Resources
For those who want further information about the topics covered in this blog, I recommend the following sites. I will add to this as I find additional good sources.
American Troops
Great picture. ~Bob
Labor, Tea Party pour resources into Wisconsin ahead of recall
Excerpt: Wisconsin voters are set to go to the polls on Tuesday to decide whether Gov. Scott Walker (R) will stay in office, an election that could have implications far beyond the state and could prove to be a key test of union power ahead of the November presidential election. Walker himself became a conservative icon after confronting labor last year by pushing through legislation that limited public workers’ collective bargaining rights, leading to the recall. (Doesn’t matter if it’s unions, banks selling bundled sub-prime mortgages, or vandals from beyond the Rhine. Looters always fight any effort to stop their looting. ~Bob.)
Winners and losers in Wisconsin recall vote. By Chris Cillizza
Excerpt: The recall election has drawn massive amounts of national attention and money — $63.5 million and counting, to be exact. Walker enters Election Day as a slight favorite, with even Democrats acknowledging privately that a Barrett win at this point would be an upset. Of course, upsets happen. With the national spotlight so firmly fixed on Tuesday’s election — the Fix believes Tuesday’s vote is the second most important and influential race of 2012 aside from the presidential — the stakes for a number of players on both sides are absolutely massive.
Worth Reading: Wisconsin's Temper Tantrum. By George Will
Excerpt: This state, the first to let government employees unionize, was an incubator of progressivism and gave birth (in 1932 in Madison, the precursor of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) to its emblematic institution, the government employees union -- government organized as a special interest to lobby itself to expand itself. But Wisconsin progressivism is in a dark Peter Pan phase; it is childish without being winsome.
Poll: Scott Walker's Lead Shrinks to Three
Excerpt: PPP's final poll on the Wisconsin recall finds Scott Walker ahead, but also a race that's tightening. Walker leads Tom Barrett 50-47. That's down from 50-45 on a PPP poll conducted three weeks ago and it's also down from a 52-45 lead that Walker posted in a Marquette Law poll released last week.
Republicans see opening with Hispanic voters over jobs data
Excerpt: With last week's job report showing Hispanic unemployment on the rise, Republicans see a chance to draw voters from a group that voted overwhelmingly for President Obama in 2008. (Maybe not. The Democrats’ efforts to keep minorities desperately poor, thus dependent on government and voting Democrat, has been wildly successful. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: In a post at the Health Affairs blog, Jill Horwitz and Helen Levy propose to teach the Supreme Court justices Economics 101 in the matter of the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, also known as ObamaCare). In particular they are responding to errors in economic reasoning they claim to find in a brief filed by the American Action Forum (AAF), representing the views of dozens of prominent economists. Unfortunately, their post ignores Econ 102. Rather than shed light on the economics of health policy, they seriously mislead. Two issues are involved: (1) whether the federal government may properly force people to buy health insurance and, if so, whether there is any limiting principle that would make some types of mandates permissible, but not others; and (2) whether the federal government may properly force some people to subsidize the health insurance of other people (e.g., through such devices as community rating).
AARP: Advocacy Group or Crony Capitalists?
Excerpt: The critical question the report raised, and the question that concerns us still today, is this: is AARP a good-hearted advocate for 50-somethings, or does its revenue-generating interests dictate its policy positions? From 1998 to 2010 it spent $198 million on lobbying, according to a report by the House Ways and Means Committee. That puts it behind the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Medical Association and General Electric. Furthermore, AARP is a money-making powerhouse, with $1.565 billion in assets and revenue of $1.176 billion in 2010, according to its IRS Form 990 tax report. The group's business dealings are of significant import here, as they likely had a corrupting influence in its decision to support the president's health care overhaul in 2010. (Why I sent my AARP Card back to them. ~Bob.)
The Truth About College Aid: It's Corporate Welfare. By Andrew G. Biggs
Excerpt: Recent economic research suggests that colleges siphon off a significant portion of federal education aid rather than lowering costs to students.
10 Ways to Lower Gas Prices
Excerpt: The average price of a gallon of regular gas is now $3.66, and has been decreasing for eight straight weeks. This is causing some of the President Obama's advisors to declare energy prices an irrelevant issue. Political advisor David Axelrod recently tweeted: "Gas prices have been going down for the past six weeks. You think the GOP will blame the President?" In those six weeks, the only significant energy policy change at the White House was to make new coal production nearly impossible and thus vastly increase the cost of electricity. So, it is hard to assign this slight dip to the president after a record 75 straight weeks of prices exceeding $3.00. However, it is true that the president is not entirely responsible for gas prices.
