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912 Patriots of Lower Bucks - Your Daily Updates ALL in ONE Place!
July 16, 2012
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Quote:
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
-William Pitt
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If you see a story that you believe would be useful and important to our readers, simply respond to this email with a link and a brief description of why it is important. (Even if it may be obvious)
If you wish to unsubscribe (and we hope you don't) please click the "safe unsubscribe" link.
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The 'Pre-Existing Condition' Hoax in ObamaTax
by Dr. Susan Berry 14 Jul 2012
We are told that one of the most "popular" features of the president's signature "ObamaTax" health insurance law is one that prevents health insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.
We are told that the ObamaTax will protect Americans with pre-existing conditions from nasty big health insurers, while Republicans and conservatives shrug their shoulders in "let them eat cake" fashion. Forget about the fact that the premise of the left's presentation is totally false, as it often is, since big health insurers and hospitals are loving ObamaTax because it will channel federal funds right to their doorsteps.
The truth is that, while a definite problem has prevailed for those with pre-existing medical conditions who have attempted to obtain health insurance coverage, that problem is small and manageable and can be adequately addressed with common-sense free market solutions. Most people, regardless of political ideology, want all Americans to be able to purchase health insurance coverage and gain access to care. The difference is not in the desire but in the policies that will get the job done. Neither Republicans nor Democrats have been successful in this endeavor to date.
With ObamaTax, the left has chosen a big government policy that will offer a very brief period of health care access to individuals with pre-existing conditions, followed by little or no access to care as Americans cope with long lines to see doctors. They will soon face an Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a group of unelected government bureaucrats, who, as their name says, will be more concerned with payment than health care.
Read more:
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Obama to business owners: 'You didn't build that'
FoxNews.com | Published July 15, 2012
 President Obama, in a speech to supporters, suggested business owners owe their success to government investment in infrastructure and other projects -- saying "if you've got a business, you didn't build that."
Obama's comment Friday during a campaign stop in Roanoke, Va., came just days after he urged Congress to extend tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration only to families earning less than $250,000 annually -- part of his argument that top earners have an obligation to pay more to trim the deficit.
. . . the president said. "If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own."
Read More . . .
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Activate: How to turn the 2012 election from a close call to a mandate
Last night, Glenn focused on the importance of commitment. He was the first to admit, a lot of last night's show was something you had heard before - but it's important to start at the beginning and to make sure you know what you believe before you get put into action. And tonight, Glenn revealed ways for you to really get moving!
Tonight, the focus of the show was "Activate" - and it was all about the election and how you can make sure that one way or another - 2012 is a year for a mandate for or against the progressives. And if you think it doesn't matter just take a look at what is happening right now in Wisconsin. Progressives and unions are doing everything they can to make sure that Walker loses. It's a microcosm to what is happening around the country, and Glenn thought it was so important that he recapped it on tonight's show (in under three minutes!):
Read more:
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Obama's Imperial Presidency Guts Welfare Reform
The imperial Presidency has overturned Congress and the law again. Not content to stop at rewriting immigration policy, education policy and energy policy, yesterday, President Obama's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an official policy directive rewriting the welfare reform law of 1996. The new policy guts the federal work requirements that were the foundation of the Clinton-era reform.
While this real news occurred yesterday, most of the media remained fixated on political ads and speeches, letting a major and unilateral shift in America's welfare system go nearly unreported.
Welfare reform replaced the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children with a new program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The Heritage Foundation played a pivotal role in building bipartisan consensus for the reform and providing many of the recommendations that became part of the law. The whole point was that able-bodied adults should be required to work or prepare for work as a condition of receiving welfare aid.
This reform was very successful. TANF became the only welfare program (out of more than 70) that promoted greater self-reliance. It moved 2.8 million families off the welfare rolls and into jobs so that they were providing for themselves. Child poverty fell, and single-parent employment rose. Recipients were required to perform at least 20-30 hours per week of work or job preparation activities in exchange for the cash benefit.
Now, Obama's HHS is claiming that it can waive those work requirements that are at the heart of the law, and without Congress's consent.
When it established TANF, Congress deliberately exempted or shielded nearly all of the TANF program from waiver authority. They explicitly did not want the law to be rewritten at the whim of HHS bureaucrats. In a December 2001, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service clarified that there was no authority to override work and other major requirements: "Effectively, there are no TANF waivers," it reported.
But that did not stop the Obama Administration, which has been increasing welfare spending at an alarming rate already. President Obama has added millions to the welfare rolls, and his Administration has come under fire lately for its efforts to expand and add more Americans to the food stamp program.
This is a chronic problem: Over the past two decades, welfare spending has grown more rapidly than Social Security and Medicare, education, and defense. The TANF reform was one small step in the direction of reducing Americans' dependence on government programs and getting them back on their feet. Cutting its work component is likely to unnecessarily swell the ranks of welfare recipients and with no way to pay for it.
Heritage experts Robert Rector and Kiki Bradley explained further in their comprehensive analysis of yesterday's announcement:
In the past, state bureaucrats have attempted to define activities such as hula dancing, attending Weight Watchers, and bed rest as "work." These dodges were blocked by the federal work standards. Now that the Obama Administration has abolished those standards, we can expect "work" in the TANF program to mean anything but work. The new welfare dictate issued by the Obama Administration clearly guts the law.
Obama certainly didn't tell people he was going to gut welfare reform when he was running for President in 2008-and why would he? "Welfare horror stories helped elect Ronald Reagan," wrote Mickey Kaus of The Daily Caller. "A promise to 'end welfare as we know it' elected President Clinton...And in 2008, Barack Obama didn't dare suggest that he wanted to do what he has done today."
While the 1996 welfare reform successfully moved people from welfare into work, it did not "end welfare as we know it." Now, however, the Obama Administration has ended welfare reform as we know it. The President cannot hide his disastrous unemployment record by depriving Americans of the hope of a job. He should immediately reverse this course, and offer constructive ideas for economic growth rather than government dependence.
Fact Sheet on Welfare Reform
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The Republican Jewish Coalition
encourages RJC members to attend the below event
Keneseth Israel Community Meeting
featuring
Democratic National Committee Chair,
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida)
let's make sure that the Republican Jewish perspective is heard loud and clear at this Obama rally featuring Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Reform Congregation - Keneseth Israel
8339 Old York Rd.
Elkins Park, PA 19027
Monday, July 16
7:00
Democratic Committee Chair, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D - Florida) will speak at Keneseth Israel in support of President Obama and his relationship to the Jewish community and the State of Israel.
You read that correctly -- in support of Obama!
Please consider attending this event! We need to ensure tough questions are asked, that the DNC and President Obama's record on Israel do not get a "free pass", and let it be known that we are not happy with their policies towards Israel!
This program is free and open to the community.
Representatives of Governor Romney
are being asked to speak at a later date (TBA).
For more information please call (215) 887-8700
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Robertson, along with co-host David Toy, Jim Seigfreid, Allen and Peggy as we confront the issues of the day with Constitutional solutions to the problems we were warned about by the Founders of this, the greatest nation to ever shine a light on the world. Our guests include some of the best and the brightest commentators and Patriots around.
www.blogtalkradio.com/teapartyorg
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Istook Live! Today, July 16
Washington, DC has a knack for distorting the truth and spinning stories. Enough is enough. After decades of experience in state politics and serving in the U.S. Congress, it's time for a principled voice with Capitol Hill experience to join talk radio.
We are pleased to announce the official launch tomorrow of a new radio show, Istook Live!, originating from The Heritage Foundation.
We will be engaging a vibrant conversation about what is happening in our nation's capital and the across our great nation. We won't shy away from any topic. I look forward to conversation with policy makers and those in positions of influence to discuss specific legislation, regulations, election developments and other issues that you, care about.
We would like to offer select Heritage supporters like you an opportunity to get involved.
Here's how you can engage with the show:
- Listen into the show from 9- 12 EST online though our website www.istook.com
- Call in to ask your questions at 855-4-ISTOOK (855-447-8665) during the live broadcast
- E-mail in your questions to info@istook.com (make sure to include your name and hometown)
- Leave your comments or questions on Istook Live's "24/7 Line," by phoning 855-4-ISTOOK (855-447-8665) and leaving your question or comment on a recording we could use on the show. Again, please be sure to include your name and hometown.
We look forward to having you join the launch of our new venture starting tomorrow.
Thank you for joining us in launching Istook Live!
Sincerely,
Ernest Istook
Host, Istook Live
and Distinguished Fellow, The Heritage Foundation
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The Kitchen Table Patriots would like to send you
to upcoming Fundraisers
Here are some fundraisers we would like you to consider attending on your own or as our guest. Send us an email at TheKitchenTablePatriots@GMail.com if you are interested in attending:
Anne Chapman for state Representative Fundraiser:
She is running for State Representative for District 31 (Yardley/Newtown area of Bucks County)
This seat was lost to the Democrats by less than 200 votes in 2010
When: Thursday, July 19, 2012 6PM - 9PM
Where: The Temperance House
5 South State Street, Newtown, PA
Cost: $60/per person; food and drinks included
Anthony Sposato Fundraiser
He is running for State Representative for District 141 (Levittown area of Bucks County)
This seat was lost to the Democrats by less than 200 votes in 2010
When: Wednesday, August 1, 2012 6PM - 8:30PM
Where: Knights of Columbus
1492 Woodbourne Road, Levittown, PA, 19057
Cost: $30/per person; food and drinks included
The Eagle Forum South Eastern PA Annual Event
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Some Problems with the showing of the Runaway Slave Movie
featuring C.L .Bryant
 | | Runaway Slave Music Video |
It is going to take all of us calling the Regal Warrington Crossing 22 movie theater and to request the showing of the movie on July 27th. They are located at RT 611 and County Line Road in Warrington. Everyone please call the theater manager at 215-918-1667. It may take a while to get through. |
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Yours in Liberty,
The Kitchen Table Patriots
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Dear Patriots,
I wanted to get out the information about the Romney HQ Grand Opening as soon as possible so you have it. I'll put together a summary of the July 12 meeting when I have more time.
It should be noted that we are not a shill for the moribund Republican establishment. You've got your RINOs, but don't forget you've also got your Mitch Daniels's and Scott Walkers and Steve Kings - true patriots. We should target our anger not at the Party, but at what's wrong with the party. We are working on that.
Bottom line, I think we all agree that the tide of the River Socialism is rising, and we ALL must come to the banks to stack sandbags. When it comes to fighting for liberty and America, come one come all. I think Dan's words last night were good, and spoken in earnest. The Repubs and the Tea Party have a single goal, to stave off this culture of entitlement, to stay out of world government, to knock down the imposition of our Federal govt. The R-party has tools we can use, we will use them and be happy warriors while doing it. I don't feel ashamed of working for Mitt anyway - he seems like a "good guy" (in that the left is clamoring for skeletons in the closet and failing miserably), and who knows, maybe he'll surprise us and bring the country together under liberty.
-Jim
Here's the flier for tomorrow.
Montgomery County Victory Center
Conshohocken Grand Opening Featuring Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey
Saturday July 14th, 2012 at 9:00am
- The Montgomery County Victory Center is celebrating its grand opening this Saturday, July 14 at 9:00am, and we are very excited to announce that Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey will be joining us to help open our office. This event will kick off our efforts to turn Montgomery County red this November, and to help restore fiscal accountability to Washington. Along with the morning festivities, we will be phone banking and door knocking, to make sure Montgomery County residents know the harm that Obama's economic policies are doing to the country.
- Our office is located at 200 West Ridge Pike, in Conshohocken, at the corner of Ridge and Butler Pike. We are in the Plymouth Square Shopping Center, in the old Rockaway Bedding store, located between the REI and the Pets Plus.
- Senator Pat Toomey represented the Lehigh Valley in Congress from 1999-2005, where he earned a name for himself as a strong fiscal conservative who was not afraid to buck his own party on spending. From 2005 until 2009 he served as the head of the Club for Growth, a pro-growth political action committee that promotes lower taxes, limited government, and economic freedom. In 2010 he rode the conservative wave into the US Senate, where he has distinguished himself as a fiscal conservative. Senator Toomey served on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction in the summer of 2011, and this fall he will become chair of the United States Senate Steering Committee, which focuses on conservative policy direction. He has proposed his own budget when Democrats in the Senate are now almost three years without drafting their own budget.
We look forward to seeing you on Saturday to help us take our country back and send Washington a message that their era of reckless spending is over.
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact Montgomery County Field Director, Perry Bentley, at (717)-686-2219 or at pbentley@pagop.org.
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Dear Fellow Conservative,
Registration for CPAC 2013 is now open! The American Conservative Union's legendary annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is scheduled for March 14-16, 2013 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.
Register Now for CPAC 2013
Don't miss your chance to help take our country back to the right. To register now and reserve your space, visit conservative.org.
Join the Celebration
In honor of CPAC's 40th Anniversary, we look forward to joining conservatives from across the nation for CPAC 2013, celebrating the accomplishments of the movement while also energizing the next generation of conservatives.
New Location
CPAC 2013 boasts a new location at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. Complimentary CPAC shuttle busses to and from the Gaylord Center will be available at convenient locations across the National Capitol Region. Details will be released in the coming weeks; please visit conservative.org for updates.
CPAC Past & Present
The ACU has hosted CPAC in the Nation's Capital since 1973, and it now stands as the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the country. Additionally, the ACU this year hosted two regional CPACs designed to energize and mobilize Midwest and Mountain West conservatives, giving them the tools needed to defeat the liberal agenda in 2012 while also highlighting rising conservative stars and issues in the region. Stay tuned for details on 2013 regional CPAC locations!
Interested in Sponsoring CPAC 2013?
National and local partners are critical to achieving a successful event. CPAC 2013 provides an excellent platform to promote your message and network with the leaders and activists who are on the frontlines of the conservative movement. We invite you to review the special opportunities available to join the action at CPAC 2013 by visiting conservative.org.
See you at the National Harbor!
The American Conservative Union
Questions regarding CPAC 2013 may be sent to cpac@conservative.org.
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This email was sent by: American Conservative Union
1331 H. St., NW Washington, DC, 20005,
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Join Us on Fridays and Take a Stand for Israel:
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By allowing our attention to be focused exclusively on the danger and prevention of terrorism, we ignore the many other ways we are being attacked. Specifically, we are missing what our Islamist enemies call their 'civilization jihad' - a form of warfare that employs manipulative financial techniques, lawfare, infiltration of our civil institutions and government and insidious information dominance. Together, these have the effect of exploiting our liberties and governing structures against us, so that our leaders wind up imposing the very anti-American values that our enemies promote.
Welcome to The Muslim Brotherhood in America: The Enemy Within - a 10-part, web-based video briefing that is designed to explain why and how this is happening.
It addresses a threat most Americans are unaware even exists within our country, let alone the degree of peril it represents.
The threat is the totalitarian, supremacist Islamic doctrine its adherents call "shariah" and the organized, disciplined and increasingly successful efforts by such adherents-- most especially the Muslim Brotherhood-- to bring it here.
We are making this course available in the hope of encouraging, informing and broadening support for national efforts to defeat the insinuation into this country of shariah's anti-constitutional and seditious program.
 | | Muslim Brotherhood in America: The Overview |
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 | | U.N. Me Official Theatrical Trailer |
U.N. Me will launch June 1st in select theaters and nationwide through video on demand!
For more info:
facebook.com/unmemovie
www.theunmovie.com
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An extremely important movie is coming this summer - Dinesh D'Souza - Obama & 2016
Dinesh D'Souza is author of many New York Times best sellers. The movie is from Gerald R. Molen, producer of Academy Award Winning Schindler's List.
It explains in plain language who Barack Obama really is, what he stands for, and the dangers of him being reelected for another four years.
Watch this short informative video preview of this movie and share it with others. It has already been seen by over 2,100,000 people. Within a very short time it will have been seen by millions! After you see the preview, listen to what Dinesh has to say about Obama. Please take the time to hear this and pass it on.
 | | Dinesh D'Souza - Obama & 2016 |
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"Losing our Sons": Documentary looks at domestic Islamic radicalization and jihadization
 Charles Jacobs at Americans for Peace and Tolerance announced today the release of a trailer for their upcoming documentary, "Losing Our Sons", featuring Melvin Bledsoe - father of domestic terrorist Carlos Bledsoe aka Abdulhakim Mohamed who gunned down US Army recruiter Pvt. William Long at an Army-Navy recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas in June 2009. Melvin Bledsoe testified at the House Homeland Security Committee hearing earlier this month.
The upcoming documentary discusses how Bledsoe was radicalized by the Muslim Student Association in Tennessee and sent to terrorist training in Yemen with the written recommendation of the imam of a Nashville mosque. It also discusses how the agents of radicalization in the Nashville Muslim community have been aided by collaborators in the establishment media, politics and the so-called "interfaith" community.
Go here for ordering information:
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The U.S. Constitution
A Reader
Divided into eleven sections with introductions by members of Hillsdale's Politics Department faculty, readings cover the principles of the American founding, the framing and structure of the Constitution, the secession crisis and the Civil War, the Progressive rejection of the Constitution, and the building of the administrative state based on Progressive principles.
About Hillsdale College
 Hillsdale College is a private, coeducational, residential, liberal arts college with approximately 1,400 students. Founded in 1844, the College remains, in the words of its Articles of Association, "grateful to God for the inestimable blessings resulting from the presence of civil and religious liberty and intelligent piety" in our nation, and dedicated to "the diffusion of sound learning" that is "essential to the perpetuity of these blessings."
