggle….


Expect to hear more about this when the election gets closer.  That is why Obama is a goner.



4.  Why are liberals so unpleasant to be around?

1) They're unhappy: Study after study shows that conservatives are happier people than liberals. The difference can be staggering….

2) Liberals don't care as much about tradition: Although it goes without saying that people who worship change for change's sake don't care very much about customs, you might wonder why that would make such a big difference. Well, as Thomas Sowell has noted, "Civilization has been aptly called a 'thin crust over a volcano.' The anointed are constantly picking at that crust."

In many cases, societal conventions represent the accumulated wisdom of previous generations...

3) Liberals see people who disagree as evil: Liberals see themselves as part of a Manichean struggle in which they’re trying to create Utopia on earth while they’re being opposed by people who want to do evil for evil’s sake. In other words, liberals are about as complex as your average comic book from the fifties. …

4) Liberals aren't very religious: Liberals are overwhelmingly either atheists or agnostics, people who don't take their religious beliefs very seriously in the first place, or people who allow their ideology to completely subvert their religious beliefs. This is no small matter because religion is one of the great civilizing forces….

5) Liberalism encourages arrogance: Liberals tend to believe they're brilliant, compassionate, moral, enlightened, perceptive, and courageous, not because of anything they've actually done, but just because they're liberal. When you completely divorce a person's self image from his behavior, it produces terrible results -- like liberals who hurl abuse at conservative women while believing that they're feminists or selfish left-wingers who've never given a dime to charity, but believe themselves to be much more compassionate than people who tithe 10% of their income.

Now, on some level, liberals know this is all a big sham…


A well written look at liberalism to which I concur.  I especially thought point 2 was very insightful.  Robert Kennedy is quoted as saying, “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.”  I find this to be the epitome of stupidity.  If you study history you will find why not.  Most things Kennedy and other liberals dream of have been shown to not work. 












5.  As if the price of gasoline isn’t high enough

The Interior Department announces a five-year environmental study of offshore oil sites along the Atlantic coast with possible drilling off the Old Dominion in 2018 — only seven years after a promised lease sale.

Despite taking credit for rising oil production on private and state lands he has nothing to do with, and claiming he supports opening up areas for domestic exploration as part of his "all-of-the-above" energy policy, President Obama in fact despises domestic fossil fuel production and moves to block it at every opportunity.

During a visit to Norfolk, Va., last week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management director Tommy Beaudreau released a draft document for public comment on plans for oil exploration, drilling and possible lease sales off the Atlantic coast from Florida to New Jersey.

It's yet another delaying tactic, part of the administration's study forever, drill never strategy.

The Interior Department announcement set in motion a five-year environmental and seismic study of offshore areas, including off the Virginia coast, but no actual lease sales and drilling. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell notes that a planned lease sale, which the administration canceled last year, will now be put off until at least 2018…


Waste money on favored contributors and unproven technology while turning down proven technology that will create good jobs seems to be the MO for this administration.  In the meantime the EPA has attacked West Virginia and coal in general.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Joe Manchin change parties.





 


 


6.  Former Treasurer Tim Cahill indicted over Lottery ads


Running $1.5 million in ads that pumped up leadership at the Lottery while Timothy P. Cahill was waging a losing campaign for governor is at the heart of today’s indictment of the former state treasurer, Attorney General Martha Coakley said.

Cahill, 53, who left office after the failed run for the Corner Office, was charged with procurement fraud and criminal ethics violations for using the taxpayer cash to lift his profile, the AG alleged at an afternoon press conference. Cahill faces up to five years in jail and a $10,00 fine for each count if found guilty….

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view/20220402source_former_treasurer_tim_cahill_indicted/srvc=home&position=0

Why I posted this was not for the story, but rather what isn’t mentioned.  I was going to go to the point where they mentioned what party Cahill was in, but that never came.  I had to go online to find out he was a Democrat.  Of course I really didn’t have to go online to find that out.  It was conspicuous in its absence.







7.  Sebelius warns violence leads to asthma

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Monday that youth violence is a “chronic health issue” that can lead to asthma, obesity, or depression for "the youth who are involved," although she did not make clear whether she was speaking solely about the victims of youth violence or the perpetrators or both.

“But it's important to remember--you just heard from the law enforcement side of this--it’s important to remember that the costs of violence go beyond deaths or injuries or tolls on families and communities,” Sebelius said at a Department of Justice conference Monday on youth violence. “Violence is also a chronic health issue.”

“It leads to asthma, it leads to obesity or depression among the youth who are involved,” Sebelius said at the event in Washington, D.C…




Sebelius appears to be a fool.  Although it has been known that violence could increase the symptoms of asthma, there is very little evidence that it causes asthma.  If you want to know the cause for the increase in asthma read on.



8.  What is the best guess as to the cause of Asthma?

A story in the New York Times reported on this recently. The idea is that acetaminophen causes asthma. In the 1980's, when the epidemic began, doctors started recommending that parents treat their infants' pain and fever with acetaminophen rather than aspirin because aspirin had been found to cause Reyes’Syndrome.  So, Tylenol sales took off. And, not too long after that, so did inhaler sales. More than 20 STUDIES that show this association have now been published, and it's starting to look strong, not only based on epidemiological measures such as the strength of the association (the strength of the association between air pollution and low risk was strong too, but more on that below), but with a fairly substantial understanding of the biological mechanism that could explain the risk.


In fact, acetaminophen has a strong likelihood of a causal relationship, but no one truly knows the cause.  But for the Secretary of HHS to say violence causes asthma is like the people who insist salt causes high blood pressure.  It doesn’t, but it makes people with high blood pressure get even higher blood pressure from retained water. 





9.  Sarah Palin and the Today Show

All in all, Palin put in a more than solid performance. She never seemed to be on the defensive, never seemed put out by any of the subtle and overt hostility around her, and was never shy about advancing conservatives and conservatism. During the segment on Oprah’s flailing network, for instance, while lauding Winfrey’s entrepreneurial spirit and her honesty in admitting mistakes, Palin said that she hoped the network would succeed and that Winfrey would get some conservative shows on. Deutsch lamely jumped in and said Oprah should hire liberals, but no one on the set even paid attention to him. With good reason, too, since Deutsch’s own show is little watched, and Winfrey has already tried liberals like Rosie O’Donnell, and has already failed with them. Going to the middle or right would at least be a creative choice for Winfrey to consider. Palin’s advice was thus an advancement of conservatism and practical advice for Winfrey to turn her flailing network around. One only needs to look at the failure of Air America, the struggles of leftward tilting MSNBC, the dominance of Fox News Channel, and conservatives in talk radio to see that Palin knows what she’s talking about, purely from a programming perspective.

Palin was quick witted, informed, personable, and beautiful guest hosting Today. She looked like she belonged there and brought a different energy to the show. Once she was gone, Today quickly returned to its blandly liberal self. Whoever came up with the idea of having her guest host deserves credit for thinking creatively and boldly to bring her in. It was a good show all around.


It was a good idea to have her guest host, but I’m sure liberals are disappointed that she didn’t fall flat on her face.  As it is now, some smart TV people may want her to host her own morning TV show.  From the left’s point of view it was a lose/lose proposition. 


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