Illegals get a break from Obama

Thought for Today

On why you shouldn’t compare Obama’s spending to that of a drunken sailor.
As one drunken sailor pointed out, “WHEN I RAN OUT OF MONEY, I STOPPED SPENDING.”




Obama to deport illegals by ‘priority’

Bowing to pressure from immigrant rights activists, the Obama administration said Thursday that IT WILL HALT DEPORTATION PROCEEDINGS ON A CASE-BY-CASE BASIS AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WHO MEET CERTAIN CRITERIA, such as attending school, having family in the military or having primary responsible for other family members’ care.
The move marks a major step for President Obama, who for months has said he does not have broad categorical authority to halt deportations and said he must follow the laws as Congress has written them.

But in letters to Congress on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she does have discretion to focus on “priorities” and that her department and the Justice Department will review all ongoing cases to see who meets the new criteria.

“This case-by-case approach will enhance public safety,” she said. “Immigration judges will be able to more swiftly adjudicate high-priority cases, such as those involving convicted felons.”…

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/18/new-dhs-rules-cancel-deportations/

Ah, deciding which laws to enforce and which laws to ignore. Now all of this isn’t necessarily bad, but shouldn’t congress change the law?

How many other laws is the Obama Administration Violating?

… On October 25, 2010, HHS NEW MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR JULIA EISMAN SENT AN EMAIL TO OGILVY SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT IMANI GREEN, READING, "Given the high performance, we're wondering if we should we consider reallocating resources from the lesser performing words and PUT MORE $$ TO ‘OBAMACARE’ - AT LEAST FOR THE NEXT 7 DAYS." SEVEN DAYS FROM OCTOBER 25, 2010, WAS NOVEMBER 2ND, ELECTION DAY.
"There is nothing special about November 2nd other than the fact that it was Election Day," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told The Examiner. "What possible reason could the Obama HHS have for maximizing their propaganda dollars in the seven days before Election Day other than to elect Democrats? THIS SEEMS TO BE A BLATANT VIOLATION OF THE HATCH ACT, among other laws. Congress needs to get on the ball and investigate," he concluded.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/obama-hhs-caught-campaigning-democrats

Keeping track is getting difficult because there are so many.



Reagan Was Right

On Thursday, the Dow was off about 500 points in the first hour, presumably based on fears of European bank and sovereign failures.

The talking heads on CNBC were beside themselves, rationalizing what was happening and what should be done -- the Federal Reserve should initiate QE3, more fiscal stimulus should be used, etc. etc. ALL SPOKE OF THE NEED FOR GOVERNMENT SOLUTIONS AND QUICK ACTIONS.

By 10:30 I could take no more of "the government must do something." GOVERNMENTS CANNOT SOLVE THIS PROBLEM. THEY CAUSED IT! INTERVENING WILL ONLY MAKE THE PROBLEM WORSE.

There is an inherent problem in government, all governments. It leads to situations like the current one and then progresses to much worse. This problem, discussed below, eventually leads to the collapse of economies if not civilizations….

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/08/political_parisitology.html

Government is not the solution. Government is the problem. RR had it right.


Kerry’s chief defender loses his Silver Star

… On March 16, 1969, Wade Sanders was a junior-grade Navy lieutenant serving under Captain Roy Hoffmann, the senior commander for all Swift boat operations in Vietnam. In 2004, after retiring as a Rear Admiral, Hoffmann took the lead in forming the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. When QUESTIONS AROSE ABOUT SANDERS' SILVER STAR IN 2009, THE NCIS CONTACTED HOFFMANN, WHO AGREED TO REVIEW HIS RECORDS AND PROVIDE A DEPOSITION.

Privately, HOFFMANN HAD ENTERTAINED DOUBTS ABOUT THE AWARD FOR SEVERAL YEARS, SINCE HE FIRST NOTICED A SILVER STAR ON SANDERS' JACKET AT ADMIRAL ELMO ZUMWALT'S FUNERAL IN 2000. Hoffmann had no idea where the award had come from. He was certain that he would have known about any engagement that qualified for such a high-level decoration.

During the investigation that followed, THE NAVY WAS UNABLE TO SUBSTANTIATE THE MISSION THAT SANDERS' CITATION DESCRIBED -- THERE WAS NO AFTER-ACTION REPORT, NO MEDICAL REPORT, NO OFFICIAL RECORD OF ANY KIND. Hoffmann also discovered that the Swift boat Sanders claimed to have used was not available on the date of the purported engagement, having been temporarily assigned to a nearby Inshore Undersea Warfare Group (IUWG).