Hillsdale College is distinguished by its rigorous core curriculum, by its principled rejection of federal and state taxpayer funding, and by the pledge of its Board of Trustees to resists any attempts by the government to regulate its internal affairs. Hillsdale College promotes the principles of liberty nationwide through its national speech digest, Imprimis, which has a monthly circulation of over 2 million, and through several outreach programs. In 2008, Hillsdale launched its Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C. The College will also launch the Hillsdale Graduate School of Statesmanship in fall 2012. |
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New Common Sense
Special Message
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Heritage's Timeless Reference Book Now Online
As a trusted reader of New Common Sense, the weekly e-mail from The Heritage Foundation, we wanted you to be the first to know about our new website ConstitutionOnline.com.
From the preamble to the 27
th
Amendment -- The Heritage Guide to the Constitution Online is a completely searchable reference tool with leading expert analysis of the Constitution. The site features clause by clause analysis of our timeless reference book, links to essays, as well as a teaching companion.
ConstitutionOnline.com provides clear, concise analysis for users who are trying to further their understanding of the Constitution.
No document is more central to securing "the Blessing of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" than the United States Constitution, and no website is more thorough than ConstitutionOnline.com.
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From July 16 through July 18, 2012, Christians United for Israel will be holding its 7th Annual Washington Summit. We're going back to stand with Israel in our nation's capital. This year - more than ever - we need you to join us!
In the coming months, critical decisions are going to be made about Iran, Israel and the world. Finally, Washington is beginning to focus on the issue of a nuclear Iran. Many of our leaders want to confront this looming threat. But others want to keep kicking the can down the road. The debate is far from over.
- We know that when thousands of CUFI activists arrive in DC and on Capitol Hill, we can change the conversation.
- We can remind our leaders that a nuclear Iran is not only a threat to Israel, but to the US as well. And we can demonstrate to our elected officials that their constituents care enough about this issue to show up at their DC offices.
- We know that we can create a sense of immediacy that's otherwise lacking.
- We know that the more of us who show up and speak out -- the louder our voice and the greater our impact.
We stand at a critical juncture in history. Don't be silent! Don't miss your chance to make a difference! Don't pass up your opportunity to defend America and bless Israel!
Our leaders need to remember that we are watching them and we need to remember that God is watching us.
The time to speak out for Israel is now!
Please register today for CUFI's 2012 DC Summit.
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FREE Training Conference
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Washington Dulles Airport Marriott
45020 Aviation Drive * Dulles, Virginia * (703) 471-9500
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Brigitte Gabriel and our National Staff want to personally invest our time with you and have worked hard to provide a FREE training for our members in the region around D.C.!
Please join us for the Northern Virginia Citizens in Action Training Conference.
If you are concerned about the growing threat of radical Islam and Sharia Law to our great land and you haven't seen a plan of action to meet this evil head on, here's your opportunity to join with us for real, measurable results.
Results that make a difference, not just a statement.
Our host team is working hard to deliver a day you won't forget. Plan on being there! Meet me and our growing team of professionals at the Dulles Airport Marriott on Saturday, August 18, 2012. Registration will start at 7:30 AM with the event starting at 8:30 AM and running through 5:00 PM.
Here are a few comments we have received from previous training seminars around the nation: |
"...After 8 hours in that chair ............. I was ready for another 8 hours - it seemed to end too soon..."
"I was literally stunned. Wow! Brigitte Gabriel has assembled an incredible team to support her message of action and hope!"
"...As much as the issue depresses me, and I could cry every time I think about what is happening to the West, I left yesterday's conference energized and inspired. The day reminded me that I am *not* alone, after all, in trying to resist the dangerous absurdity of radical Islam that is being forced on us. I'm in desperate need of such reminders, as I'm sure most of us are. Whenever I'm close to despair, I remind myself of Brigitte's message. Thank you so much for this incredible training day!"
"...What an amazing seminar!"
"...I have never spent a better $45, 104 miles and 12 hours!" (Previous pricing for a similar event. We're wanting to involve as many as possible from this region, so for this event only, it's free!)
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You can find out more and register online by clicking here.
Call the number above to reserve your room at the Marriott if you need to spend the night.
Your early registration really helps us plan accurately for materials and supplies needed! Thank you for doing it today!
I look forward to meeting you and looking into your eyes and thanking you for taking this stand with me. We will protect this nation!
Sincerely,
Brigitte Gabriel
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LISTEN LIVE TO REPATRIOT RADIO
"BETTER THAN EVER"
(all times are eastern)
Monday 3-4pm "Bordering on Insanity" - Sue Payne and Frosty Wooldridge
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The Case Against Obamacare: Health Care Policy Series for the 112th Congress
A Health Care Policy Series for the 112th Congress
Building on decades of Heritage research, The Case Against Obamacare: A Health Care Policy Series for the 112th Congress examines 15 key provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Each report:
- Cites specific sections of the 2,700-page health care law
- Provides detailed analysis of specific Obamacare provisions
- Identifies key principles for a better way to reform health care
The unmistakable conclusion of this series is that Obamacare must be fully repealed. Congress cannot build sound market-based health care reform on the flawed foundation of this health care law. Until it can be repealed, Congress must employ its full powers authorized by the Constitution to:
Read more and download the pdf:
For Tea Parties, this can be used as basic ammunition for letters to the editor, columns for your local news outlet, handouts at public events, emailing the pdf to our elected reps as well as to members, friends and neighbors. This appears to be an excellent resource; let's make use of it. Lou Flanagan The General Wayne Tea Party |
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Copyright © 2012 FrontPage Magazine, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website FRONTPAGEMAG.COM
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Video: Mitt Romney speaks to the NAACP convention
Posted: 12 Jul 2012 06:46 AM PDT
Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney addressed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) convention on Monday to deliver his campaign message. Romney received some booing at his mention of repealing ObamaCare yet did end the speech receiving a standing ovation.
Here is Romeny's complete 23 minute address:
Report from Business Week:
HOUSTON (AP) - Unflinching . . . → Read More: Video: Mitt Romney speaks to the NAACP convention
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699 doctors surveyed about what's happening with health care - better review this!
We'd all best become familiar with it - and share it with others.
http://www.doctorsandpatients.org/images/files/DPMA_SurveyResults.pdf
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Victory Center" on Facebook
-Gabriel Malor
Last week I had the opportunity to get a sneak-peek at the RNC's new Facebook application. Designed, in the words of one RNC staffer to "take our message where the people are," the Social Victory Center app will, among other things, hook users up with campaign news targeted based on their location and preferences (which Facebook already knows, of course), let users join volunteer efforts, distribute voter registration forms, and provide an online phone bank, all without leaving the Facebook website. It will also, if users wish, put those activities on the user's Facebook wall, letting their friends see what they're up to and, hopefully, encouraging them to join in.
It's an attempt to leverage Facebook's popularity in a new way and, at the moment, the Democrats have nothing like it. The Social Victory Center was unveiled to the public yesterday, so if you're on Facebook, check it out. As the general election ramps up, check back for volunteer activities as they're added. Also, like I did in 2008, I'll be pushing online phone banking in the final weeks of the election, only this time the RNC will have done the heavy-lifting that the McCain team wasn't too keen on. LINK: http://ace.mu.nu/
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RedState Morning Briefing
For July 16, 2012
1. Happy Birthday RedState. Will You Join Gov. Rick Scott and Me in Florida?
Josh Trevino posted this on January 24, 2004, at his blog Tacitus. Seven months later RedState.com came online.
We've come along way since 2004.
In our fifth year, we started the RedState Gathering. I put up a post without even telling my bosses at Eagle Publishing what I was up to. I just knew some of us wanted to get together in person after five years of knowing each other online. I asked who might be interested thinking 50 or so people would like to meet in Atlanta. Over 200 showed up. We've been doing the RedState Gathering ever since.
This year, the RedState Gathering will take place in Jacksonville, FL. Continuing a tradition Governor Rick Perry started in Austin, TX the second year of the Gathering, Governor Rick Scott will have a kick off party and welcome the attendees to his state.
Governor Rick Scott has been at the forefront of fighting socialized healthcare going all the way back to Hillarycare. In Florida, he has been a real leader on privatization, efficiency of government, and conservative transformation. RedState was one of the few sites that was willing to speak up on his behalf when he ran for Governor in 2010 and I am personally delighted he'll be joining us. He's a great, great guy.
So please join Governor Rick Scott, me, and the RedState contributors in Jacksonville, FL August 2nd to the 5th. Go to www.redstategathering.com to register. Time is running out.
2. Does the President Think The Government Got Him Where He Is Today?
It is a lie premised on Marxism. It really is. It is not hyperbole to say it. Prior to Marx, people did not clearly think of economics as class divided and did not think of the collective overriding the individual. Certainly the thinking was there sociologically, but not crystalized in economics.
As Daniel Henninger noted in the Wall Street Journal recently, "There is no theory anywhere in non-Marxist economics that says growth's primary engine is a social class. A middle class is the result of growth, not its cause. Barack Obama not only believes in class-based growth but has built his whole growth strategy around it."
Thus we arrive at President Obama's very troubling statement in Roanoke on Friday. He told the crowd
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me - because they want to give something back. They know they didn't - look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something - there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business - you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
This begs the question: does the President think government policies got him where he is?
3. The Democrats' Clown War On Science: FDA caught snooping on its own scientists.
Basic background: some scientists in the FDA have gotten concerned over whether certain approved devices for medical procedures (mammograms, colonoscopies) are actually dangerously radioactive. Said scientists have been making their concerns known; and apparently the FDA decided to monitor the scientists' communications for confidential or proprietary business information (this will be important later). So far, OK: but then the FDA decided that it was an absolutely brilliant idea to track and keep copies of said communication, including private emails. Note, by the way, that there is currently no indication that the scientists in question themselves revealed confidential or propriety business information.
4. Bain Kryptonite
Don't be silly. Mitt Romney's not a superhero (not mine, anyway).
But when it comes to the economy, the presumptive Republican nominee is the Man of Steel compared to the Democratic incumbent. So far, the Obama Administration has been a 3-1/2 year experiment to reconfirm that Keynesian Economics is deserving of history's dustbin.
5. DCCC covering up stalking videos?
People may recall that Politico published a story several days ago cataloging what appears to be a somewhat alarming trend: to wit, videos showing ostensible 'tracking' of Republican candidates by individuals. I say ostensible because the way that the videos come across are as rather obsessive stalking of said candidates. For example: while it is understood that a candidate will be followed around, casing a candidates's house from several different angles (account name: WI08RawFootage) or deliberately putting another candidate's address (account name: AR01RawFootage) online, is generally considered to be, well, creepy. And that's what is happening.
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July 16, 2012
It's Not Fair!
Ed Lasky
President Obama is right. There is a lot of unfairness in America. And he is the source of much of it. More
Dreams from Governor Abercrombie
Don Wilkie
That Abercrombie lied about Obama's early years is beyond any shadow of a doubt, but unless he's totally addled, he had to know that he was lying. More
IPCC Admits Its Past Reports Were Junk
Joseph L. Bast
So when do we get our money back? More
Israel's Oil Weapon
Gene Schwimmer
Seemingly out of nowhere, geopolitics have been all but turned upside down in the Middle East, thanks to the discovery of massive energy resources in Israeli territory. More
Labor Losses Imperil Democrats
Bruce Walker
Republicans ought to push the dinosaur of Big Labor as hard as they can. More
Do Obama's Executive Orders Reveal A Pattern?
Warren Beatty
I'm never comfortable with laws that give the government broad reaching powers in the event of a "national emergency," especially when there is no clear, set, unchangeable definition of what actually constitutes a "national emergency." More
Linda Lingle: The GOP's Senate Pick-Up in Hawaii?
Tom Thurlow
Will we be trading Olympia Snowe for a new senator across the ocean? More
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Tell a joke:
Q: What's the difference between a liberal and the rear end of a horse?
A: I don't know, either.
Say:
"My problem with Obama isn't that he's black. My problem with Obama is that he's a white liberal."
Teach your kids to read at a young age using the "synthetic phonics" method.
This annoys liberal teachers on so many levels. It will confirm them in their bitter view that middle class kids have an "unfair" advantage. It implies that teaching a child to read is much easier than liberal teachers like to pretend it is. It offends the trendy liberal view that children should be allowed to develop literacy skills as late as possible so that it doesn't interfere with their "creativity."
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Please pass this to everyone!
$3,065 TAX INCREASE PER TAX RETURN
FOR PENNSYLVANIA TAXPAYERS
by January 1, 2013
Click the picture below!
UNITEPA | Freedom & Liberty | Lancaster | PA | 17602
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Iran Infiltrates Canada, Calls to Attack America
by Christine Williams
July 11, 2012 at 3:30 am
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3162/iran-infiltrates-canada
Mohammadi's message drew the attention of U.S. terrorist experts, who noted that Canadians do not need visas to cross the border into the U.S.
Iran is expanding a "fifth column" in Canada. This warning, articulated by David Harris, former head of operations for the Canadian Intelligence Service and now a strategic intelligence expert, highlights some disturbing facts: many expatriates have been warning of the threat of Iranian diplomats conspiring in Canada; of the stealth workings of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, and there is evidence of Iranian infiltration in the school system.
Recent evidence bears out Harris's warning, as does the news that Iran is using its embassy in Canada to mobilize loyalists of the Islamic Republic to infiltrate the Canadian Government and attack the United States.
Read more:
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WND EXCLUSIVE
40,000 Iran agents in Western Hemisphere
Now hidden in Latin America, awaiting 'operations' against U.S.
Reza Kahlili served in the CIA Directorate of Operations, as a spy in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and counterterrorism expert. He currently teaches at the U.S. Department of Defense's Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy and serves as a senior fellow with EMPact America and on the newly formed federal Task Force on National and Homeland Security. He is the author of the award-winning book "A
Iran has expanded its terror network and now has tens of thousands of agents in Latin America, according to a former Iranian official who has witnessed the regime's crimes against humanity inside Iran and has knowledge of its terror network targeting the West.
In interviews with the opposition outside Iran, the official revealed that more than 40,000 of the regime's security, intelligence and propaganda forces successfully have been placed over time in Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Venezuela.
These forces consist mostly of former interrogators, torturers and security forces along with the members of the Quds Forces.
Many of them, according to the source, are other nationalities, such as Afghans, Lebanese, Iraqis and Somalis.
Read more:
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THE INTERFAITH TASKFORCE FOR AMERICA AND ISRAEL (ITAI)
123 S. Broad Street, Suite 1832, Philadelphia, PA 19109
Sunday, July15, 2012
Dear ITAI MEMBERS AND DONORS:
ITAI ON THE MOVE...ITAI congratulates Rev. Bill Borror of Media Presbyterian Church USA for his courageous stand against the anti-Israel divestment crowd at the PCUSA General Assembly which ended last Saturday. Charles Kahn, ITAI's chairman and Joseph Puder will be to meeting Rev. Borror early next month when he returns from Jerusalem.
This ITAI WEEKLY MIDDLE EAST REPORT is titled Obama Misleads Israel on Egypt. The White House extended an invitation to the newly elected President of Egypt Mohamed Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, without the latter's public commitment to uphold the peace with Israel...
OBAMA MISLEADS ISRAEL ON EGYPT
By: Joseph Puder
The British Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday, July 8, 2012 that "President Barack Obama has invited Egypt's newly elected Islamist president Mohamed Mursi to the U.S., and pledged a "new partnership" with the Arab nation. The official visit will coincide with the September opening of the General Assembly of the United Nations," said Egyptian aide Yasser Ali following a meeting between Mursi and US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, who was visiting Cairo. This invitation is reflective of attempts by the White House to cultivate new ties between Washington and Egypt's ruling Islamists. According to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz (7/8/12) this "move reflects a shift in Washington's policy to open formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood..."
On the heels of Burn's visit to Egypt, the State Department announced that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be also be visiting Egypt and then go on to Israel as part of an Asian tour; spending the 16th and 17th of July in Israel. In the meantime, the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government have had exchanges regarding Mursi's support for the 33-year old Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.
The news of Obama's invitation to Mursi caught the Israeli government and military leaders by surprise and, seems to be a breach of promises made by Obama to the American Jewish leaders who met with him last month in the White House. Obama, it appears, promised that Mursi would not be invited to the White House and that he will not have any contact with the Islamist president until Mursi meets certain conditions, the most important being that Mursi give a public and unambiguous commitment to uphold Egypt's 1979 Camp David Accords; the agreement which formalized peace between Egypt and Israel.
Conditions for American support of the new Egyptian Islamist regime were delivered to Cairo late last month and, according to the Debka File Washington sources, included: 1. The U.S. supports the resumption of the democratic process. 2. The Mursi regime must guarantee universal human rights, particularly the rights of religious minorities in Egypt, especially for the Copts, and for women. 3. Mursi must form a wide coalition government with the participation of all the major political parties in Egypt, and not merely a strictly Muslim Brotherhood government. 4. Washington expects Mursi to maintain peace with Israel. 5. The U.S. administration expects Mursi to publicly ratify the peace treaty with Israel. 6. The Obama administration seeks a determined war on terror emanating from the Sinai Peninsula and the return of Egyptian control there. 7.The U.S. expects to see an end to the anti-American and anti-western rhetoric in the Egyptian media and the cessions of the harassment against pro-democracy NGO's operating in Egypt. 8. Mursi will not be invited to the U.S. until the above conditions were fulfilled. 9. The Obama administration will not use its influence in the World Bank to ease Egypt's economic and financial difficulties until Mursi acts on the abovementioned conditions.