Nothing but excuses: O’s unserious economic Rx. By Charles Gasparino
Excerpt: President Obama greeted last week’s rotten news on unemployment by saying the economy is facing “serious headwinds.” It took him three-plus years to figure that out? Last Friday’s crummy jobs report followed the grim news that economic growth is below 2 percent.
How High Deductible Plans Lead To Low Healthcare Spending
Excerpt: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) just released their latest estimates of national healthcare spending over the past few years — and they seem to provide some rare good news. Researchers determined that total U.S. health costs increased 3.8 percent in 2009 and 3.9 percent in 2010 — the slowest annual growth rates in 50 years.
97 Takhar students poisoned: With the latest case, the number of poisoned school girls over the past one month had reached 400. By Nadar Azizi & Zarghona Salehi
Excerpt: At least 97 students of the Bashirabad girls’ high school in the northern province of Takhar were poisoned on Saturday, officials said. Seven schoolgirls are in critical condition while the rest were discharged from hospital after treatment, Public Health Director Habibullah Rostaqi told Pajhwok Afghan News. (For the Glory of Allah, the Merciful, The Compassionate, we are poisoning children for going to school. ~Bob.)
Islamic holy man and his wife are jailed for mutilating the genitals of their four daughters
Excerpt: An Islamic holy man and his wife have been jailed for the genital mutilation of their four daughters. The case has shocked France and was branded by a female government minister as a 'grave crime' and an 'intolerable affront to women's dignity. (after treatment, Public Health Director Habibullah Rostaqi told Pajhwok Afghan News. (For the Glory of Allah, the Merciful, The Compassionate, we are mutilating the genitals of our children. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: In 2008 the Obama campaign released an ad that mocked John McCain for his inability to send an email – which infuriated people, because the reason why he can’t send an email is because his arms have never really worked properly after the North Vietnamese got done torturing him. When Obama’s Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden dared mildly apologize for it, the Obama campaign humiliated Biden by having their lackey Bill Burton come out and retract Biden’s apology. This is what passed for ‘civility’ in the 2008 election cycle…
University of Illinois Professor Quotes Holocaust Denier in Class
Excerpt: Professor Farhad Malekafzali teaches political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Or, at least, that’s what he’s supposed to teach. If you read his final, according to students, he actually teaches anti-Israel canards for a living. (I had a lecturer in “Comparative European Government” at U-Mass, who was a Palestinian. I think I went to six classes that semester, but got an A by reading the books and attending sessions with the TA. Hearing her anti-Semitic remarks and egregious errors of fact at 8:00 am was a little much to take. I assume she was on the faculty for “diversity,” rather than competence. One morning she was off by 1,000 years in the date the Holy Roman Empire was established. ~Bob.)
Solar company Romney backed goes bankrupt, day after he ripped Obama’s green-energy investments.
Excerpt: A Bay State solar panel developer that landed a state loan from Mitt Romney when he was Massachusetts governor has gone belly up — a day after the GOP presidential hopeful ripped President Obama’s green-energy investments.
Green Scam: 80% Of Green Energy Loans Went To Obama Donors - 19 Companies Went Bust
Excerpt: Here’s a list of the green companies that have gone belly-up since receiving Obama dollars.
Worth Reading: Rules for America's Road to Recovery. By John Taylor.
If you hit a “pay wall,” Google the title. ~Bob. Excerpt: America's economic future is increasingly uncertain. In my view, unpredictable economic policy—massive fiscal "stimulus" and ballooning debt, the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing with multiyear near-zero interest rates, and regulatory uncertainty due to ObamaCare and the Dodd-Frank financial reforms—is the main cause of persistent high unemployment and our feeble recovery from the recession.
When is a campaign donation a bribe? Supreme Court may decide. By David G. Savage
Believe it or not, the line between legitimate political fundraising and criminal bribery is none too clear. (Actually, the “line” is in the eye of the beholder. If business or unions donate to a candidate, are they supporting a person who thinks their way, or bribing him to think their way. Or a little of both? ~Bob.)
Soros Says: Print More Money, Please: But I Propose the Soros Rule
Excerpt: It’s time to create the Soros rule. We need to protect financial markets from a guy who’s too big to fail and just can’t help himself. You can be sure that even as he gave a speech over the weekend nagging Eurozone officials into more of the easy money policies that have the world teetering on a the brink of a depression, that George Soros has something at stake.