"...and the processing of the award itself"
The revocation of Sanders' Silver Star is an extremely rare event. Doug Sterner, curator of military awards for MilitaryTimes.com, told the Navy Times that he was not aware of any similar action by the Navy in more than 90 years….

…Navy sources told reporters that Sanders was responsible for what they referred to as "administrative errors" in the creation of the award, and said that HE "MAY HAVE LIED."
Other veterans familiar with the case question whether the Navy awarded a Silver Star to Sanders in the first place. THEY BELIEVE HE FABRICATED THE DOCUMENTATION WHILE HE WAS A HIGH-RANKING PENTAGON OFFICIAL, IN A POSITION THAT WOULD HAVE OFFERED READY ACCESS TO HIS OWN PERSONNEL FILE. Sanders was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Reserves by President Clinton on July 22, 1993, and remained in the job until 1998.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/08/did_kerrys_swift_boat_hatchet_man_fake_his_own_silver_star.html

There’s a lot more in the article. As a former Navy man, I was curious about how this could have come about. It appears Sanders had no honor.


McDonnell announces $544.8 million budget surplus

GOV. BOB MCDONNELL (R) ANNOUNCED THURSDAY THAT VIRGINIA HAS FINISHED ITS FISCAL YEAR WITH A SURPLUS OF $544.8 MILLION THROUGH HIGHER-THAN-EXPECTED TAX REVENUE AND SAVINGS.

Last month, McDonnell announced that the state had a surplus of $311 million on June 30, the close of the year, but Thursday told legislators his administration has been able to save an additional $234.1 million.

Virginia law calls for the bulk of the money to be put into the state’s rainy day fund and spent on K-12 education, transportation and Chesapeake Bay cleanup.

McDonnell has proposed giving some of the unspent balance to sheriff’s offices across the state and to localities hit by recent tornadoes in southwest Virginia, as well as shoring up the pension system.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/mcdonnell-announces-5448-million-budget-surplus/2011/08/18/gIQATrITNJ_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_buzz

See what happens when you come to your senses and elect a Republican?

Obama’s 2012 Strategy

… Obama may be preparing unexpected policy wonders at Martha’s Vineyard, but he cannot change the fact that he made a bad bet. In 2009, he assumed that a staggering economy would recover in a normal cyclical fashion, just in time for his reelection. So he spent his political capital on the largely irrelevant issue of health care. Now he wants to become the jobs candidate, mainly through the repetition of the word “jobs.”…

… For voters, however, this prospect is daunting. Obama’s least attractive public attributes are his peevishness and blame-shifting. Do we really have to endure a presidential campaign based on those traits?

And this strategy must be a comedown for at least some of the idealists who elected Obama in the first place. Following expectations few presidents have raised as high, Obama has transformed into the most typical of politicians. There is little distinctive, elevated or inspirational about his message or his tactics. And this adds an unwanted accomplishment: the further political disillusionment of a nation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-obama-faces-an-uphill-run-for-reelection/2011/08/17/gIQAk0IWOJ_story.html

Hope and Change is being replaced by “Blame and Attack.” Obama and the Democrats are in a position where they can’t win if they run on the actual issues and their record. So this is a “Hail Mary” strategy in which they are down to the final two minutes and are 24 points behind.


Not Living Up to the Hype

Flanked by a cadre of local political leaders, MAYOR CHUCK REED OF SAN JOSE USED A RIBBON-CUTTING CEREMONY FOR A SOLAR POWER COMPANY LAST WEEK TO TALK UP THE PROMISE OF THE GREEN ECONOMY.

Mr. Reed called the opening of the new headquarters of SolFocus, which produces large, free-standing solar panels, an “enormously important” development for the city’s economy.

“Clean technology is the next wave of innovation that Silicon Valley needs to capture,” the mayor said, noting that the SAN JOSE CITY COUNCIL HAD COMMITTED TO INCREASING THE NUMBER OF “GREEN JOBS” IN THE CITY TO 25,000 BY 2022. San Jose currently has 4,350 such jobs, according to city officials.

But SolFocus assembles its solar panels in China, and THE NEW SAN JOSE HEADQUARTERS EMPLOYS JUST 90 PEOPLE.
In the Bay Area as in much of the country, the green economy is not proving to be the job-creation engine that many politicians envisioned. President Obama once pledged to create five million green jobs over 10 years. Gov. Jerry Brown promised 500,000 clean-technology jobs statewide by the end of the decade. BUT THE RESULTS SO FAR SUGGEST SUCH NUMBERS ARE A PIPE DREAM.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/us/19bcgreen.html?_r=1

I liked the referral of the green jobs as a pipe dream. The term “pipe dream” comes from the 19th Century and alluded to dreams that came to people who smoked opium. The whole “green energy” movement needs to be asked, “What are you folks smoking?”