It is highly unlikely that Mursi will fulfill any of the above conditions given his worldview, which is steeped in Islamism. In fact, Mursi is taking action to resume Egypt's diplomatic ties with the Shiite Islamic Republic of Iran after a 32 year old hiatus. Reuters reported (6/26/12) that "Egypt's Islamist President-elect Mohamed Mursi voiced interest in restoring long-severed ties with Tehran to create strategic balance in the region, in an interview published on Monday with Iran's Fars news agency." Mursi was quoted by Fars as saying "We must restore normal relations with Iran based on shared interests, and expand areas of political coordination and economic cooperation because this will create a balance of pressure in the region."
In a June 14, 2012 speech posted on the Ikhwan Brotherhood Online website, Mohammad Badie, General Guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood said, "How happy would be the Muslims if all Muslim rulers made the Palestinian cause a pivotal issue, around which Muslims, rulers and the ruled, would line up." According to Badie, they would ally to make "the sole goal for all of them the recovery of al Aqsa Mosque, freeing it from the filth of the Zionists, and imposing Muslim rule throughout beloved Palestine."
Badie's words are clearly the antithesis of assurances made by the Obama administration regarding the moderation and secularism of the new Muslim Brotherhood. In February 2011, James Clapper, President Obama's Director of National Intelligence, told a U.S. congressional committee that the Muslim Brotherhood, the Middle East's oldest terrorist organization, is "largely secular." Despite assurances by the Obama administration, it is clear that Badie's words do not reflect moderation or secularism. Clapper also told the committee that, "The term 'Muslim Brotherhood'...is an umbrella term for a variety of movements, in the case of Egypt, a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried Al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam. They have pursued social ends, a betterment of the political order in Egypt, et cetera...In other countries, there are also chapters or franchises of the Muslim Brotherhood, but there is no overarching agenda, particularly in pursuit of violence, at least internationally."
U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee warned against "prejudging" the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's first Islamist president, Mohammed Mursi. He went on to say, "During my recent visits to Cairo, I've had two candid discussions with the new president. He's acknowledged that the central issue to Egypt's future is economic. His words suggest he understands the gravity of the challenges facing Egypt." Kerry revealed that in his discussions with Mursi, the latter committed to, "protecting fundamental freedoms, including women's rights, minority rights, the right to free expression and assembly, and he said he understood the importance of Egypt's post-revolutionary relationships with America and Israel." Kerry however was quick to point out that actions - not words - are what matter.
The same Mursi who pledged to Kerry his commitment to protecting "fundamental freedoms" and his "understanding" of the importance of Egypt's relationship with the U.S. and Israel, declared only two months ago in a speech aired on Egypt's Misr 25 TV, (translated by MEMRI) that the Quran would be the new Egyptian constitution, and he led the crowds in chanting the Muslim Brotherhood's motto: "The Quran is our constitution, Jihad is our path, and death for the sake of Allah is our lofty aspiration."
President Obama is determined to prove that he alone understands Muslims and Islam, and that he can cultivate the Muslim world into friendship with America and the West. The Islamic Republic of Iran, which Obama sought to appease, rebuffed him, and in fact ridiculed him. Inviting Mursi to the White House, while ignoring his promises to Israel, indicates above all his sympathy for the Islamic revolutionaries in general and the Muslim Brotherhood in particular, neither of which serve the best interests of the U.S. or its ally Israel.
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Obama's Illegal Alien Uncle Update Jul 14, 2012 11:04 am
Sterilization Won't Cost Women A Penny Under Obamacare Jul 14, 2012 10:43 am
Friday Afternoon Roundup -The Barack that Didn't Bark Jul 14, 2012 10:05 am
U.N.'s Arms Trade Treaty: "Why on Earth Would We Sign?" Jul 14, 2012 09:48 am
NRA Fights for Second Amendment as U.N. Moves Forward on Arms Trade Treaty Jul 14, 2012 09:28 am
VIDEO: The UN Is Back in the Gun Banning Business Jul 14, 2012 05:00 am
Fauquier Cites Farmer for Farming Jul 14, 2012 05:00 am
Homeland Security Seeking Assault and Sniper Rifles Jul 14, 2012 02:26 am
AEI Hosts Fifth Secret Meeting to Promote Carbon Tax Jul 13, 2012 04:25 pm
'America The Racist': The Left's Familiar Refrain Jul 13, 2012 03:23 pm
BENADOR: Does America need Evolution or Revolution? Jul 13, 2012 03:23 pm
Central Americans Flood North Through Mexico to US Jul 13, 2012 01:19 pm
House Quietly Reintroduces a Piece of SOPA Jul 12, 2012 03:56 pm
One Nation Under Government - Not Under God Jul 12, 2012 03:10 pm
Keeping America Safe: Why U.S. Bases in Europe Remain Vital Jul 12, 2012 02:14 pm
Brutal Gestapo Tactics Are Being Used Against Homeowners All Over America Jul 12, 2012 01:01 pm
Russia's Syrian Trap For Obama Jul 12, 2012 12:04 pm
Egypt and Iran: Will the Two Walk Together? Jul 12, 2012 11:55 am
The Other Consequences of Fast and Furious Jul 12, 2012 10:54 am
How Much Do We Owe? Jul 12, 2012 10:48 am
Romney's Stand and the Left's Destruction of the Black Community Jul 12, 2012 09:55 am
Sodomy "For the Sake of Islam" Jul 12, 2012 09:46 am
Israel: A Peacetime War or a Wartime Peace Jul 12, 2012 09:27 am
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NEW ON PJ MEDIA
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The Democratic Party as the Party of Race By Roger L. Simon
The Democratic Party is the true racist party, trapped in nostalgia for a time when genuine racism -- Jim Crow, etc. -- stalked the land. They have to assume significant white racism still exists because not to do so threatens the fabric of their being.
Daily, a Billion Unseen Revolts By Roger Kimball
The idea that the federal government, and the presidency in particular, has metamorphosed from a limited, unintrusive executive into something akin to a European monarchy of old is not itself a new idea. What I have never seen expressed before is the link between that idea and the habit of casual, often semi-conscious, disrespect for the law.
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TOP STORIES ON PJ MEDIA
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Interview: Roger Kimball on "The Fortunes of Permanence" By Ed Driscoll
Roger Kimball, PJ Media columnist and publisher of the New Criterion magazine and Encounter Books, stopped by recently to discuss his latest book, "The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia."
Nine Behind-the-Scenes Secrets From Jeopardy By Tom Neven
A lot goes on before a contestant ever sets foot on the Jeopardy sound stage in Los Angeles, and once there a lot happens that viewers never see on their TV screens. Here's a look at a few of those behind-the-scenes secrets.
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MORE FROM PJ MEDIA
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The UN's Assault on Gun Rights
"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic." --Joseph Story
The United Nations is now considering its Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), a document that threatens Second Amendment rights of American citizens. The treaty must clear many hurdles before that threat comes to fruition, but we must remain aware and active in opposing it.
In 2009, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to hold a conference to draft the ATT. That conference began July 2 -- ironically, just as we celebrated our Independence from tyranny. Details will be crafted throughout July, but the push is well underway to regulate the trade of weapons around the globe. Some nations say the treaty shouldn't regulate domestic arms sales, but others -- notably, Mexico -- say that not even individual rights should excuse "products traded without controls." Mexico has long blamed American guns for its own drug war, a con in which the Obama administration has been complicit.
The White House backs the treaty in concept and will likely sign it -- all the better if it restricts individual gun rights. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promises that the ATT deals only with international trade, and that it specifically seeks to limit trafficking to criminals, gangs and other violent groups. Yet research by the UN's Coordinating Action on Small Arms holds that arms have been "misused by lawful owners" and recommends that "arms trade therefore be regulated in ways that would ... minimize the misuse of legally owned weapons." Britain, France and Germany support that goal, but it sounds conspicuously like an excuse for restricting Liberty.
Former UN Ambassador John Bolton is skeptical, as well. "After the treaty is approved and comes into force," he warned, "you will find out that it has this implication or that implication and that it requires Congress to adopt legislation to restrict the ownership of firearms." Indeed, knowing that a legislative approach will gain nothing, Barack Obama appears to be focused on gunrunning scandals and international treaties to achieve his anti-gun objectives.
Meanwhile, Investor's Business Daily notes a typical UN irony: "Just as the world's worst human rights violators sat on and often chaired the U.N. Human Rights Council, Iran, arms supplier extraordinaire to America's enemies, was elected ... to a top position [at the conference]. This came right after the same U.N. found Iran guilty of illegally transferring guns and bombs to the murderous Syrian regime of Bashar Assad."
The UN arguably was never a good idea, but, particularly in recent decades, it has devolved into an international club for anti-American dictators, thugs and socialists. To add insult to injury, we provide the lion's share of the UN's funding.
Fortunately, even if the worst language and intent prevails in the ATT, and even if Obama signs it, the Senate must ratify it with a two-thirds majority. We're optimistic that the vast majority of Republicans and even a number of Democrats will prevent that from happening. Then again, we've seen how the Obama administration can work its will through executive orders, and we wouldn't put it past him to try to trample the Second Amendment by fiat.
What do you make of the UN effort?
Government and Politics
News From the Swamp: The Refrain of Tax Hikes
Barack Obama once again called on Congress to rescind the Bush-era tax rates on those earning more than $250,000 a year, while extending the three lower rates for just one more year, setting the stage for a brutal political fight in the final months leading up to the election. His classist obsession (he made the same proposal in 2010 and 2011) comes as the country already faces an enormous tax increase come Jan. 1, with the expiration of all Bush-era rates on both income and investment, as well as the payroll tax cut and the Alternative Minimum Tax fix. These hikes would bring the already anemic "recovery" to a screeching halt, and many economists believe it would plunge the country back into a recession, assuming we actually recovered from the last one. His shameless class warfare aims to put Republicans on the spot, forcing them to either accept his proposal or be seen as siding with the wealthy in a struggling economy.
Obama claims that raising the top two income tax rates will bring in much-needed revenue to pay down the debt. The Congressional Budget Office, however, notes that such a move would raise just $46 billion for federal coffers in 2013, not enough to make a dent in a $1.3 trillion annual deficit. Obama also said that his plan would exempt 97 percent of small businesses, yet he ignored the other 3 percent that accounts for more than 900,000 small businesses. Obama's tax hike would affect 53 percent of small business net income totaling $1.3 trillion. A hit of this magnitude sure won't alleviate unemployment, since small business traditionally drives new hires.
Predictably, the Leftmedia supports Obama's plan, framing his plan as a middle-class tax cut and ignoring its real affect on the economy. They also failed to report the steep hike in dividend and capital gains taxes, factors that will hit millions of middle-class investors hard and will surely lead to more capital flight from the U.S. The media trumpeted Obama's previous attempts to alleviate the tax burden on the middle class, including his "Making Work Pay" tax credit that saved people a measly $8 a week and his payroll tax break that has done little more than drain Social Security's so-called trust fund. On the other hand, they ignored that Obama's proposal extends the middle-class tax cut for only one year. If he is re-elected, come next year he will continue using that to divide the nation by class.
Notably, congressional Democrats are abandoning the president to the point that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) rejected a vote on Obama's proposal due to lack of support.
Meanwhile, the UN called for a worldwide tax on billionaires to redistribute money to poor countries. Their annual World Economic and Social Survey notes that there are currently 1,226 billionaires in the world with a collective worth of $4.6 trillion. The proposed tax would supposedly raise $400 billion a year by claiming 1 percent of billionaires' income. Given the UN's dismal track record on alleviating poverty and its general operational mismanagement, little of such funding ever benefits the intended recipients.
New and Notable Legislation
The House voted 244-185 Wednesday to fully repeal ObamaCare, a clear response to Chief Justice John Roberts' upholding the law two weeks ago. Five Democrats joined all Republicans in passing the repeal, the 33rd time the GOP-controlled House has voted to do so. Of course it goes without saying that the bill stands no chance in the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid continues to avoid taking it up for a vote. Thus, this full-throated expression of the will of the American people will never make it to Barack Obama's desk.
Campaign Trail: Of Money and Candidates
Barack Obama is now portraying himself as the underdog on the campaign trail, making the dubious claim that he will be the first incumbent president in history to be outspent by his opponent. Mitt Romney did beat Obama in head-to-head fundraising both full months since becoming the Republican nominee, raising $17 million more than the incumbent in May, and out-raising him $106 million to $71 million in June. But these recent numbers don't mean that the president is losing the money battle. Together with the DNC and Obama super PACs, the president has raised $471 million and has outspent his GOP rival by $44 million. Romney's campaign, super PACs and the RNC have raised $264 million, much of which was spent during the primaries. This hasn't stopped Obama from framing his re-election effort as a tin-cup operation. He's even gone so far as to claim -- laughably so -- that he was the underdog in 2008, despite reneging on his promise to use only public campaign funding and then outspending John McCain three to one.
Romney will certainly need to raise more money, particularly if Obama supporters continue to vandalize Romney's campaign. Last weekend, someone cut the alternator belt on one of the Romney team's buses, forcing cancellation of a voter registration event in Springfield, Virginia. No police report was filed, no suspects were identified, and the mainstream media largely ignored the story -- but it's a good bet these vandals are "tolerant" leftists.
Team Obama continues to hammer Romney as a big-business bogeyman, continuing their incessant demo-goguery against Bain Capital, now claiming that Romney is a felon who lied on government documents about his ownership and control of Bain from his retirement in 1999 until 2002. Yet Bain documents prove that Romney did not manage the company after retiring, and even The Washington Post says the charges are bogus.
Democrats also focused on Romney's overseas accounts and investments. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz stated, "Americans need to ask themselves, 'Why does an American businessman need a Swiss bank account and secretive investments like that?'" If that's the standard, Americans might ask the same question of Wasserman Schultz, who invested in funds that have significant holdings in companies based in India, Hong Kong, Holland, Germany, Japan and Switzerland. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who has similarly attacked Romney for his overseas investments, earned between $1 million and $5 million in 2011 through ties to Matthews Capital Management Group, LLC, a group exclusively focused on investment in Asia. And White House adviser Valerie Jarrett has a line of credit with a bank in Bermuda.
Meanwhile, Obama repeated his call for Romney to release further tax records. He told a New Hampshire TV station, "What's important if you are running for president is that the American people know who you are and what you've done and that you're an open book." Good advice from the man who took three years to release his birth certificate, and who still refuses to produce his medical records, his college transcripts and papers, and his law school records. Indeed, Obama has been vague and dissembling about nearly every political and social affiliation he's ever had.
From the 'Non Compos Mentis' File
"[Mitt Romney's] father, George Romney, set the precedent that people running for president would file their tax returns, let everybody look at them. But Mitt Romney can't do that because he's basically paid no taxes in the prior 12 years." --Harry Reid
Memo to Harry: Romney paid $3 million in taxes in both 2010 and 2011, the only years he has released information. He donated even more than that to charity. Is that "basically no taxes"?
Romney Addresses NAACP
Mitt Romney headed to the lion's den this week, following past GOP presidential candidates in addressing the NAACP annual convention. Despite the standing ovation he received in the end, the Leftmedia focused like a laser on the fact that Romney was booed upon promising to repeal ObamaCare, as if that reflected poorly on Romney. But as columnist Mona Charen asked, "Is there any doubt that if a liberal Democrat addressed a gathering of conservatives ... and was booed for his trouble, that the press narrative would be how badly this reflected on the audience?" Meanwhile, Barack Obama didn't bother showing up to the NAACP convention, electing instead to send Bumblin' Joe Biden.
Romney also had some good words on family that the black community would do well to heed. Promising federal policy geared toward helping families, he noted, "A study from the Brookings Institution has shown that for those who graduate from high school, get a full-time job, and wait until 21 before they marry and then have their first child, the probability of being poor is two percent. And if those factors are absent, the probability of being poor is 76 percent." Staggering numbers, to be sure.
We understand the strategy in addressing the NAACP as a way to convey that the president serves all the people, but we maintain that Republicans would do far better to talk over the heads of this left arm of the Democratic National Committee. Ronald Reagan did this quite well. Romney should address his policy prescriptions to the black community at large, including his reminder that Obama has made it worse for blacks "in almost every way." Unemployment among blacks is over 14 percent, compared to 8.2 percent for all Americans. Obama won 96 percent of the black vote in 2008, and they are feeling abandoned now, so if Romney hopes to win a point or two of that number, he must continue to speak the truth.
Share your thoughts on Romney and the NAACP.
Justice Dept. Challenges Texas Voter ID Law
The Obama administration took to the courts once again to fight a state's efforts against voter fraud. Texas passed a voter ID law in 2011 that requires voters to show a photo ID before casting a ballot, an entirely reasonable requirement that the administration contends will disproportionately disenfranchise minority voters.
Attorney General Eric Holder's sense of irony is astonishing. So concerned is he about the voting rights of citizens that he invokes the memories of Selma, Montgomery and Jim Crow to attack the Texas law. He claims that voter ID laws are an unfair and costly burden to the poor and minorities, despite the provision in the Texas statute that ID cards be free of charge. Never mind the facts; Holder called this a "poll tax."
Holder's argument is, of course, nonsense. If a citizen sought an audience with Holder to file a complaint that his vote had been denied due to lack of proper identification, he would need a proper form of identification just to enter the Justice Department building. ID was also required to attend a speech given by Holder in Texas at the NAACP convention.