Midway plus 70: The perils of looking weak. By Arthur Herman
Excerpt: On June 4, 1942, a battle off Midway Island marked the dawn of the United States Navy as the most powerful sea force in the world. Seventy years later, a civilian “battle” may doom its reach and power for good. Then the enemy was imperial Japan. Today, it’s the administration and Congress, who seem unable or unwilling to stop defense cuts that will leave America vulnerable and the world more dangerous.
The Surprising Truth About Senate Obstructionism: The real cause of the current gridlock is the majority's desire to avoid difficult votes. By Brian Reardon And Eric Ueland
Excerpt: There's a growing chorus complaining that the Senate is broken, that Republicans are to blame, and that the rules of procedure need to be changed. This argument has any number of flaws, but at its core it relies on a general misrepresentation of how the Senate, and the filibuster in particular, works.
Vietnam opens new areas for US MIA search
Excerpt: Vietnam will open up three new areas to American teams searching for missing war-time soldiers, its defence chief announced on Monday during talks with his US counterpart Leon Panetta. The pledge came on the second day of a highly symbolic visit by the Pentagon chief that reflects Washington's efforts to deepen ties with Vietnam as it seeks to counter China's growing power in the region.
10 Reasons Obama Must Disclose His College Records
Vetting: Desperate, Obama supporters portray all who look into his past as "birthers." Now they ridicule efforts to find how a pot-smoking slacker got into Columbia and Harvard. But Obama's college records are a legitimate campaign issue. Mysteries abound, chiefly concerning his transfer to Columbia and ascension to Harvard. Voters, moreover, have had the benefit of knowing other recent Democrat White House hopefuls' course work and grades. (Questions that have been around for 4 years, but it's good to see them put together and published again. Especially nice to note how the Democrats are after Romney's tax records for 10 years, but don't think anyone should be asking for any of Obama's school records. –Del. If Obama is half as smart as his defenders claim, he’d be pushing out his SAT scores and transcripts so they could brag on him. ~Bob.
A Grim Jobs Report for America. By Lawrence Kudlow
Excerpt: In fact, all the countries around the world should move to the supply side with lower tax rates to spur economic-growth incentives. Europe, China and Latin America ought to go back and read Ronald Reagan's speeches and examine his actions when he faced a similar crisis 30 years ago. It would be an hour or two well spent.
Excerpt: President Obama’s risible claim to know more about Judaism than any other American president already has been demolished by, among others, John Podhoretz, who points out that James Madison and John Adams, who both read Hebrew, certainly knew more about Judaism than does Barack Obama. … The list of important subjects about which Barack Obama knows more than Thomas Jefferson did is likely a short one. A more sensible man would appreciate that.
Global Warming Science Facts: Modern Temperatures Significantly Below Previous Warmings New Treeline Study Determines
Excerpt: The IPCC’s climate doomsday scientists claim the modern global temperatures are “unprecedented” - the global warming science facts are irrefutably that past climate was warmer than our modern temperatures with a much lower atmospheric CO2 level.
Elizabeth Warren: I Would Be MA's First Native American Senator
My Grandmother always claimed that Granddad was 1/4th Cree, making me 1/16th, compared to her “family lore” of 1/32nd. So I wonder if I was Massachusetts’ first Native American State Senator? I could have gotten diversity benefits, but who knew? ~Bob.
Ministers skeptical on Elizabeth Warren: Black leaders want candidate meetings. By Stephanie Ebbert
Excerpt: Dogged by weeks of questions about whether her claims of Native American heritage helped advance her career, Elizabeth Warren now faces skepticism from some of Boston’s black ministers whose appearance with Scott Brown just after his 2010 election to US Senate helped shape Brown’s image as a different breed of Republican. (“You can see by my outfit, that I am an Indian. I can see by your outfit, that you’re an Indian too. You can see by our outfits, that we are both Indians. If you get an Indian Outfit, you can be an Indian too.” Update on “The Streets of Laredo.” ~Bob.)
Elizabeth Warren’s Profession
Excerpt: This is the essence of modern liberalism, whose object is to deceive the self or others, hopefully both, for personal gain in money, status, and power. It is neither liberal nor progressive in any intelligible definition of the words, and entirely reactionary. But it has succeeded to a great degree in gulling itself and others, even as the global economy goes into freefall from its very policies.