Tuesday: We thought we were richer than we were

Politics
Obama '12: The record he’ll run on

President Obama is described — or demagogued, depending on your view — as many mutually exclusive things; he’s been called a left-wing or socialist ideologue, but also a pragmatist and post-partisan dealmaker.

The 44th president is more elusive than many of his predecessors, and yet THE 2012 ELECTION WILL BE ALL ABOUT HIM.

But even if the man himself is difficult to define, his achievements and failures with regard to his 2008 campaign promises are much more concrete.

Obama cannot be accused of being a do-nothing president; what is unclear is whether his progress toward his goals will hurt or help him

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/164815-obama-2012-the-record-hell-run-on

Be sure to read the comments on the article. As one person said, the title should be Obama 12: The record he’ll run from.

Tyler Cowen: The Great Stagnation

Businessweek has a very flattering article on Tyler Cowen and how his book The Great Stagnation HAS PROMPTED A SHIFT IN THE DEBATE ABOUT POOR ECONOMIC GROWTH. Having read the book I strongly recommend reading it.

The Great Stagnation runs through three centuries' worth of what Cowen calls THE "LOW-HANGING FRUIT" OF ECONOMIC GROWTH: FREE LAND, TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGHS, AND SMART KIDS WAITING TO BE EDUCATED. FOR DEVELOPED ECONOMIES, HE ARGUES, NONE OF THESE REMAINS TO BE PLUCKED.

Even more important than land, in my view, is energy. As Peter Tertzakian pointed out in his book A Thousand Barrels a Second, previous energy transitions of the last couple of centuries WERE TO ENERGY SOURCES THAT WERE CHEAPER AND/OR MORE CONVENIENT. The transition to petroleum combined both cost and convenience advantages. For example, the transition from coal to oil for heating eliminated the need to load coal into the furnace and to clean out ash. OIL ENABLED A HUGE GROWTH IN PRODUCTIVITY OF FARM EQUIPMENT, CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT, AND IN THE TRANSPORTATION OF HUMANS AND GOODS. The orders of magnitude increases in energy usage made possible our high living standards far more than did widespread college education. Many of the technological innovations were basically to use petroleum in more ways (e.g. to power jet engines). Our problem: Supplies of our most convenient fuel are looking pretty limited. What passes for good news on oil supplies (e.g. hydraulic fracturing of tight oil shale) costs more and projected flow rates aren't high enough to enable a return to the years of substantial annual increases in oil production.

"WE THOUGHT WE WERE RICHER THAN WE WERE."

Yet America, Europe, and Japan have built political and social institutions on the assumption of endless growth. Cowen summarizes the financial crisis in eight words: "We thought we were richer than we were."

It's not that he disagrees with any of the better-known explanations for the crisis—easy credit, flawed ratings—it's that he sees a more fundamental problem, ONE THAT CAN'T BE FIXED WITH REGULATION, BAILOUTS, OR TAX CUTS. Cowen thinks that now that America has used up the frontier, educated all of the farm kids, and built a couple of cars for every family, WE MIGHT BE DONE GROWING FOR AWHILE.

A slowing or halting of growth is highly problematic because SO MUCH HAS BEEN SET UP BASED ON THE ASSUMPTION OF CONTINUED ECONOMIC GROWTH AT A RATE CLOSE THE POST-WWII AVERAGE. Debt instruments have been issued and entitlements promised based on assumptions about long term growth that are not realistic. Pension funds project their funding needs based on rates of return from their stock market investments that are too optimistic. EVEN WORSE, WE COULD BE LOOKING AT SOMETHING EVEN MORE PAINFUL THAN STAGNATION: A RECEDING TIDE OF PROSPERITY.

http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/008110.html

I definitely agree about energy being a huge factor in our prosperity. The industrial revolution wasn’t so much a revolution of machinery, but a revolution of power. This appears to be a very important book to read.

Elites: Give us some respect!

Since the very first tax-day Tea Parties popped up in April 2009, a raging sense of puffed-up indignation has possessed our ruling class. Emerging as the single truly bipartisan issue of our day, this how-dare-they-question-us obsession has grown from spurts of shocked angst among media talking heads to hands-on-the-hips Capitol Hill lectures to full-blown rhetorical assaults on populist candidates.

JUST AS ALL HUMAN BEINGS FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL HAVE, OUR OWN RULING CLASS OF ELITES CRAVE THE ONE THING WHICH MUST STILL BE EARNED -- R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Unfortunately, our elites just can't get no respect from the people. This irks them down to the marrow of their souls. From sunup to sundown, day after day, they squirm and fret and bellow for the respect they've lost among the governed….