Economy
Job Numbers Down, Experts Surprised as Always
After a decent start to the year, in which new hiring averaged about 200,000 jobs a month, 2012's second quarter saw a marked slowdown of hiring to the point that little more than 200,000 jobs were created in the entire quarter. While the headline unemployment rate remained steady at 8.2 percent for June, the real segment of unemployed and underemployed in the workforce crept back toward 15 percent. The overall percentage of adults in the workforce also hovers near an all-time low. Obama called June's numbers a "step in the right direction" -- a line later removed from White House transcripts.
He's in full spin mode because he knows as well as anyone that no sitting president in modern times has been re-elected with unemployment over 8 percent, so it will be up to Obama to channel his inner FDR and convince people that even though times are hard Mitt Romney would only make them worse. The Outsourcer-in-Chief continued that effort on Friday with an ad hypocritically chiding Romney for outsourcing work while at Bain Capital.
There's other trouble in the system, as Obama's own Department of Labor released a report that revealed federal and state governments overpaid $14 billion in unemployment benefits last year, meaning some people who haven't found work may need it now to repay the system -- if they're pursued, of course. When it comes to working the system, to some it's still the only "work" they can get.
Share your thoughts on the economy.
Regulatory Commissars: Turning Off the Oil Spigot
Last week the Department of the Interior released a report showing that energy development on federal lands created 1.5 million jobs, with the vast majority being from production of oil, coal and natural gas. A tiny fraction of the jobs (fewer than 7,500) were created by renewable energy sources (the future!) like wind and solar power.
Yet those unproductive areas of energy production are exactly where the Obama administration wants to double down, while stifling the productive areas. Case in point: a new five-year offshore oil drilling plan that effectively restricts oil exploration to only areas now covered, leaving vast portions off our Atlantic and Pacific coasts once again off-limits. The Obama approach is to allow only one energy type to be harnessed offshore, welcoming wind turbines off the mid-Atlantic coast in an area he's now placing off-limits to oil.
On the other hand, Republicans in the House are working on a new bill called the Congressional Replacement of President Obama's Energy-Restricting and Job-Limiting Offshore Drilling Plan to retain much of the Bush administration's open approach that allowed drilling restrictions to expire in 2008. Their hope is to reverse Team Obama's placing areas off-limits by allowing new exploration focusing on the most promising offshore zones.
If the idea is to work toward job creation and energy independence, we all know which proposal should win. But it's going to take a change in the White House to secure these waters for American energy.
Income Redistribution: Producers in Exile
It was once known locally as "the land of pleasant living," but over the last few decades the state of Maryland developed a reputation as a high-tax state unfriendly to business. Its one stroke of good fortune is a location close enough to the seat of the federal government to be home to thousands of Uncle Sam's employees, assuring the state a large tax base for their annually profligate spending.
But in the wake of two dozen tax and fee increases over the last half-decade -- including a "millionaire's tax" in effect for several years -- a recent study found that Maryland is bleeding taxpayers. A net of 31,000 wage earners left the state between 2007 and 2010, according to a study by reformist group Change Maryland. The study also showed that taxpayers who stay within the state are tending to move to rural areas that feature lower taxes, leaving more-populated areas to the working class.
Since the head of Change Maryland is a former Republican Maryland governor and candidate for Congress, the study was derided by Democrat Gov. Martin O'Malley as "partisan politics." O'Malley, of course, was the author of the recent tax and fee increases and is eying the 2016 Democrat presidential nomination. But the shot across the bow from Maryland conservatives simply highlighted the fact that capital goes where it's welcome, and in Maryland's case their loss is the gain of business-friendly, lower-tax states like Virginia, North Carolina, and income-tax-free Florida.
Security
Control of the Internet?
Executive orders can be innocuous statements of policy, updates of previous policy or real threats to Liberty. Which one of these was the case with last week's EO titled "Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions"? Specifically, the EO seems to grant the Department of Homeland Security broad powers to ensure that private networks and broadcast facilities continue to operate during a national emergency. CNET worries that the EO "could give the U.S. government control over the Internet."
Obviously, we have great interest in whether this or any administration could control the Internet. In this case, however, we tend to agree with blogger Ed Morrissey, who writes that the EO "appears to deal with DHS' role in re-establishing services once they've been interrupted in a national emergency." Morrissey also notes that this is an update to an EO issued by Ronald Reagan in 1984 -- granted, before DHS and the Internet -- adding, "I don't see any specific language in the EO that gives DHS or anyone else the authority to 'control the Internet.'" Still, that's not to say, as mentioned already in this edition, that Obama and his minions will stop with the letter of the law.
What's your take on the administration and the Internet?
Iran Steps Up Resistance to Sanctions, While U.S. Eases Up
Iran's legislative body, the Majles, passed a new law on Monday requiring Iran's naval forces to stop oil tankers heading to any country observing the EU sanctions against Iran's oil sector. The law is purely political theater, but it constitutes the latest Iranian provocation in the continuing struggle to make the rogue nation comply with its Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations. Past provocations include announcing limits on foreign navies' right of passage through the Strait of Hormuz and a 2007 law requiring Iran to oppose the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran followed the announcement of the new law with a missile exercise in which an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps senior official claimed, "If any form of incident happens, Iran's ground-to-ground missiles will rain like thunderbolts upon the aggressors." This too is a standard Iranian effort to resist sanctions.
Regarding those sanctions, this week, The Wall Street Journal reported on the growing list of exemptions provided by the Obama administration to Iran's international oil customers. In June the White House granted a waiver under U.S. law to one key nation in the sanctions game -- China. And in March the White House exempted most of Europe and our key Pacific ally Japan, meaning those nations won't face U.S. penalties for dealing with Iran's oil or banking sectors. Sanctions penalizing the likes of New Guinea and Tanzania while exempting China, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, et al. are meaningless. As said before, we are approaching the point at which U.S. and Western citizens will have to weigh their desire for cheap gasoline against the desire to keep Iran from going nuclear.
Culture
Climate Change This Week: Gee, Summer's Hot
No doubt this summer's been hot -- really hot. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says that the Continental U.S. just experienced the warmest 12-month period since records began in 1895. June finished 2 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average and was the 14th warmest June on record. NOAA reports that 3,215 record high temperatures were either broken or matched during the month, with 2,171 of those happening the week ending June 30. Heat wasn't the only big story, either -- the Waldo Canyon wildfire in Colorado and other fires dotting the Western United States combined with severe drought conditions around the country to make for quite the spectacle.
Naturally, greenies and media groups hyperventilated. The Associated Press, for example, published an article lamenting, "This Summer Is 'What Global Warming Looks Like.'" Green ecofascists are concerned that Climate Change™ has increased the chances for destructive wildfires and other weather disasters, requiring that we enact their red agenda.
Looking at the big picture, however, these greenies ignore several variables. If current warming is so unprecedented, then why have we yet to experience another "Dust Bowl" era like the 1930s? The country suffered years of extreme heat, drought and dust storms that would be much more damaging to today's society. Can we conclusively blame global warming then, too? If we're going to discuss unusual events, why no mention of the brutal cold waves and snowstorms that occurred during the winters of '09-'10 and '10-'11? Picking individual unusually warm events around the globe and ignoring the other extreme is the PC way of pushing the climate change debate.
There is ample evidence suggesting that cyclical ocean temperature phases -- including large-scale drivers such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and El Niño/La Niña-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) regions -- have huge implications for global climate. With the PDO recently going cold after decades of a warm phase, why not study its effect on the global climate?
In summary, as WeatherBell Analytic's meteorologist Dr. Ryan Maue asks, "So, extreme heat broke 3,000 records. Out of how many? 3,000, 300k, or 3 million? How many records weren't broken -- [that's] a good question." What we don't know is a much more important question right now than what we do know.
Second Amendment: Making Chicago's Gun Buy Back Useful
Sometimes, irony is just delicious. In Chicago, a pro-gun group used the city's gun buy-back program to obtain thousands of dollars with which to buy firearms and ammunition for an NRA-sponsored shooting camp for kids. "Guns Save Life" turned in 60 firearms to the Chicago Police Department in exchange for $6,240 in gift cards, according to the group's president, John Boch. Among the guns that were turned in, none of which worked or were wanted, were 10 that were more than 100 years old. They also sold five BB guns and a pump-action shotgun that had seen better days.
"They recognized it for the junk it was," Boch said of the guns. "At one of the locations, one of the detectives was very tenacious ... and hit the guys with a flurry of questions like 'Where ... did you get these from, a graveyard?'" But Chicago's finest made the transaction anyway, and Guns Save Life used the proceeds to buy rifles and ammunition for an annual summer camp held at Darnall Gun Works and Ranges in Bloomington, Illinois, where, Boch said, they will be used to teach "the next generation how much fun shooting sports are and how to handle guns safely."
Naturally, hoplaphobes caught an extreme case of the vapors. The police department accused Guns Save Life of "abusing" a program meant to fight Chicago's skyrocketing crime rate and "tribal warfare," a.k.a. gang violence. "The amount of gun violence in Chicago is simply unacceptable," said the department, using the Left's deceptive term "gun violence." Of course, there's no more "gun violence" than there is "rock violence" or "crow-bar violence." It's the criminal that commits the violence, not the object. In Chicago and other big cities, those criminals are often part of gangs. Now, however, thanks to Chicago's buy-back program, more young people will learn how safe, enjoyable, and, yes, non-violent firearms can be.
Faith and Family: Arizona Man Faces Jail for Home Bible Studies
Phoenix minister Michael Salman was sentenced to three months in jail, a $12,180 fine, and three years' probation after refusing to stop holding Bible studies on his property. Salman is an ordained minister, as well as the proprietor of Mighty Mike's Burgers. He and his wife have been holding Bible studies on their property since 2005. He may begin serving his time as soon as next week, unless federal judges side with his appeal.
The feud between the Salmans and the city of Phoenix began in 2007, when the city sent the family a letter claiming that the Bible studies held in the living room were in violation of construction codes. The authorities were responding to neighbors' complaints that the classes significantly increased traffic in the area. Over the next two years, Phoenix firefighters interrupted several such meetings on Salman's property, once when about 20 people were eating a meal in the backyard (a.k.a., a barbecue). Things really reached the boiling point in the summer of 2009, when police and city inspectors arrived with a search warrant. They searched not only the Salman residence, but the 2,000-square-foot building he had built on the property. They found that Salman's "church" did not comply with safety regulations requiring the proper exit signs, as well as handicapped entrances and parking spots.
Claiming that this is religious persecution, Salman shrewdly pointed out that no one would be checking his property for violations if, for example, he was holding weekly poker games. The city argues that this has nothing to with religion, per se; Salman is free to conduct "church activity" on his property as long as he complies with the zoning law. Arizona courts have consistently agreed with the city, and the case now rests with the leftist Ninth Circuit. It might be said that Salman doesn't have a prayer of success in front of that court, and if recent SCOTUS rulings have taught us anything, it's that we can't predict how a court will rule.
Post your opinion on the Bible study case.
And Last...
As previously mentioned, the nation's first (half) black president skipped this year's NAACP Convention, though GOP rival Mitt Romney did attend. Instead of going himself, Obama dispatched Joe "BFD" Biden, making for some entertaining moments. For starters, the Leftmedia fawned with delight that a noted Democrat was well received by a Democrat organization. Bottom story of the day. Underplayed, however, was that Biden spoke to a largely empty house. He warned the few attendees how disastrous a Romney presidency would be -- anything to divert their attention from soaring black unemployment under Obama, right? Biden also made a curious reference to having "learned so much" while "sitting in Rev. Wright's church." Surely he didn't mean the Rev. Jeremiah "god d--- America" Wright, but an odd statement nonetheless, given the history at play with his boss.
Perhaps his most bizarre comment was in response to enthusiastic applause. He quoted Adlai Stevenson II, saying, "Flattery is all right as long as you don't inhale." Yeah, we're pretty sure Biden shouldn't be inhaling like Obama and the rest of the "Choom Gang." He's wacky enough as it is.
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team
(To submit reader comments click here.)
(Please pray for our Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families -- especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)
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The United States of Guilt
Posted: 14 Jul 2012 08:10 PM PDT
 There was once an America that built its shining cities on a hill in the name of virtue. That nation has been replaced by another nation that builds housing projects in the name of guilt. We used to elect the best men for the job, or at least we believed we did. Now we hold elections of guilt, deciding which oppressed minority has been most shamefully overlooked, before casting our vote for a more diverse and equitable society.
Our American exceptionalism now is a small thing that takes place in the shadow of guilt. It is rarely mentioned now without implicit rebuttals of that guilt. Its advocates are forever laboring to get out from under the burden of slavery, segregation and a thousand other hissing sibilant S's that have been used to mark us as an eternally unworthy nation.
Guilt is the shadow side of virtue. A politician who speaks about the virtues of a nation panders to his audience, and leads them with a golden halter rope to follow his policies. If he says that America is a great nation because it is a nation of immigrants, or a diverse nation or a nation where men can marry each other-- his audience will internalize that lesson and repeat it back. If a foreigner accuses his country of being a bad place, he will reply that this accusation is false because it is actually a great nation where diverse gay immigrants can marry each other.
Read More . . .
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Friday Afternoon Roundup -The Barack that Didn't Bark
Posted: 13 Jul 2012 04:44 PM PDT
YEAH, WELL WE DIDN'T WANT TERRORIST ATTACKS ON SEPTEMBER 11
9/11 accused don't want hearings during Ramadan (Boston Herald)
THE BARACK THAT DIDN'T BARK
The only truly interesting thing about the dueling Romney-Biden NAACP appearances is the man who was absent from the show. Obama.
As with Sherlock Holmes' dog that didn't bark, the interesting thing about this is the case of the Barack that didn't show up to bark, deliver a few jokes, remind everyone that he is the epitome of the NAACP's accomplishments-- including white people who might be considering casting their vote somewhere else.
The contrast between the response to his speech and Romney's, would easily be spun into a victory. He would score a win, the way he scores all his wins, by just showing up.
So why not do it?
There are two plausible theories.
1. Obama is lazy.
Black voters are going to vote for him anyway. Why waste time going over to read some remarks from the teleprompter about the civil rights struggle, read in his most serious voice, when he can just send Biden.
Sure it's disrespectful, a slap in the face. Obama can show up to speak to Latino and Jewish groups and outside a small garage somewhere. But those votes are actually in play. Black votes aren't. And in return for having his back, Obama repaid them with a slap across the face.
Some at the NAACP are probably fuming, but what are they going to do about it? Vote Romney?
2. Obama doesn't want to be associated with a prominent black group right now
This one only works if the Obama campaign has been drinking its own Kool-Aid and actually believes that its terrible rating among blue-collar whites is due to racism. Most of us assume that Obama and his people are cynically using claims of racism to deflect criticism-- but what if they actually believe it?
Sure it makes no sense. Obama won more blue-collar whites than his white Democratic predecessor did. If racism was the issue, it would have been the issue in 2008.
But liberals do drink their own Kool-Aid. The racism argument is cynical, but that doesn't mean that the people making it don't believe in it... at least to some degree.
Could Obama have really avoided appearing before the NAACP in order to pander to perceived racism? Now that would be truly cynical.
...but there's a similar pattern of Obama ignoring black news outlets.
BLACK ON JEWISH VIOLENCE
On a late June Friday evening, Marc Heinberg, a 61-year old man, was walking home from synagogue along Gravesend Neck Road; Neck Road to the locals. Neck Road is classic Brooklyn; a scattering of modest brick houses along a tree-lined street, but a short walk down "The Neck" takes you to Nostrand Avenue and from there to the Sheepshead-Nostrand housing projects where crime is common and life is cheap.
Sheepshead-Nostrand, where drug deals go down, shots are fired and gruesome murders are a local tradition, and the tree-lined portion of "The Neck" where Marc Heinberg was walking home, are two worlds apart. They are also less than a dozen blocks apart.
As Marc Heinberg walked home from his prayers, the hymns welcoming the Sabbath, the Day of Rest, still humming in his ears, he heard someone yell out, "Dirty Jew". On the old farm road, half-a-dozen African-American teenagers surrounded him, screaming racial slurs and pummeling him with their fists. The two worlds had collided, as they so often did, leaving pain and violence in their wake.
...that's an excerpt from my Front Page Magazine article Black on Jewish Violence
ON THE RADIO
I did two interviews last week. One for Brian Wilson and the Afternoon Drive and the Lisa Richards Show, which you can listen to at the link. Thank you to them for having me on.
RELIGION OF APARTHEID TOILETS
Muslim cop won't share toilet, blames religion
A Muslim police officer in Johannesburg says his religion does not allow him to share a toilet with black colleagues
Islamophobia vs Toiletphobia. This sounds like a job for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
GOOD NEWS FROM LIBYA
If you pay attention to the media, then you know that the official narrative is that Libya disproves Egypt and Tunisia, where a "liberal party" beat the Muslim Brotherhood. But is that the truth...
Describing a coalition of that size and scope as liberal is journalistic malpractice. It also isn't remotely true.
The first of the founding principles of the draft charter of the National Forces Alliance is that "Islam is the religion of society and authority and Islamic Sharia is the major source of legislation." The thirty-first principle calls for supporting the Palestinian cause "by all means" and rejects any dealings with the "Zionist entity." The phrase "by all means" implicitly continues Libya's policy of supporting terrorism.
The draft charter makes no mention of the bloc being "pro-Western," as media reports describe it. It does however emphasize that Libya is part of the Arab and Muslim world. There appears to be no recognition given to Africans or non-Muslims in the document, who have been the victims of some of the worst of the violence. The charter of the so-called "liberal parties" is a pure document of Islamic and Arab supremacism.