Worth Reading: The Limits of German Patience. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: But then if you press with a polite question or two — something like an innocent (or perhaps not quite so innocent) “But is it really true that the Greeks find ways to retire in their fifties while you work to 67?” or “How did those deficits get so big without being detected?” — the façade crumbles. Your German friend takes a quick look to the side, to see whether anyone is listening. And then in a quiet, but soon to be louder and finally animated voice, he starts in on the “EU racket” and “How in the world is Germany supposed to pay for all these freeloaders?” (I almost always agree with Hanson. His facts are always lined up neatly and ordered to support whatever conclusion he’s reached. This time though, I will brave peril and disagree. Even back in the 50s and 60s, no European ally EVER paid its own way in NATO, and it has only become worse with the passage of time. Vast sums of our money and vast numbers of our men at arms have stood ready to defend them against all comers. While this was done partly for our benefit, it was always done with us bearing the majority of the cost and providing the majority of the manpower and equipment. On those rare occasions when we’ve needed those allies to provide us with assistance, other than excuses, most have provided little (recall in last year’s Libyan adventure, both the French and the UK air forces RAN OUT OF BOMBS!) and others abandoned even that little very quickly. It no longer makes economic sense for us to maintain bases throughout western Europe. We should probably keep a few of the larger ones in Germany and the UK, but with a much reduced compliment of personnel and equipment. The global areas we most need to watch are on the other continents. It makes sense to position ourselves closer to them rather than to Europe. Note that reducing our forces doesn’t mean abandoning Europe, it mostly means the Europeans have to provide more of their own defense—as they should have, all along. Even if the Europeans are children, they aren’t OUR children. It’s time they became responsible for themselves. Ron P.)
Dawud Walid, the Quran and Jews. By Daniel E. Rogell
Excerpt: The Council of American Islamic Relations [CAIR] may tout itself as an "organization that challenges stereotypes of Islam and Muslims," and as group that was formed "to challenge anti-Muslim discrimination nationwide." But in fighting the good fight against hate, at least one of its regional leaders demonizes Jews as the source of Muslims' problems.
Graphic Video: Muslims Slaughter "Apostate" in Tunisia. By Raymond Ibrahim
Excerpt: "There is unanimity that the male apostate must be put to death." Liberal talk show host Tawfiq Okasha recently appeared on "Egypt Today," airing a video of Muslims slicing off a young man's head off for the crime of apostasy -- in this instance, the crime of converting to Christianity and refusing to renounce it. The video—be warned, it is immensely graphic—can be seen here (the actual execution appears from minute 1:13-4:00). (The revolution in the Arab world has been touted as a success. Yet, Mubarak, the most stabilizing force in the region, has been sentenced to life in prison and Libya's secularist leader, who had banned Islamic law, was tortured to death thanks to direct intervention by the West. Further, the most pro-Christian leader, Bashir al-Assad, is the object of a pogrom by Western leaders demanding his resignation, even though independent sources say as his forces are fighting radical Islamic infiltrators in many cases. Tunisia was also touted as moderate. Here is an example of that moderate behavior. Romney seems to want to treat Assad as an enemy and go in to take him down, like they did Ghadaffi. Obama would do the same if he saw enough support. You the public are the only ones who can help restore sanity by demanding that the government stay OUT of these conflicts. --Don Hank)
Animal Rights Legislation Would Make Eggs a Luxury Food. By Mindy Patterson
Excerpt: One day soon, America could wake up to a dozen eggs costing $8 or more. And unless you are involved in some aspect of farming or agriculture, you would never know that egg prices are about to skyrocket or the reason why. With food prices already increasing due to high grain and fuel costs, extraneous so-called animal welfare regulations are being imposed on U.S. food producers, large and small, by the animal rights powerhouse known as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). (If the poor ever catch on that the liberals will always screw them in order to feel good about being for the “right feel-good policies,” things would get mighty interesting. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: The Obama campaign once again is making the argument that the president’s political opponents are rooting for bad economic news: “They need to get off their hands and stop rooting for failure,” said Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s deputy campaign manager. David Axelrod accused Republicans of “high-fiving each other” when economic news is bleak. If true, that would be wrong and regrettable. But not long ago, when the United States was trying to restore order in Iraq through the surge, a number of prominent political rivals of George Bush seemed to be rooting for failure.
--
Robert A. Hall
No comments:
Post a Comment