….POLICIES LONG HERALDED AS THE CURE FOR ALL THAT AILS NOW HAVE BECOME THE OOZING BOILS ON A DISEASED ECONOMY and every American middle-class family bears the pain.

THE HOME-OWNERSHIP-FOR-EVERYONE PUSH, backed by both parties for decades, has brought us a devastating bubble-burst, with worse housing-price declines than the Great Depression. OUR GOVERNMENT-RUN "EDUCATION" SYSTEM, operated by unions dedicated to feathering their own nests, under discipline constraints that ensure chaos, has produced whole generations of illiterate "graduates," who are unfit for any workplace. GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRATS, in a shoddy, self-justifying system designed by our elites, choke our entrepreneurial engines of success with ever-growing ropes of regulation.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/why_our_elites_just_cant_get_no_respect.html

The article goes on to praise Sarah Palin and her message, “We are Americans.” It’s a another way of looking at what the book above is talking about. It raises the question of can we recover?

Weiner fesses up

Embattled Rep. Anthony Weiner admitted to posting lewd photos of himself on Twitter at a Monday afternoon press conference.

While addressing the media at the Sheraton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, Weiner made the following statement: “LAST FRIDAY NIGHT I TWEETED A PHOTOGRAPH OF MYSELF THAT I INTENDED TO SEND AS DIRECT MESSAGE AS PART OF A JOKE TO A WOMAN IN SEATTLE. ONCE I REALIZED I POSTED IT TO TWITTER, I PANICKED, I TOOK IT DOWN AND SAID THAT I HAD BEEN HACKED. I THEN CONTINUED WITH THAT STORY TO STICK TO THAT STORY WHICH WAS A HUGELY REGRETTABLE MISTAKE.”

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/06/06/shirtless-photos-allegedly-of-anthony-weiner-posted-on-biggovernment-com/

I guess the little brain was in charge here.

Science

Stem Cell Therapy To Fix Broken Bones

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have shown in an animal study that TRANSPLANTATION OF ADULT STEM CELLS ENRICHED WITH A BONE-REGENERATING HORMONE CAN HELP MEND BONE FRACTURES THAT ARE NOT HEALING PROPERLY. The UNC study team led by Anna Spagnoli, MD, associate professor of pediatrics and biomedical engineering, demonstrated that stem cells manufactured with the regenerative hormone insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) become bone cells and also help the cells within broken bones repair the fracture, thereby speeding the healing. The new findings are presented Sunday, June 5, 2011 at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.
Peak bone mass is reached most often in one's 20s. Well, WHY WAIT FOR BROKEN BONES BEFORE DELIVERING STEM CELL THERAPIES? ONCE YOUTHFUL BONE STEM CELL THERAPY BECOMES AVAILABLE IT WILL MAKE SENSE TO GET IT ONES 40S OR 50S TO REVERSE THE BONE LOSS LONG BEFORE BREAKS BECOME A RISK.

http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/008121.html

This is some very good news. One factor you frequently see is some older person will break their hip and this starts the beginning of the end. A therapy like this could eliminate needless death and reduce costs of medicine.

History

Palin was right

You may have heard recently something about that Sarah Palin telling a reporter that Paul Revere warned the British on his famous rousing revolutionary ride.

Now, that so many Americans have wallowed in their smug confirmation that Palin is an idiot unqualified for anything but repeating sixth-grade history, how far, wide and fast do you think the contradictory news will spread that THE FORMER GOVERNOR OF ALASKA WAS INDEED CORRECT?

That the Republican non-candidate, in fact, knew more about the actual facts of Revere's midnight ride than ALL THOSE IDIOTS UNKNOWINGLY REVEALING THEIR OWN IGNORANCE BY LAUGHING AT HER FAUX FAUX PAS? HOW SECRETLY EMBARRASSING THIS MUST BE, TO BE FORCED TO FACE THAT YOU'RE DUMBER THAN THE REPUTED DUMMY.

As it happens, though, such phenomena are regular occurrences in American politics, reminding consumers of news to be wary when some fresh story seems to fit contemporary assumptions so absolutely perfectly.

The well-known fable is Revere's late-night ride to warn fellow revolutionaries that....

...the British were coming. LESS KNOWN, OBVIOUSLY, IS THE REST OF THE EVENING'S EVENTS IN WHICH REVERE WAS CAPTURED BY SAID REDCOATS AND DID INDEED DEFIANTLY WARN THEM OF THE AWAKENED MILITIA AWAITING THEIR ARRIVAL AHEAD AND OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION'S INEVITABLE VICTORY.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/06/sarah-palin-says-paul-revere-warned-the-british.html

Ideology is one thing, but stupidity is forever. And the left keeps demonstrating a strong bias for stupidity.