That's from my article An Election Farce in Libya. Also not being discussed is the Islamization of Misrata and the growing civil war in Libya.
THE LAST ISRAELIS
Doomsday scenarios are out of fashion. It's hard for most of us to look at The Last Beach or Crimson Tide now as anything but intellectual exercises. But Noah Beck has written The Last Israelis, the story of an Israeli submarine crew that is forced to come face to face with the ultimate question.
The Last Israelis is about the moral and geopolitical debates of Iran's nuclear crisis boiled down and contained with the confines of a single submarine armed with nuclear weapons and sent on an unknown mission. Its crew represent Israel and its debates are the internal debates tearing up the country.
Kill or be killed, is not a formula that is easy to accept in the age of easy convenience where the old hungers seem as if they have been banished and all arguments can be settled by commissions. And yet The Last Israelis raises the question whether or not that might be the dominant paradigm of this and every age.
What are the survival and moral risks of unilateral disarmament and when does the cost of seeking peace at any cost become too great?
Those are some of the questions raised in Beck's book, The Last Israelis. You can find out more about the book at Beck's website or listen to an interview with him conducted by our very own Adam Taxin.
HERE'S A HEADLINE
Mitt Romney: 'We expected' boos at NAACP
... then to ask the obvious question, why go?
There's nothing wrong with making a play for black votes, but why do it in a forum like the NAACP which has no overlap with any element of Romney's agenda? The smart thing to do would have been to go to a black chamber of commerce forum. All that coming to the NAACP does is boost the standing of an organization that acts as an adjunct of the Democratic Party.
And if Romney's people expected boos, they should have also been smart enough to know that would be the lead story. If they weren't smart enough to know that, they need to learn better and fast. If they did know both of those things, then what was the benefit going to be here?
The only conceivable benefit is to showcase Romney as a different kind of Republican. Better known as the Bush 2000 strategy. And that strategy is completely undone when the focus is on the boos.
In an interview with the Fox Business Network, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said he wasn't surprised by the negative response he received from the NAACP today. "I think we expected that," he said. But, he added, I spoke with a number of African-American leaders after the event and they said, you know, 'A lot of folks do not want to say they will not vote for President Obama but they are disappointed in his lack of policies to improve the schools.'"
... well that's a win.
... AND THEN OFF TO ISRAEL
So Romney will head out to a fundraiser in Jerusalem, even as Ari Fleischer and the RJC crew have still been unable to even say that he will recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Yishai Fleischer asks if Romney will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and other issues that are important to Israelis. Ari Fleischer says that we should like 80-85% of Romney's policies and that Romney will talk to Israelis. He said that Bush found that the Israelis had other priorities aside from moving the capital to Jerusalem. Bush eased off on the promise to start the move as a result.
Which 80 and 85 percent are those?
And yes there are other priorities, but recognizing a nation's capital as its capital is just common decency.
Jerusalem is good enough for Romney to hit up donors there, but not good enough to recognize as a capital. On top of that he may meet up with Abbas while there.
Romney is coming here in a couple of weeks and that shows his commitment to Israel. That's an expression of priority. He's coming here - not Mexico or Canada.
I guess there aren't any fundraisers in Mexico or Canada. But Romney will recognize Ottawa as the capital of Canada and Mexico City as the capital of Mexico. And visiting Mexico and Canada would make much more sense.
Frankly I disapprove of foreign fundraisers for political candidates. If you're running for office, you should raise money in your own country, not in foreign countries, even if you're raising money from American citizens abroad.
But in this case Romney is raising money from eternal optimists. To be fair, Romney's position on Israel, as written on his site, does display a good understanding of the problem on the Obama's Failure section. Mitt's Plan is more vanilla, but really the only plan needed is "Leave Israel Alone."
DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY, RELIGION, TIME-SPACE CONTINUUM
The head of the religion department at Luther College in Iowa recently argued that Jesus Christ, the central figure of Christianity, was in fact, a Muslim.
"'Was Jesus a Muslim?" asks Prof. Robert F. Shedinger in the beginning of a book he published this year entitled Was Jesus a Muslim?
...at least he's not a history professor, since he's not familiar with the concept of history, or of one thing happening after the other. It's good that he's also not a physics professor, since he doesn't seem to be up on the laws of the universe.
Jesus could no more have been a Muslim than he could have been a Mets fan or a reader of Professor Shedinger's book, because you cannot be or do a thing which does not yet exist.
Other possible Shedinger book titles. "Was Buddha a Mormon?" and "Was Thomas Edison a Star Trek fan?"
Shedinger also argued that Islam is a better fit for Jesus since it is not a religion but a "social justice movement."
"I had to rethink what Islam is... I came to the conclusion that it was a social justice movement and I think that's who Jesus was in the first century so I conclude Jesus is more like a Muslim," he said.
Islam not being a religion is news to about 1 billion people. All of them Muslims. It does however accord with a thesis in some counterjihad circles that Islam should be considered a political, rather than religious movement. Those people just got supporting ammo from a liberal religion professor. European governments who might want to take action against Islam can now quote Shendinger too.
But Shedingbat clearly fell for a line of Islamic taquiya and then embraced it by showing that he likes Islam because it's not a religion... suggesting that Luther College's professor of religion actually hates religion.
A spokesman for Luther College, a small liberal arts school affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, told Campus Reform on Wednesday that the administration stands fully behind Shedinger's scholarship.
I bet they would stand just as much behind his work if Shedinger had concluded that Islam wasn't a religion, but an excuse for a 7th century warlord to do some raping and looting.
But good news if you want to bring Shedingbat over to speak at your local Islamic center... he does that sort of thing.
IPHONES AND DAGGERS
It's true we are seeing technological progress, and the guy who murders his sister probably also has an iPhone, but to murder his sister he uses his grandfather's dagger from a hundred years ago.
...from a paywalled article at Haaretz
THE DEATH OF COOL
Cool comes from a random sense of motion whirled within a certain spirit of place. As Kerouac wrote, "Man, you gotta go." Once you kill that spirit with predictable motion, you don't have cool but kabuki. And moving in that dead dance you don't find hipsters, but cold corpses twitching in a jerking dance of post-mortum effects.
...from American Digest
The left feeds off cool. It uses that energy for revolution. But once the revolution becomes organized, there's no more room for the Bohemian, for the wild disruptive energy in an organized dogma-ridden sphere.
The patrons, marketers, creators, promoters, czars and commissars of cool may not care for someone else's system, but they have a system that they have in mind. And that system will be as cool as Socialist Realism and as hip as a Red Army parade.
Cool has been harvested and walled up by the left leaving many political taboos, but few social taboos. Breaking the political taboos is uncool, but breaking the social ones no longer matters. And without bars, there's no freedom.
Cool begins as anarchy, but becomes a system. It requires indoctrination. Think about Ted Joans' "The Sermon".
You want to learn to swing? And you want to be able to dig and take in everything... Now dig me pretty babies, I'd like first of all for you to get rid of that umbilical cord that your dragass prejudiced parents have around your neck... So if your neighborhood ain't hip...SPLIT, leave it, leave it for swinging surroundings...
If you want to be a beautiful non-square angel, SLEEP with everybody!
If you want to be a swinger, drink and get high but be cool about it
If you want to be popular with real hipsters, DON"T TALK SO MUCH and please don't ever ARGUE!
If you wish to be a sweet child of godlike intelligence, DIG JAZZ support its musicians, go to all the jazz concerts
If you want to be hip my cute young lovely hens then--you must own a copy of Howl-- you must have a copy of Jack (on the road) Kerouac on your shelf and know thouself by reading Norman Mailer's "White Negro" You should read all the French Dada and Surrealist literature and dig Whitman and Poe and all the great classics so that you too will be in the know-- you should dig Mad comics and read the Village Voice so that you will be "au courant"
Not all the "hip" and "dig" in the world can disguise a list of rules. Once something is a sermon, it's no longer cool. A set of rules on how to be cool are self-nullifying. But once enough people strike out for a new world, they have to make rules... as Occupy Wall Street rediscovered. And the rules will benefit the rulemakers-- as in Joans' Sermon.
Question authority, but first raise your hand. And don't question the things you aren't supposed to question, like taxes, global warming, political polarity. Because those questions are already settled. Question the values of your parents, but not those of the sermon-givers.
Obama is cool. If you argue with him, then you aren't. College is cool and so is student debt.
Rebellion is cool, but only when properly directed. Rebelling against a compulsory volunteerism program isn't cool. Rebelling when you're told you have to buy health insurance isn't cool either.
The studios that distribute movies where kids break the rules and defy the adult world, hunt down other kids who break the rules by pirating their movies. Because it's cool to be a rebel, just not to the detriment of the merchants of cool.
If you want to be popular with real hipsters, don't talk or argue. Listen to the right music, read the right things and have the right opinions. And what's cool about that?
AND A NEW VAST RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY IS BORN
"People intoxicated by power toppled a prime minister," former minister Haim Ramon told Israel Radio. "American right-wing Jews who filed countless complaints against Olmert have to be investigated. They saw Olmert as the man who could deliver an agreement with the Palestinians. Consider what Olmert could have done had he remained prime minister for two more years instead of Netanyahu."
Olmert himself told CNN's Christian Amanpour when he came to New York for The Jerusalem Post Conference in April that he had been the victim of a right-wing conspiracy involving American millionaires.
...clearly Olmert's criminality was the work of right-wing American millionaires who are known to have a vast amount of influence on the left-wing Israeli justice system.
This same vast right-wing conspiracy probably arranged for Haim Ramon to be investigated on sexual assault charges.
Nor was Olmert given a blank check, he was just cleared of some of the more serious charges.
HMM I DON'T KNOW...
Study: Muslim extremists not looking for world domination (CNN)
Muslim pleads in plot to blow up Pentagon (WND)
SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS THAT DON'T EXIST
So we have a terrible economy, massive debt and a new program for fighting wars using drones, rather than troops. Clearly what we need is a new draft.
That's what the New York Times and Thomas R. Ricks think.
The first question is why do we need a draft?
Unlike Europeans, Americans still seem determined to maintain a serious military force, so we need to think about how to pay for it and staff it by creating a draft that is better and more equitable than the Vietnam-era conscription system.
Yes, but why do we need a better and more equitable draft than Vietnam? Why do we need a draft at all.
Volunteer armies are better and more professional than draft armies.
A revived draft, including both males and females, should include three options for new conscripts coming out of high school. Some could choose 18 months of military service with low pay but excellent post-service benefits, including free college tuition. These conscripts would not be deployed but could perform tasks currently outsourced at great cost to the Pentagon: paperwork, painting barracks, mowing lawns, driving generals around, and generally doing lower-skills tasks so professional soldiers don't have to.
That "great cost" would clearly be more than balanced by taking hundreds of thousands of teens out of the work force and then paying for their college tuition and health care for life, so that they can do paperwork and paint barracks... even though we can already find volunteers to do this already.
And in a shocking turn of events, those volunteers would actually choose military service as part of their career plan.
Those who don't want to serve in the army could perform civilian national service for a slightly longer period and equally low pay - teaching in low-income areas, cleaning parks, rebuilding crumbling infrastructure, or aiding the elderly.
So now we're drafting people into a national workforce to clean parks in low income areas? Or we could just use paroled prisoners, long-term welfare cases and bored liberal kids for that.
And libertarians who object to a draft could opt out. Those who declined to help Uncle Sam would in return pledge to ask nothing from him - no Medicare, no subsidized college loans and no mortgage guarantees. Those who want minimal government can have it.
...sounds reasonable. So long as they wouldn't be expected to pay into the system and get tax discounts so they don't have to pay for anybody else's medicare, college loans and mortgages for low income areas.
But that's not what Ricks is offering. He assumes these are freebies that the government gives us but that we don't compensate it for in any way, and if we don't want to mop parks in Harlem, then we're free riders.
With an average cohort of about four million 18-year-olds annually, they say, there is simply no place to put all these people. But the government could use this cheap labor in new ways, doing jobs that governments do in other countries but which have been deemed too expensive in this one, like providing universal free day care or delivering meals to elderly shut-ins.
...or fighting in gladiatorial contests for the amusement of high-ranking government officials and a few prominent journalists.
But this way the government will have millions of low-paid slaves. And all the government has to do is provide them with free health care and free college tuition. It's a real bargain.
A final objection is the price tag; this program would cost billions of dollars. But it also would save billions, especially if implemented broadly and imaginatively.
This box of cereal costs five dollars. But it also saves you five dollars. Not because it costs five dollars but because math is not a real thing.
If you buy this box of cereal for five bucks, you won't have to buy another one for five bucks. Sure this box of cereal will turn out to be a bit more expensive, also stale and a year after its expiration date, but it's more equitable cereal and will remind you of the suffering of others.
One reason our relatively small military is hugely expensive is that all of today's volunteer soldiers are paid well; they often have spouses and children who require housing and medical care.
Unmarried conscripts don't need such a safety net.
Our "volunteer soldiers" are paid money that no public sector employee, including the postal service, would touch.
And a bunch of those 18 year old conscripts are still going to be married. Some will even have kids by then.
And much of the labor currently contracted out to the private sector could be performed by 18-year-olds for much less.
The maximum in-state tuition fees on the GI Bill per term top out at 85,000 dollars. How many private sector employees have to be housed, cared for and monitored by the government. And in minor footnote, paying private companies to do things creates jobs, using an army of slaves to do it takes those jobs away.
It would be fairly cheap to house conscript soldiers on closed military bases.
In Venezuela it might be. Here it won't be. Not even under Democratic administrations which treat soldiers like garbage.
Here's the problem with slavery. It's more expensive than you think. Training these conscripts will cost more than it would to pay a private company to do the same work.
The pool of cheap labor available to the federal government would broadly lower its current personnel costs and its pension obligations - especially if the law told federal managers to use the civilian service as much as possible, and wherever plausible.
Imagine if the federal government had a pool of cheap labor, the same kind of cheap labor that is already badly straining military budgets, and imagine if we had laws to tell the military to use the personnel it did not ask for and has no use for.
Just imagine.
The government could also make this cheap labor available to states and cities.
Or it could sell them and trade them to other countries. Maybe even breed them.
Imagine how many local parks could be cleaned and how much could be saved if a few hundred New York City school custodians were 19, energetic and making $15,000 plus room and board, instead of 50, tired and making $106,329, the top base salary for the city's public school custodians, before overtime.
Imagine if we fired school custodians and replaced them with a bunch of 19 year olds, who don't want to be there, don't consider this a real job, have no investment in doing it properly, and are then assigned to clean parks.
School custodians, like most pub sec workers are overpaid, but the idea that an energetic 19 year old is a replacement for an experienced 50 year old school custodian, who actually has a whole lot of skills and more responsibility, and who will use his experience on the job for another decade, is the thinking of a complete idiot.
Incidentally New York City parks are already being cleaned by welfare recipients and corporate volunteers. They are already fairly clean without any help from a slave army.
The savings actually might be a way of bringing around the unions representing federal, state and municipal workers, because they understand that there is a huge budget crunch that is going to hit the federal government in a few years.
Of all the incredibly stupid things that Thomas E. Ricks has written in this editorial, this may be the dumbest of them all.
Do you know what will really thrill unions? Being sidelined by a badly paid slave labor army owned by the federal government. They'll be even more thrilled when they are told that it's happening because of a budget crunch. They may even throw Tom a party to thank him.
HAIR OF THE JIHAD THAT BLEW YOU UP
A prominent section of Kerala's Sunni Muslims which says it has the holy hair of Prophet Mohammed - and claims to be building India's biggest mosque to preserve it - has been challenged in court over the authenticity of the relic.
Testing it for red dye might help clear up the question. Mo was a dyer.
THE ROUNDUP
At Flopping Aces there's a commentary on my article on the Economics of Planned Global Failure
I completely missed this latest piece of news from the Qatanani front, but luckily Robert Spencer is on the case.
State authorities worked with the New York City Police Department to monitor the Islamic Center of Passaic County, led by Imam Mohammad Qatanani, police documents show. The surveillance included the use of an informant at the mosque and intelligence gathering during a three-day rally for the imam in his fight against deportation.
Because of his strong relationship with law enforcement leaders, Qatanani said, he was taken aback by New Jersey's involvement.
"It was very upsetting for us, especially when our mosque is maybe the most open mosque for all law enforcement and elected and appointed officials," Qatanani said in an interview.
...it's shocking. Really shocking.
Where does the racist Islamophobic NYPD get the idea that a Hamas member whom the government attempted to deport, should be a target for surveillance.
It's completely unjustifiable treatment of a Religion of Peace. In totally unrelated news...
"The Revived Global Caliphate has set eyes on the West to once and for all rid the world of Christianity and there is nothing you can do about it."
Certainly surveilling their mosques is out of the question.
Feeling hot? The government will spot you a free air conditioner. Just don't count on it working. But that's almost as good as Obama paying your utility bills.
Expecting ancient sea monsters to show up? We've got you covered.
Some people relaxing inside their chalets at Subiyya were frightened by the presence of a person with long hair, as he reportedly emerged from the water naked, murmuring and singing in a language they could not comprehend while dancing, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily.
Out of the belief that the man could be an 'ancient creature', they called the police, as others took pictures of him.
Upon arrival, police arrested and detained the man at the area police station. Preliminary investigation revealed that the man comes from an Asian country. A case has since been registered for thorough investigation.
You have to be pretty xenophobic and backward to assume that an Asian man is really an ancient creature.
Enjoy the weekend. Avoid government air conditioners and ancient sea monsters.
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"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." ~ James Madison
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Obama Lies Repudiated
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Romney Demands Apology After Obama Team Suggests He Might Be A Felon
By Ben Shapiro
Breitbart.com
This morning, the Obama team, springboarding from mainstream media coverage it had likely astroturfed, said that Mitt Romney was either a "felon" or a liar. Its mainstream media lackeys quickly played it up. And this morning, the Obama team was completely debunked by members of its own media, who were shamed into telling the truth by an enraged New Media. Now, the Romney campaign is calling for an apology from the Obama campaign and a retraction from the Boston Globe.
Read the Full Story
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Watch This Video And Never Pay Another Monthly Cable Bill Again
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US Olympic Uniforms Represent China's Finest
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Outrage Over China-Made US Olympic Uniform
AP/NewsMax.com
Uniforms for U.S. Olympic athletes are American red, white, and blue - but made in China. That has members of Congress fuming.
Read The Full Story
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House Calling For Defunding Of Obamacare
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How Many Republicans Does It Take To Unscrew A Mandate?
By Craig Bannister
CNSNews.com
More than 100 House Republicans so far have signed a letter calling upon Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the House GOP leaders to halt any future funding of the health care law given that the House controls most appropriations.
Read the Full Story
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Such An Excellent Legacy
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Obama Floods America With Armed Undocumented Voters
By David McClain
CanadaFreePress.com
"[P]resident" Obama's support for illegal aliens can be traced back twenty-five years to the late '80s when he was a community agitator with groups such as Chicago's own UNO.
Read the Full Story
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Let's Apply Harry Reid's 'Dog Catcher' Standard to Barack Obama
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by Joel B. Pollak
The mainstream media has been repeating--without any criticism, context, or opposing view--Sen. Harry Reid's claim that Mitt Romney could not be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve in the Cabinet--or even to serve as "dog catcher"--because he has only released his most recent tax returns, not his entire tax history. The story currently leads major news websites, including National Public Radio's hourly news update. So it seems appropriate to do what the media will not: apply Reid's "dog catcher" standard to Barack Obama.
Let us first take the question of whether Barack Obama would have been confirmed by the Senate for any position, Cabinet or otherwise. If his lack of experience was not a sufficient obstacle, his past history of serious drug use--which is even worse than the admissions in his memoir, Dreams from My Father --would have barred his nomination. So, too, would his radical past, including his associations with Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Rashid Khalidi, Derrick Bell, and a host of extremists with whom he made common cause.
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Big Government
Secret Democratic Oppo Research Files for Twelve 2012 Match-Ups Found via Google More
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Breitbart TV
Dem Rendell: Obama Campaign 'Went Too Far With Felony Business' More
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Did Scientists Find The Infamous 'God Particle'?
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The CERN scientists at the supercolider admitted they weren't quite ready to come right out and say they'd officially found the particle that is expected to explain how matter formed in our universe. Other scientists from a U.S. laboratory brought up the fact that this particle could be an imposter! Check out the theories HERE.
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Watch 135 NASA Shuttles Take Off At Once
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To commemorate the final launch from NASA's space shuttle program, one artist compiled the video from every launch in the program since the 1980s into one screen. That's 135 lift-offs into space at one time. Watch them all in the less than four minutes HERE. (We also suggest that you turn up your computer's volume.)
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Listen To Oldie-But-Goodie Tech Sounds Before They Go Extinct
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The sound of an old modem tuning in to connect you to dial-up Internet. The once-familiar clicks and buzz as your floppy disc decided whether to let you into the information it was storing. "You've Got Mail" -- don't lie to yourself, you know with what tone that phrase should be said. These and other tech sounds of our past are at risk of extinction. Thankfully, the Museum of Endangered Sounds is keeping them alive for all to enjoy. Listen to them while you still can HERE.
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Could Batman's Cape Really Be The Death Of Him?
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Physicists from the University of Leicester have showed that if Batman's cape were used for gliding as it is represented in the movies and cartoons, he would be killed or at least seriously injured from not slowing himself down by some other mechanism. Read more about how Batman should update his fashion sense pronto HERE.
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Batman Bonus: The Blaze Magazine editor Chris Field lets us know his thoughts on how these physicists are determined to suck the fun out of everything. See what you think of his argument on The Blaze blog HERE.
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CDC Releases All-Important Wedding Survival Guide
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First, the U.S. Center for Disease Control released its tongue-in-cheek zombie apocalypse survival guide. With its citizens preparing for that imminent threat, what could be next on the list of importance? Given the time of year we're in, an iconic movie quote comes to mind: "It's wedding season." Among suggestions for bringing pins and stain remover are recommendations for potentially popping a few sedatives and mentally preparing evacuation routes in the event of an emergency. To survive your next nuptial celebration, brush up on the guide's tips HERE.
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Families, Kids, & Doctors Discuss In Utero Spina Bifida Surgery
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In a five-part series timed to run close to Glenn Beck's Restoring Love, the Blaze interviewed nearly two dozen families and medical experts about a once-controversial surgery that treats spina bifida. What's the controversy? The surgery takes place while the baby is still in the mother's womb. Read the fifth installment and get connected to the entire series HERE. READ THIS |
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Is the Episcopal Church Near Collapse?
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The headlines coming out of the Episcopal Church's annual U.S. convention are stunning -- endorsement of cross-dressing clergy, blessing same-sex marriage, and the sale of their headquarters over financial difficulties have all combined to create a recipe for disaster. Read about the harsh realities the church is facing HERE.
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The Obama Camp 'Jumped The Shark' on Romney 'Felon' Claim
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The Obama campaign's attack on Mitt Romney for potentially being a "felon" has backfired in almost every conceivable way. Watch the formidable Charles Krauthammer explain how the Obama camp "jumped the shark" HERE.
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REAL NEWS FROM THE BLAZE: IS CHAVEZ A THREAT?
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President Obama maintains that over the past few years, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has not posed a "serious" national security threat to the United States. The Real News crew assesses the veracity of Obama's assertion HERE.
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Senate To Gut Second Amendment?
Jul 14, 2012 02:41 pm
As New York City plays host to a conference that will shape the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) into final form, most 2nd Amendment supporters are concerned that stealth language or overly broad applications woven into the document will serve to separate Americans from their right to keep and bear arms. After all, why else would [...]
Read More and Comment: Senate To Gut Second Amendment?
Why Condi Rice Is The Perfect Choice For Mitt Romney
Jul 14, 2012 02:40 pm
Governor Mitt Romney faces the biggest decision of his life. Who will be his running mate? Speculation has been rampant, and we wanted to share with you our belief that he should pick a special woman for the job. That woman is former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. There's an old tradition in America, dating [...]
Read More and Comment: Why Condi Rice Is The Perfect Choice For Mitt Romney
Video: Exposed: Obama's Radical, Communist Mentor
Jul 14, 2012 02:20 pm
Dr. Paul Kengor talks about his new book, The Communist, focusing on the mentor of President Barack Obama, Frank Marshall Davis. Related posts: Longtime U.S. Communist Praises Obama As "Black Radical" Longtime Communist Party USA member Angela Davis, the 1960s radical... Is This Communist Obama's Real Father? Racy photos of Barack Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, [...]
Watch the Video and Comment: Video: Exposed: Obama's Radical, Communist Mentor
OK, Mr. Obama, Let's Be Fair!
Jul 14, 2012 01:56 pm
Barack Obama and his SOCIALIST zombies seem to have an obsession with "fairness", so let's apply that term to Obamacare and taxes, just to be fair. First, we make ALL taxes 'FLAT taxes. Every taxpayer in America pays a flat 9.75%, NO exemptions. Why 9.75%, you may ask? Because God Himself only asks for 10%! [...]
Read More and Comment: OK, Mr. Obama, Let's Be Fair!
Video: Exclusive: Obama Bundler & "Obot" Met With Syrian Officials In 2010
Jul 14, 2012 01:48 pm
Bloggers have been combing through the recent WikiLeaks Syrian email dump, looking at the inner workings of Syrian officials, the bulk being culled from what is referred to as the Syrian MOPA (Ministry of Presidential Affairs). One odd email that has been discovered is from an individual by the name of Martin Sean Indyk. Indyk [...]
Watch the Video and Comment: Video: Exclusive: Obama Bundler & "Obot" Met With Syrian Officials In 2010
Lying By Omission - The Latest Obama Campaign Tool
Jul 14, 2012 01:38 pm
There are many kinds of lies- barefaced, minimization, white lies, contextual lies, and economy with the truth lies. Lying by omission is only one of over twenty-five kinds of lies; yet it ranks among the most deadly and nefarious of them all. It is a matter of emphasis that far exceeds the "glass is half-full" [...]
Read More and Comment: Lying By Omission - The Latest Obama Campaign Tool
Video: Obama's War On Women
Jul 14, 2012 01:36 pm
There is a war on women: it's called the Obama economy. Related posts: Rush Limbaugh Was Right-Obama DID Want Taxpayers To Pay For Women To Have Sex! With what may soon be called SecretServiceGate, after the Secret... Women Hoodwinked By The Democrat Spin Machine I'm a bit disappointed that some of my fellow women...
Watch the Video and Comment: Video: Obama's War On Women
Video: Top Democrat Criticizes Obama's Campaign Tactics
Jul 14, 2012 01:26 pm
An honest liberal? Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell criticized Obama's extreme campaign tactics, saying that he went too far with the felony nonsense. Related posts: Palin: Cannibals In GOP Establishment Employ Tactics Of The Left We have witnessed something very disturbing this week. The Republican... Liberal Criticizes Obama On Removing Work Requirement From Welfare Reform [...]
Watch the Video and Comment: Video: Top Democrat Criticizes Obama's Campaign Tactics
Obama Ducking Black Ministers/media To Avoid Gay Marriage Question
Jul 14, 2012 01:25 pm
The mainstream media has not reported this, and they won't report it because it hurts Barack Obama. He is ignoring requests from black ministers and the African-American media for a meeting over the issue of gay marriage. He obviously plans to continue ignoring them until they get the message: "Go away, and start working for my reelection!" [...]
Read More and Comment: Obama Ducking Black Ministers/media To Avoid Gay Marriage Question
Obama Should Receive Ph.D. For Hypocrisy
Jul 14, 2012 01:22 pm
Long before running for the presidency, Barack Obama has lived by the motto, 'do as I say, not what I do.' He is quick to tell everyone around him how they should act and conduct business, when in fact he doesn't even follow his own advice. In the latest rounds of Obama hypocrisy, the president [...]
Read More and Comment: Obama Should Receive Ph.D. For Hypocrisy
Video: Obama Takes A Shot At Fox News
Jul 14, 2012 01:12 pm
Obama: Don't listen to your 'Uncle Jim' who watches Fox News. Related posts: Iowa GOP Platform Takes "a Shot" At Obama's Citizenship The chairman of the Iowa Republican Party's platform committee says... O'Reilly Takes NBC News To Task Over Media Bias Fox News' Bill O'Reilly challenged The Washington Post's Faith Editor...
Watch the Video and Comment: Video: Obama Takes A Shot At Fox News
The 'Pre-Existing Condition' Hoax In ObamaTax
Jul 14, 2012 12:52 pm
We are told that one of the most "popular" features of the president's signature "ObamaTax" health insurance law is one that prevents health insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions. The left has managed to convince some people that ObamaTax is the protector of individuals who have been denied health insurance [...]
Read More and Comment: The 'Pre-Existing Condition' Hoax In ObamaTax
Obama Unrelenting In Bashing Romney's Job Record
Jul 14, 2012 12:38 pm
RICHMOND, Va. (Official Wire) - Mitt Romney insists that he stepped down from his private equity firm years earlier than federal records indicate, but President Barack Obama is more than a little skeptical and says his Republican rival has much to explain. Obama campaign advisers said the president, during a second straight day in [...]
Read More and Comment: Obama Unrelenting In Bashing Romney's Job Record
Portman Favorite As Romney Looks To Play Safe With VP Pick
Jul 14, 2012 12:33 pm
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney promises to name his vice presidential running mate before the party convention in late August, and the betting is the risk-averse candidate will pick the safest possible candidate - certainly no one like Sarah Palin who was pulled from obscurity four years ago by John McCain. With little expected to [...]
Read More and Comment: Portman Favorite As Romney Looks To Play Safe With VP Pick
Romney Says He'll Only Release 2 Tax Returns
Jul 14, 2012 12:24 pm
LACONIA, N.H. (Official Wire) - Likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney says he'll only release to the public one more tax return - and not until his accountants complete it. Romney tells CNN he's complied with the law by filing a financial disclosure statement. Romney so far has released one complete tax filing, for 2010, [...]
Read More and Comment: Romney Says He'll Only Release 2 Tax Returns
Romney Interview With CBS News: Full Transcript
Jul 14, 2012 12:12 pm
On Friday, July 13, 2012, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney sat down for interviews with all five networks following several days of heightened criticisms over his time at the private equity firm Bain Capital. Romney defended his work there to CBS News chief political correspondent Jan Crawford, and said the president owes him an [...]
Read More and Comment: Romney Interview With CBS News: Full Transcript
Video: It's Time To Remember America, 2012
Jul 14, 2012 11:04 am
This is the theme Song for all 21st Century Patriots and Freedom Fighters; The Tea Party Movement; Constitutional Conservatives; and Clear-Thinking Patriotic Americans. From our good friend Ralph Harrison. Related posts: An Original Western Journalism Production: "Big Big Government!" Perhaps you remember our video we put up a few months... Obama Who's Your Daddy? In this [...]
Watch the Video and Comment: Video: It's Time To Remember America, 2012
Why Do They Want Us Disarmed?
Jul 14, 2012 09:01 am
Americans need a severe case of Alley Oopism. Alley Oop. Do you remember Alley Oop of funny paper and song fame? He carried a big stick and didn't walk softly. He tore the limbs off of trees. Mr. Oop was capable of defending himself, his family, and his property. He had a big stick. Down through [...]
Read More and Comment: Why Do They Want Us Disarmed?
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Video: Holder Exposed: The Trentadue Torture-Murder Cover-up
Jul 13, 2012 01:52 pm
The Fast and Furious/Brian Terry Murder cover-up is just the most recent in a long line of cover-ups that Eric Holder has been involved in over the years. Holder cut his teeth on the art of cover-up with the Kenneth Michael Trentadue torture-murder case in the 1990s, learning the art of keeping facts out of [...]
Watch the Video and Comment: Video: Holder Exposed: The Trentadue Torture-Murder Cover-up
Palin Says Rice's View On Abortion Shouldn't Disqualify Her As VPJul 13, 2012 01:25 pm
Sarah Palin thinks Condoleezza Rice would make a "wonderful" vice president, and dismissed concerns that the former of secretary of State might not oppose abortion rights. "I think that Condoleezza Rice would be a wonderful vice president," Palin told Fox News on Thursday night. She compared Rice's past experience favorably to that of Obama. The [...]
Read More and Comment: Palin Says Rice's View On Abortion Shouldn't Disqualify Her As VP
Obama: I Need To Do A Better Job Of InspiringJul 13, 2012 01:25 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) - The president who ran on hope says he needs to do a better job of inspiring the public if he wins a second term. President Barack Obama says in an interview with "CBS This Morning" host Charlie Rose that the "mistake" of his first term was, in his words, "thinking that this [...]
Read More and Comment: Obama: I Need To Do A Better Job Of Inspiring
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Video: Sheriff Joe's New Hard Hitting TV Ad "Outrage"
Jul 13, 2012 01:17 pm
Barack Obama, Eric Holder, George Soros, and the entire liberal political establishment have launched a multi-million dollar campaign to destroy "America's Toughest Sheriff." Related posts: David Shuster Blasts MRC In WaPo: You're Partisan, I'm 'Hard Hitting On Both Parties' by Tim Graham Scott Whitlock's study showing a dramatic... Sheriff Joe Arpaio: I'm Not Going [...]
Watch the Video and Comment: Video: Sheriff Joe's New Hard Hitting TV Ad "Outrage"
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Why Romney Won't Pick Condoleezza Rice As VP
Jul 13, 2012 01:15 pm
Mitt Romney is not going to put Condoleeza Rice on his ticket. This is a head fake that many people have fallen for. Coming on the heels of his successful appearance before the NAACP, Mitt Romney has flipped the political script. By mentioning Rice, he has put Barack Obama on defense on the issue of [...]
Read More and Comment: Why Romney Won't Pick Condoleezza Rice As VP
Video: Holder Faces Call To Be DisbarredJul 13, 2012 01:15 pm
Sipsey Street Irregulars Blog author Mike Vanderboegh and DavidCodrea.com's David Codrea on the complaint they filed to disbar Attorney General Eric Holder. Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com Related posts: Is Contempt Vote Against Holder About Race? "Injustice" author J. Christian Adams appeared on Lou Dobbs' show... Shocking Video: Undercover Man Is Offered Eric Holder's [...]
Read More and Comment: Video: Holder Faces Call To Be Disbarred
Obama's Class Warfare RhetoricJul 13, 2012 01:12 pm
Anyone who wants to study the tricks of propaganda rhetoric has a rich source of examples in the statements of President Barack Obama. On Monday, July 9th, for example, he said that Republicans "believe that prosperity comes from the top down, so that if we spend trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, [...]
Read More and Comment: Obama's Class Warfare Rhetoric
Holder Wrongfully Injecting 'Racial Element'Jul 13, 2012 12:58 pm
In the wake of his speech this week criticizing an effort in Texas to deal with voter fraud, Attorney General Eric Holder is being accused of racial rhetoric. During his speech at the NAACP's (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) convention in Houston, Holder - the nation's highest-ranking lawyer - equated the requirement [...]
Read More and Comment: Holder Wrongfully Injecting 'Racial Element'
COMPROMISED INTEL: Secret Dem Political Research For 12 2012 ContestsJul 13, 2012 12:57 pm
It could be one of the biggest political intelligence coups of the 2012 battle to control Congress. Media Trackers, a conservative investigative watchdog group, discovered nearly three-dozen Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee opposition research notebooks - extensive secretive manuals outlining anything that could be used against a political opponent. Several news outlets have reported that some [...]
Read More and Comment: COMPROMISED INTEL: Secret Dem Political Research For 12 2012 Contests |
Video: DOE Official Thinks Loan Program That Gave Us Solyndra Are "Enormous Success"Jul 13, 2012 12:40 pm
It is obvious that this guy is lying. Otherwise, he would have to admit the truth that this loan program is an enormous failure. Related posts: Video: Did Valerie Jarrett Push Corrupt Solyndra Loan Deal? video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player Americans are demanding to know... E-mails Show Direct White House Links To Influence Over DOE [...]
Watch the Video and Comment: Video: DOE Official Thinks Loan Program That Gave Us Solyndra Are "Enormous Success"
Video: Congressman: Fighting For The Constitution Is A Losing BattleJul 13, 2012 12:37 pm
What happens when a Republican Congressman tells conservative activists that fighting for the Constitution is a losing battle? Watch the fireworks as Unite In Action's Director of Legal Affairs KrisAnne Hall and 912 Project National Co-Chair, Unite In Action President, Stephani Scruggs respond. Related posts: Congressman: Is Kenyan Constitution Con A Criminal Offense? Last night [...]
Watch the Video and Comment: Video: Congressman: Fighting For The Constitution Is A Losing Battle
Video: Jay Carney Sneers At Reporter's Request For Obama's College RecordsJul 13, 2012 12:28 pm
Who do these people think they are? Do they think they're above the law? Related posts: Rush: Washington Post Still Can't Find Obama's College Records I still can't believe how ignorant the media is on... 10 Reasons Obama Must Disclose His College Records Vetting: Desperate, Obama supporters portray all who look into his past...
Watch the Video and Comment: Video: Jay Carney Sneers At Reporter's Request For Obama's College Records
Video: Dennis Miller: Obama Most Divisive POTUS EverJul 13, 2012 12:22 pm
Comedian Dennis Miller asks why Obama always says 'rich' like it's a four-letter word and suggests that Obama is the most divisive president he's ever seen. Related posts: AP Headline: "Obama Breaks From Bush, Avoids Divisive Stands" The associated Press showing just how balanced they are by... Dennis Miller On Presidents Press Conference ... Continue [...]
Watch the Video and Comment: Video: Dennis Miller: Obama Most Divisive POTUS Ever
Food Stamps For Tattoos, Porn, Manicures, And Bail MoneyJul 13, 2012 12:17 pm
There was a time when there were standards for getting food stamps (now EBT cards). The food stamp program was designed to help families with the necessities. You couldn't buy anything you want with food stamps. When my oldest son worked at a grocery store, he was indignant when a woman came through the checkout [...]
Read More and Comment: Food Stamps For Tattoos, Porn, Manicures, And Bail Money
NRA Finds Some GOP Lawmakers Resistant To Gun LawsJul 13, 2012 12:03 pm
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Threats, denunciations and verbal potshots between the National Rifle Association and the leaders of the Legislature were common in the decades that Democrats ran the show in the Tennessee Capitol. Turns out Republicans are just as good at running afoul of the powerful gun rights group. GOP leaders in Nashville infuriated [...]
Read More and Comment: NRA Finds Some GOP Lawmakers Resistant To Gun Laws
Iraq Rebuilding Risked Billions In U.S. Funds, Auditor ConcludesJul 13, 2012 11:01 am
The U.S. government's drive to rebuild Iraq "put billions of American taxpayer dollars at risk of fraud, waste and abuse," and the amount misspent will never be known, according to the final report by a U.S. watchdog agency. The report by Special Inspector for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen, released today, questioned almost $636 million in [...]
Read More and Comment: Iraq Rebuilding Risked Billions In U.S. Funds, Auditor Concludes
Our Money, Mr. Obama, NOT Yours!Jul 13, 2012 09:56 am
Mr. Obama, apparently you and your SOCIALIST minions think that the money earned by American taxpayers is yours to do with as you please. You want to take from those who have worked hard, earned their way, and have paid more than their fair share to governments (local, state, and federal.) In fact, they have all [...]
Read More and Comment: Our Money, Mr. Obama, NOT Yours!
Training Ground For Eric Holder's Fast And Furious Cover-up, Part 4Jul 13, 2012 09:37 am
Read Part 1 here. Read Part 2 here. Read part 3 here. In order to ask why Eric Holder is such a master of cover-ups in regards to Fast and Furious, we need only look at the 1995 torture-murder case of Kenneth Michael Trentadue. In Fast and Furious, there are thousands of hidden emails and memos, [...]
Read More and Comment: Training Ground For Eric Holder's Fast And Furious Cover-up, Part 4 |
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Can a Candidate Lie His Way to the Presidency?
Posted: 14 Jul 2012 07:47 AM PDT
(John Hinderaker)
Barack Obama has developed quite a record as a liar. He lied for more than a decade about where he was born. He lied about many aspects of his life in his fictional "memoir." He lied about his Chicago years and has activities and associations there. (Has anyone ever asked the question, what did Obama do when he lived in Chicago, and whom did he know there, since it seems that all of the activities and associations of which we have a record are now, as Nixon might say, inoperative.) To answer my own question, I think a candidate likely can lie his way into office, but I doubt that in incumbent president can lie his way to re-election. For the first time in his life, apparently, Barack Obama has a record.
Which doesn't stop him from trying. The Obama campaign's current Bain Capital smear, which many media outlets have taken up, ranks with Quemoy, Matsu and Checkers as absurd campaign "issues." But it is all that a flailing, out-of-ammo campaign has to offer. Michael Ramirez comments:
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Ankie Spitzer's quest
Posted: 14 Jul 2012 06:00 AM PDT
(Scott Johnson)
Black September was the first of the PLO's deniable covert units. For Black September, read Yasser Arafat et al. See, for example, my Weekly Standard article "How Arafat got away with murder." With that addition, the Wikipedia account of the July 1972 massacre of the Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich does a good job of acquainting readers with the story for those who didn't live through it and refreshing the memory of those who did.
The Times of Israel has posted a story by Mitch Ginsburg geared to the anniversary of the massacre next week: "Ankie Spitzer's 40-year quest for Olympic justice." In an email message drawing our attention to the story, Times of Israel editor David Horovitz writes: "I think this is an extraordinary story...How Arab pressure and Olympic immorality have thwarted the relentless quest of a widow [Ankie Spitzer] to have her husband and the other 10 Israelis who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich 1972 games, commemorated at the Olympics."
David adds: "I think it's dismal that the IOC has commemorated other Olympic and related tragedies and yet steadfastly refuses to honor 11 israeli athletes who were murdered AT the Olympics! and this stance will continue now in London, despite GERMANY, where the murders took place, asking for that moment of respect. This woman's relentless battle is so moving and worthy of support..." Please check out Ginsburg's story about Mrs. Spitzer.
UPDATE: I meant to note that the Star Tribune has posted a related column by Sally Abrams: "Just one minute to honor murdered Olympians."
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Romney responds
Posted: 14 Jul 2012 04:57 AM PDT
(Scott Johnson)
The Obama campaign has made progress in smearing Mitt Romney for his work at Bain Capital. The attacks on Romney are what Obama has on offer in 2012. It's quite a contrast with 2008. The Obama folks know what they're doing. They are nothing if not adaptable.
Obama himself has weighed in with this exploding cigar: "Well, here's what I know, we were just talking about responsibility and as president of the United States, it's pretty clear to me that I'm responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and you know, Harry Truman said the buck stops with you."
Mitt Romney has stepped out to make the rounds in response to the pounding he is taking. A friend has put together this 40-second video of Romney addressing the attacks. At Videotruffle it is given the title: "Romney Headslams Obama - Again, and Again, and Again..."
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The memory of June 4, 1967
Posted: 13 Jul 2012 07:27 PM PDT
(Paul Mirengoff)
Call it vanity, but I try never to link to a column or article without providing some commentary of my own. But this article by Bret Stephens about the the meaning of the Six Day War, then and now, deserves to the posted without any comment by me other than my earnest recommendation that you read the whole thing.
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"Hate speech" and theatre of the aburd
Posted: 13 Jul 2012 01:21 PM PDT
(Paul Mirengoff)
In England, it's a crime to call someone a "f___ing black c___." If you think I'm making this up, ask John Terry, the English soccer star who was just found not guilty of saying this to Anton Ferdinand, an opposing player, during a contentious match.
Terry didn't come away unscathed. He lost his captaincy of the England national team when the Crown decided to prosecute him.
But one needn't feel too sorry for the player, and not just because of his pattern of prior conduct. He probably did abuse Ferdinand with a racial comment; the prosecution simply couldn't meet the burden of proof that applies in a criminal case. And losing the captaincy is not necessarily an unreasonable penalty for this kind of remark.
Being tried for a crime is. Terry made the remark at issue in the heat of battle, after Ferdinand taunted him for "shagging" the partner of a teammate (Terry is "guilty as charged" of that).
Moreover, Terry almost certainly is not a racist. One need only watch the way his black teammates at Chelsea respond to him. One of those teammates, Ashley Cole who has played alongside Terry for years for club and country, was a star witness for the defense. "We shouldn't be sitting here," said the great left-back, in perhaps the truest words uttered during the proceedings.
Terry's racial remark (if he made it, as I believe he did) was akin to getting angry at a fat person and calling him a "fat ____." It doesn't mean you dislike fat people; it just means that, in the heat of the moment, you used the person's most obvious physical characteristic as part of your expression of anger.
In any case, racism is not a crime. And even if Terry had not been provoked, a free society should not criminalize speech, however odious, without more.
Moreover, the Terry trial shows the extent to which the judicial process is demeaned by this sort of prosecution. Ferdinand didn't hear Terry's alleged comment. But video showed that Terry seemed to utter the offending words. Terry's defense was that he was responding to an alleged accusation by Ferdinand that Terry had called him a "f___ing black c___." He uttered the offensive phrase as part of his denial to Ferdinand that he said any such thing, or so Terry's story goes.
Naturally, the trial became something of a circus. Lip-readers were brought in to testify about what the video showed Terry to be saying. Ferdinand testified about how distraught Terry made him feel. Terry's character was vouched for, and so forth.
This theatre of the absurd lasted for five days. Surely, there are better ways to use judicial resources than to litigate over the content of a comment that the victim did not even hear. Surely, a society that obsesses to this degree over a few words is an unserious society.
In the end, the Chief Magistrate Judge ruled that the former England skipper is not guilty. Finding Terry a credible witness, he said:
There is no doubt that John Terry uttered the words 'f****** black c***' at Anton Ferdinand.
When he did so, he was angry. Mr Ferdinand says that he did not precipitate this comment by himself accusing Mr Terry of calling him a 'black c***'. I accept that it is possible that Mr Terry believed at the time, and believes now, that such an accusation was made.
Even with all the help the court has received from television footage, expert lip readers, witnesses and indeed counsel, it is impossible to be sure exactly what were [all] the words spoken by Mr Terry at the relevant time. It is impossible to be sure exactly what was said to him at the relevant time by Mr Ferdinand.
It is therefore possible that what he said was not intended as an insult, but rather as a challenge to what he believed had been said to him.
For a small part of the relevant time, the camera's view of Mr Terry was obstructed. It is a crucial fact that nobody has given evidence that they heard what Mr Terry said or, more importantly, how he said it. His account has been subject to the most searching and thorough questioning.
In those circumstances, there being a doubt, the only verdict the court can record is one of not guilty.
The verdict brought cheers from onlookers, but Ferdinand's mother is said to have appeared shell-shocked. What a royal waste!
I don't believe that such a prosecution could proceed in the U.S., thanks to the First Amendment. However, similar proceedings have occurred here, for example, before college disciplinary boards.
And they also occur in federal court. Under Title VII, which prohibits employment discrimination, allegations regarding utterances such as Terry's, and indeed significantly less offensive ones, are often litigated under the rubric of racial or sexual harassment. And since the litigation is civil rather than criminal, it need not be shown beyond a reasonable doubt that the alleged statements were made. A simple, uncorroborated "she says" may well be sufficient to result in liability, even if contradicted by a "he says."
Thus, as in Britain though to a lesser degree, the robustness of our society is being reduced by ridiculous litigation over "hate speech."
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Ed Rendell - Team Obama went "a little bit too far with the felony business"
Posted: 13 Jul 2012 11:14 AM PDT
(Paul Mirengoff)
The only positive thing President Obama has going for him with swing voters is that they tend to like him personally. I'm not sure why, but assume it's some combination of his race, the positive initial impression he made, and the tendency of Americans to want to like their president.
Obama's increasingly vicious campaign against Mitt Romney puts this one and only asset in jeopardy. It risks everything on gaining votes based on dislike of the president's opponent, and that's ordinarily a losing strategy for an incumbent.
Ed Rendell understands this. Today he acknowledged that "all these attacks [by Team Obama] may be hurting the president's brand a little bit." For this reason, Rendell concluded that "our supporters went a little bit too far with the felony business" - i.e., the suggestion that Mitt Romney committed a felony with respect to his sworn statements about his role with Bain Capital.
I doubt that the Obama camp would risk hurting the Obama "brand" in this fashion if it didn't believe he is in big trouble. He is, and over-the-top attacks on the other guy are likely to dig the hole deeper. After all, Obama's "brand," not his policies or accomplishments, is what might win him reelection.
UPDATE: Nate Silver has an analysis of Obama's "favorability" rating vs. his "job approval" rating that I think tends to confirm what I've written above.
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On judicial restraint
Posted: 13 Jul 2012 10:16 AM PDT
(Paul Mirengoff)
Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy wonders whether, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's decision upholding Obamacare's individual mandate, liberals and conservatives are about to swap positions on the proper role of the Supreme Court. For decades, Kerr notes, liberals have tend to view the power of judicial review as an unambiguously positive thing. If the exercise of that power entails striking down statutes, then good: it means that the wayward legislature has strayed from fundamental law, and we are lucky that the wise judges can keep the other branches in check. Judges should try to get it right, based on whatever understanding they have of what the Constitution truly means.
Conservatives, by contrast, typically have argued for judicial restraint. This view sees the power of judicial review as important but also potentially dangerous. We live in a democracy, and statutes represent majority will. Judges often confuse their view of the constitution and their view of sensible policy. This creates a significant danger that courts will overturn legislatures when they dislike the legislation, rather than when the constitution truly demands it. Thus, judges should be modest and wary of exercising their power in ways that trump the will of the people.
Even before the Court decided the Obamacare case, we saw evidence that liberals were flipping from the first view to the second. President Obama went so far as to declare that it would be wrong for the "unelected" Supreme Court to take the "unprecedented and extraordinary" decision, to strike down his signature health care legislation, when it was passed by an elected Congress. Obama backtracked a bit, but it's clear enough that the left is prepared to abandon its traditional position on judicial review in the interest of promoting a leftist policy agenda. The will to power is paramount for the modern American left.
But some conservatives seem equally prepared to flip. Judicial restraint, they say, is so 1970s. The concept is an historical accident - an overreaction on the part of a battered conservative movement to the excesses of the Warren court. With that court 50 years in the rearview mirror, it's time for today's self-confident conservatives to stop worrying about legislating from the bench, and get on with defending the Constitution.
My view is that these conservatives go too far. We still live in a democracy where, in theory at least, statutes reflect the will of people, just as, in theory at least, they did during the 1970s. Judges are still unelected and still quite fallible, both in their policy preferences and in their judgments about what the Constitution means. And, perhaps even more so than during the 1970s, judges are prone to allow their policy preferences to influence their judgments concerning the Constitution.
Accordingly, judges have as much as ever to be modest about. And with such modesty should come restraint, no matter whose ox is being gored.
But modesty is an attitude not a philosophy. Although judges should judge modestly, it is not their function to be modest; their function is to decide cases, including constitutional cases, correctly. Thus, while modesty should inform constitutional adjudication, it should not become a judge's overriding concern. One cannot build a sensible core judicial philosophy around modesty and restraint.
The law being the law, judges have developed a doctrine that purports to help judges balance the competing concerns of modesty/restraint and enforcing the Constitution. This is the "avoidance" doctrine that Chief Justice Roberts invoked in upholding the individual mandate. It holds that if a court can give statutory language a "fairly possible" meaning under which a statute should be upheld under the Constitution, then they should give it that meaning and uphold the statute.
The problem with this doctrine, of course, is that the concept of "fairly possible" is extraordinarily malleable and indeterminate in most cases. It's a little like the notion that, in boxing, the champion should not lose his belt unless the challenger clearly defeats him. In practice, we know this means that the champion keeps his belt in the event of a tie. We also understand that the champion shouldn't keep his belt simply by making it to the end of the fight. But there's plenty of gray area in between these two extremes.
So too with the phrase "fairly possible" as used in the "avoidance" doctrine of constitutional adjudication. And this means that the concept doesn't really provide much help when it comes to alleviating the concerns that favor judicial restraint - judicial fallibility and political bias. Indeed, given its malleability, the avoidance doctrine can serve as an invitation for "activist" judges to advance an extraneous agenda, be it upholding a statute one agrees with from a policy standpoint or acting to protect/enhance the image of the Supreme Court.
In sum, conservatives should not discard the concept of judicial restraint as a relic. But conservatives should also recognize that restraint is an attitude, not an overriding judicial philosophy. And they should understand that doctrines that purport to reflect judicial modesty can easily serve as a vehicle for highly immodest judicial activism.
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Last Day of School
Posted: 13 Jul 2012 10:10 AM PDT
(Steven Hayward)
Power Line in the Classroom
So today is the last day of my class on American Statesmen for AEI's Summer Institute program for college students, whose intensive, three-hour-a-day sessions have kept me from my regularly scheduled appearances here on Power Line. I'm likely to end the course today with some of the thoughts with which I launched the class on Monday, especially what I used as my thematic statement on the first day-the last paragraph of Leo Strauss's eulogy to Churchill, made in class at the University of Chicago in 1965 when the news came of Churchill's death:
The death of Churchill reminds us of the limitations of our craft, and therewith of our duty. We have no higher duty, and no more pressing duty, than to remind ourselves and our students, of political greatness, human greatness, of the peaks of human excellence. For we are supposed to train ourselves and others in seeing things as they are, and this means above all in seeing their greatness and their misery, their excellence and their vileness, their nobility and their triumphs, and therefore never to mistake mediocrity, however brilliant, for true greatness.
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Obama looks back
Posted: 13 Jul 2012 04:25 AM PDT
(Scott Johnson)
When President Obama looks back on his "first term," is this really what he tells himself? I'm afraid it is:
"The mistake of my first term - couple of years - was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that's important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times.
"It's funny - when I ran, everybody said, well he can give a good speech but can he actually manage the job?"
He hasn't gotten the policy right, he's told plenty of stories, he sounds like a patronizing jerk, and his self-knowledge is as thin as his self-regard is deep. How about a "second term"?
Via InstaPundit.
UPDATE: More at Hot Air and Ace of Spades.
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Gutsy Taiwan to mainland China: In your face
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What do you do when you're an island nation only a fraction of the size of your mainland neighbor, whose leaders declare they own you, desire to invade you and have some 1,600 short- and medium-range missiles aimed at you?
If you love your liberty, you do THIS!
Click here to read the full article.
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County pulls ol' switcheroo to kill gun shop
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Is there no limit to which anti-gun politicians and bureaucrats will go to kill free enterprise and trample the Second Amendment?
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Black blogger: Why don't blacks behave?
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The evidence appears to point to a nationwide trend of skyrocketing black-on-white crime.
Finally, one black voice is saying, "Enough!"
It's not Jesse Jackson. It's not Al Sharpton. It's not Maxine Waters.
Click here to read the full article.
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Decorated general: Shariah is here now!
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Maybe it was the .50 caliber bullet he took in the chest that makes him so aware when the enemy has crept in close.
Now this decorated general is warning that the enemy of democracy and the U.S. Constitution is so close, it has already penetrated the "deepest halls of our government."
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Read the latest now on WND.com.
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Plus!
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Three alleged would-be assassins have just learned it's not nice to plot to kill Sheriff Joe Arpaio ...
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Click here for details.
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Will new
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A new movie starring Russell Crowe tells the story of Noah, but concerns are already being raised ...
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Click here for details.
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Sears now adds bestiality to its website
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For many Sears shoppers, the great thing about the once-great family store was getting everything in one place ...
Home appliances ... check.
Tools ... check.
Back-to-school clothes for the kids ... check.
Paint ... check.
Porn ... check.
Hey, wait a minute!
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Baseball 'Saints' become 'Aints' for THIS
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Baseball history is loaded with inspired promotional events, but one squad has officially taken it to the next level.
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These men 'want Sheriff Joe assassinated'
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When you're Sheriff Joe Arpaio, you tend to make certain people angry ... including these men who are allegedly trying to assassinate him.
Click here to read the full article.
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Supremes asked: Who is 'natural born citizen?'
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It's the issue at the heart of the question of Obama's eligibility to serve as president of the U.S. ... what it a "natural born citizen"?
Until now, Obama's attorneys have deflected the question with procedural victories in lower courts that saw other cases dismissed.
But they didn't stop this case. Finally the question has arrived at the Supreme Court's doorstep ...
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'Hands-on' exercise in sexuality class lands in court
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It wasn't quite "show and tell," but a human-sexuality professor's required assignment was enough to cause one student to feel "pure terror" at his do-it-or-flunk demands ...
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Read the latest now on WND.com.R
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Plus!
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Think you know Chuck Norris?
Guaranteed ... you don't know Chuck Norris like these action heroes do!
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Click here for details.
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Friday, July 13, 2012
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary L. Bauer
COUNTDOWN TO VICTORY: 116 DAYS TO THE 2012 ELECTIONS
Click here to listen now.
The Condi "Boomlet"
In the last 24 hours, reports have swept Washington, D.C., that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is at the top of Mitt Romney's list of possible vice presidential running mates. It is the lead item on the Drudge Report, and Bill Kristol at The Weekly Standard has reported that Rice is a favorite of Ann Romney.
It is easy to see why Condi would be considered. She has an incredible 66%-24% approval/disapproval rating. She would appeal to suburban independents. She is smart, articulate and likeable. Like Cheney with Bush and Biden with Obama, she would bring foreign policy experience to the ticket. And I suspect Vice President Biden is probably hyperventilating right now. Imagine a debate between Biden and Rice. It would be "baloney" going to the grinder!
But there are downsides too. She has never been through an actual campaign. The skills she possesses may not hold up in that super-hot arena. Her presence on the ticket would promote the Obama/media narrative that a Romney Administration would merely be a repeat of Bush.
There are many issues where her views are unknown. On values issues she is nuanced. She calls herself "mildly pro-choice" and dodges whether she thinks Roe v. Wade should be overturned. But she does see abortion as a moral issue, and she supports parental consent and opposes late-term abortions. She believes marriage should be between a man and a woman, but seems to support some sort of pseudo-marriage for same-sex couples.
The establishment loves her, but Romney already has the establishment. His challenge is the conservative base that continues to be lukewarm.
What say you? Please give me your feedback right now. Yes or No on Condi, and if your answer is no, whom do you prefer? Please use this link to respond.
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Democrat Media cheerleaders join Pelosi in telling Catholic Church to DROP DEAD!
Jul 13, 2012 06:13 am | Coach Collins
Kevin "Coach" Collins
A recent press conference reminded us that the Democrat media cheerleaders are standing with Nancy Pelosi in telling the Catholic Church to DROP DEAD!
Lost in the news of by John Roberts certification of Obamacare is the fact that the first major assault on our civil and religious rights will be here on August 1st.
The threat from this bill will cease to be a "potential" menace and become reality when Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' edict demanding the Catholic Church yield to her commands becomes "settled law."
Her order DIRECTS religious institutions to provide "sterilizations, without any fees or co-pay, to all women with "reproductive capacity"-meaning all women who have begun ovulating, including teens."
Using the National Academy of Sciences guidelines the HHS says females old enough to menstruate -statistically girls as young as 12 years old - must be part of this group. After August 1, 2012 their employer's ... Continue Reading:Democrat Media cheerleaders join Pelosi in telling Catholic Church to DROP DEAD!
comments | read more
American Minute July 12
Jul 12, 2012 04:15 pm | Coach Collins
By Bill Federer, staff writer
Born a slave around JULY 12, 1864, George Washington Carver became a scientist of international renown. On January 21, 1921, Carver addressed the United States House Ways and Means Committee on behalf of the United Peanut Growers Association on the use of peanuts to improve Southern economy. Initially given ten minutes to speak, the committee was so captivated, his time was extended. Explaining the many products derived from the peanut, including milk, mock beef and mock chicken, George Washington Carver stated: "If you go to the first chapter of Genesis, we can interpret very clearly, I think, what God intended when he said 'Behold, I have given you every herb that bears seed. To you it shall be meat.' This is what He means about it. It shall be meat. There is everything there to strengthen and nourish and keep the body alive and healthy." After nearly two hours, the chairman asked: "Dr. ... Continue Reading:American Minute July 12
comments | read more
Stopping Obamacare by essentially doing nothing
Jul 12, 2012 01:00 pm | Coach Collins
By Derrick Hollenbeck, staff writer
Stopping Obamacare by essentially doing nothing is worth considering. It makes the Left chase a constantly moving target which will make rallying their troops very difficult. What do they protest when the process could so easily be manipulated to actually stop the implementation of the bill without a vote or a debate?
While it is difficult to determine exactly what is in Obamacare, there are a few sections that are settled. One thing for sure is the federal government has to build "health insurance exchanges" for states that can't or won't make them for themselves. Since twenty seven states joined in the effort to overturn Obamacare it's likely at least two dozen or more won't cooperate. If a Republican president, and Republican controlled Congress refuse to fund these exchanges they won't be created. In this case the next president would have no obligation to order the funding.
The 1$ billion that was ... Continue Reading:Stopping Obamacare by essentially doing nothing
comments | read more
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Today's Headlines: Friday, July 13, 2012
Romney Considering Pro-Choice Architect of Bush Foreign Policy for VP
Boehner Dodges Question of Whether He Will Fund or Defund Obamacare
Pelosi: GOP Voted Against Protections For 'Little Baby With a Birth Defect' By Repealing Obamacare
Only CNSNews.com brings you the news the liberal media ignores! Please help us with a tax deductible gift today.
Trial Lawyer Expects Medical Malpractice Claims to Increase Under Obamacare
The $64,000 Question: How Much Has Debt Increased Per Taxpayer Under Obama?
Americans Will Work More than 6 Months to Pay Cost of Gov't in 2012
White House: Asking for Obama's College Records 'Preposterous'
Nike Taking Joe Paterno's Name Off Child Care Center
Rep. Bachmann: Justice Roberts' Obamacare Ruling Was 'Completely and Utterly Wrong'
Rep. Price: Roberts Wrong, Individual Mandate Not Constitutional Under Taxing Power
Rep. Chaffetz on Obamacare Individual Mandate: 'It Is A Tax'
Rep. West: Obamacare Is 'Really Nothing More than a Tax Law'
Democrat Urged to Lift Hold on Bill Supporting Vulnerable Religious Minorities in Middle East and Asia
Thousands Believe Hoax That Obama Will Pay Their Utility Bills
COMMENTARY:
Colbert's Campus Coddlers
By L. Brent Bozell III Let us agree that Stephen Colbert can be very funny. Let's also agree that his satire being taken seriously by academia says something about the state of academia.
Salad Days of the Public Sector Are Over
By Patrick J. Buchanan A number of American cities are exploring bankruptcy to escape from under the No longer shameful, bankruptcy is now seen as an option for U.S. cities, eager to escape the mountain of debt they have amassed or to get out of contracts that an earlier generation of politicians negotiated. The crisis of the public sector has come to River City. What happened to us?
Obama's Interior Department Still Going Rogue
By Michelle Malkin Instead of haranguing GOP opponent Mitt Romney with questions about his offshore bank accounts, this search-and-destroy White House should start accounting for its offshore drilling obstructionism. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's reign has been a shady, secretive and rotten deal for America.
Closed Circle Syndrome
By Rich Galen
The danger of the Closed Circle Syndrome is that the same ideas get recycled -- presented with different heading, in a different font -- but containing nothing new.
NEWSPAPER ROUNDUP:
Liberal group sends dogs and dead people voter registration forms
Colo. secretary of state has found 85 potential illegal voters
ATF could fight Denver street violence if problem becomes more serious
Florida leads nation in excluding ex-felons from the polls
Romney demands apology over Obama campaign's 'felony' remark
Business fights to shield property from eminent domain in Virginia
240-yard border tunnel near Yuma tied to meth smuggling
R.I. public employee retirements up 20 percent, ahead of reforms
Metro redefines 'on time' for trains
Federal agency probing sharp drop in Pa.'s Medicaid rolls
Joe Paterno's legacy irreparably stained
GOP leaders may squash farm bill, fearing divisive floor fight
House sets pre-August-recess vote on Bush tax rate extension
New plan allows release of low-level suspects to free up Chicago jail space
CNSNewsTV: Check out our latest videos!
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Obama Administration Launches New End-run Around Congress Yet another program designed to identify deportable aliens appears to be on the Obama administration's chopping block.
Full Story
Holder Speaks at La Raza Event, Praises SB 1070 Decision The U.S. attorney general said his department wants to make sure the part of Arizona's immigration law judged constitutional does not lead to racial profiling.
Full Story
Should the D.C. Council Offer Sanctuary to Illegal Campaign Contributors? Imagine the headlines if the D.C. City Council adopted a resolution offering sanctuary to people who make illegal campaign contributions.
Full Story Remittances to Mexico Increase In May, Mexican workers sent home 7,096 transfers, totaling $2.34 billion.
Full Story Another Report Shows Discrimination Taking Place Against American Workers Bright Future Jobs (BFJ) released a report last week adding to the growing accumulation of evidence that refute claims of a shortage of qualified STEM workers in the United States.
Full Story
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 Anal Jihad is in the focus of reluctant public attention again, three years after a half-assed attempt at assassination of a Saudi official with a pound of explosives stuck up a jihadist's rectum. Back then we made a parody of an Al-Qaeda training video titled, Get Lucky With A Bomb Up Your Butt. Among other useful butt-bombing tips, the video encouraged Jihadists to find a butt buddy in order to widen their bomb-storage facility and make them accustomed to the pleasure of martyrdom. Unfortunately, life has the nasty habit of imitating our parodies.
Raymond Ibrahim reports about a new fatwa that explicitly legitimizes sodomy and even makes it obligatory if it helps to wage Jihad on the unbelievers. MORE >>
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July 13, 2012
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On Today's Program
 The Communist: The untold story of Obama's communist mentor Frank Marshall Davis
TheBlaze has the exclusive interview with Paul Kengor, author of the scathing new book that does the work the mainstream media refuses to do. The MSM goes the extra mile to pursue fake stories about Mitt Romney giving an unwanted haircut during his youth, but they completely ignore the childhood communist mentor that Barack Obama mentioned 22 times in his autobiography. Learn more about the impact Davis had on the life of Barack Obama HERE.
Obama 2012 a campaign of sheer desperation
Glenn took an in-depth look at the attacks the Obama campaign has used against Mitt Romney. It's a pretty sad lineup of negatives - they're either false or not even bad to begin with. The problem with negative personal politics is it doesn't work against a truly decent human being. Watch the ridiculous string of attacks and Glenn's reaction.
You asked, Glenn answered: How can you still get tickets to Restoring Love? And how can you participate in the Food Drive? Glenn answers your Restoring Love questions. Can't make it to Dallas? Click HERE to find out how you can watch all of the Restoring Love coverage live.
Traveling to Dallas for Restoring Love? If you have an inspirational or heartwarming story, we want to know about it! Please share your story by emailing tickets@gbtv.com. We look forward to hearing your stories and meeting you in Dallas!
Amazing history progressives don't want you to know
Glenn was literally holding history on radio today as he showed the actual letter Thomas Jefferson wrote that was likely the key to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. These are the types of stories that progressives have worked diligently to erase from American history. If you want to restore America you have to first know the history of how it all started. See an amazing piece of American history on GBTV today.
On today's episode of "As Seen on the 4th Hour" Pat & Stu test a product that guarantees happiness.
The Cheers to You CD guarantees that if you're not feeling better about yourself, you get your money back. Pat and Stu weren't really sure how to feel after listening to the creepy dialogue. Watch their reaction HERE. And yes, this is a real product.
Glenn complains about every Romney VP option
Talk of Romney's possible VP choice is kicking into high gear as Condi Rice rumors swirled around the internet today. Glenn thinks that choice is highly unlikely, but as he ran down the list of possibilities all he seemed to do was complain. Is there any VP choice he likes?
Your Kids + Michael Vey = Hours of Quiet
If you and your kids haven't read MICHAEL VEY: THE PRISONER OF CELL 25 yet, this is the perfect time to start - it's now available in paperback. MICHAEL VEY is the perfect story to read as a family: a novel that's full of action while also being full of great role models and life lessons. Read the original now and you'll be done just in time for the sequel that arrives this August!
Glenn weighs in on the commie art used by the Obama campaign
Glenn, Pat & Stu debate the latest sign that Obama is a communist. His campaign unleashed a new font yesterday, and it's exactly the same font that was used in communist Cuba propaganda. Is he doing this just to rile people like Glenn up? Or is he really trying to send a message to his most ardent hardcore leftist followers? Check out the debate HERE.
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Miss Stutistics on GBTV yesterday? Watch the latest episode on Obama's dismal deficit numbers.
Purchase quality, carefully crafted products while supporting small businesses throughout America... Discover remarkable small businesses tirelessly working to gain your trust at The Marketplace by Markdown.com. You'll support small businesses, purchase carefully crafted products and become part of a very special community who value hard work, tradition and guiding principles.
Glenn interviews John Hagee
Last year Glenn was the keynote speaker at the Christians United For Israel event in Washington, DC. Hard to believe it's been an entire year since Glenn was there, but it has and this Tuesday in DC the event is happening again. Anyone who stands with Israel will no doubt endure hatred from the anti-Israel crowd - take a look at the list of those brave enough to stand up to them.
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