Conservative Review |
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Issue #186 |
Kukis Digests and Opines on this Week’s News and Views |
July 10, 2011 |
In this Issue:
More Proof Obama is an Amateur
You Know You’ve Been Brainwashed if...
The Media Explains the Debt Ceiling
Since the late 1970s, 163 million female babies have been aborted by parents seeking sons
[a book review] by Jonathan V. Last
What Obama Wants By Paul Krugman
Fear: GOP Will Cave on Sunday, Agree to Hike Taxes with Fake Cuts
Romer: The Growthless Recovery
Where's the Civility, Democrats?
Furious: The Obama Regime Gave 2,000 Guns to Mexican Drug Lords
Too much happened this week! Enjoy...
The cartoons come from:
If you receive this and you hate it and you don’t want to ever read it no matter what...that is fine; email me back and you will be deleted from my list (which is almost at the maximum anyway).
Previous issues are listed and can be accessed here:
http://kukis.org/page20.html (their contents are described and each issue is linked to) or here:
http://kukis.org/blog/ (this is the online directory they are in)
I attempt to post a new issue each Sunday by 5 or 6 pm central standard time (I sometimes fail at this attempt).
I try to include factual material only, along with my opinions (it should be clear which is which). I make an attempt to include as much of this week’s news as I possibly can. The first set of columns are intentionally designed for a quick read.
I do not accept any advertising nor do I charge for this publication. I write this principally to blow off steam in a nation where its people seemed have collectively lost their minds.
And if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, always remember: We do not struggle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12).
Looks like Speaker of the House John Boehner ended the debt talks over the demand that $2 trillion is raised in tax hikes.
Senate Democrats have drafted a sweeping debt-reduction plan that would slice $4 trillion from projected borrowing over the next decade without touching the expensive health and retirement programs targeted by President Obama. This would be achieved by sharp cuts at the Pentagon and other government agencies, as well as $2 trillion in new taxes, primarily on families earning more than $1 million year, according to The Washington Post. Bear in mind that, over 10 years, if the status quo is maintained, $15 trillion of additional debt would accumulate over the next 10 years. Therefore, at best, if this plan is enacted, we will only have $11 trillion in additional debt accumulation over the next decade.
Reforms on current gun laws are presently being working on by our Department of Justice; that same DOJ that seems to have been behind releasing thousands of guns in to Mexico. Rush Limbaugh said, the purpose of releasing all of those guns was to push forward an anti-Second Amendment agenda.
43 "Fast and Furious" guns recovered in phoenix traffic stop. There is a claim out there that, this operation was funded in the Stimulus Bill. See Links for link.
A peer reviewed paper released this week revealed that "global surface temperatures did not rise between 1998 and 2008.
At the same time, a story in UK’s Daily Mail reveals that every disaster of late is a result of climate change. Katrina, the tornadoes in the United States, the droughts in the United States and Brazil and elsewhere, the floods in Australia and Pakistan, etc. Interestingly enough, no one signed on as this writer of this article.
Planned Parenthood releases its new sexual rights for youth booklet.
President Obama gives the first “twitter” townhall. People twittered Obama questions, and then he bloviated on some sort of a related answer.
Although President Obama tried to get the Supreme Court to halt the execution of a Mexican national in Texas, he chose not to act directly, and the man was executed. Death row, in Texas, means death row.
For a variety of reasons, not all states are setting up healthcare exchange systems right now, so that the federal government will step in to take over. Is that what they wanted all along?
The TSA, still keeping us safe, intimately pats down a 6-year-old twice.
New Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says that the defeat or crippling of Al-Qaeda is within our reach.
40 people were killed in 3 Mexican cities over a 24-hour period of time.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez appears to have colon cancer, according to two people with direct knowledge of his condition.
In 2009, Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on any new construction of minarets on the iconic mosque towers. This week, the European Court of Human Rights dismissed a challenge by Muslim groups to Switzerland's minaret building ban.
Massive protests are still going on in Egypt. The reason you don’t have reporters over there telling us all about it is (1) it is unsafe and (2) they don’t want us to know about it.
The BBC has produced a there-part documentary series about Muslim prophet Muhammad. Airing “The Life of Muhammad” will be a very dangerous thing, and officials in Iran are warning that their country will take `serious action' if the movie is screened.
There was a massive protest in Malaysia where 1400 people were detained or arrested. The news article I read did not mention “Muslim,” although that is the reason for most unrest in that part of Asia.
Gaza terrorists have recently discovered that Google earth is an excellent tool to help them aim their rockets and missiles into Israel.
A jury deliberated less than four hours before declaring Betim Kaziu gilty of conspiring to join a foreign terrorist group so he could kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He faces life in prison for a jihadi adventure that took him to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kosovo, where he was arrested in 2009.
Casey Anthony was declared not-guilty by a Florida jury this week with regards to various charges of her killing her daughter.
The World Economic and Social Survey 2011 has determined that $1.9 trillion per year will be needed over the next 40 years for incremental investments in green technologies. The report warns that "A comprehensive global energy transition is urgently needed in order to avert a major planetary catastrophe." I’ll do it for half that, in case anyone’s interested. Plus, I will guarantee no major planetary catastrophe for the next 200 years. Money well spent, say I.
The last shuttle flight was sent off this week.
See if you can follow this: various environmental groups (like the Environmental Defense Fund) take the EPA to court regularly to force them to take action against various environmental enemies. However, even though the Environmental Defense Fund has taken the EPA to court 5 or 6 times in the past 10 years, the EPA has given the EDF $2.76 million in grants during that same time period (thus proving them with the money to sue the EPA).
On a 336-87 vote Friday, the Republican-controlled House overwhelmingly voted in favor of a $649 billion defense spending bill which increases the Defense Department budget by $17 billion.
168-year-old British tabloid News of the World ceased publication this week.
This is news to me, although it is a few months old. Not only are unions able, in some states, to collect union dues automatically (like from school teachers, as an example), but monies collected can be used to support various political candidates, without getting the okay from union members to do so. So, not only are many union members a part of the union by default, but they have no say as to how this money is spent politically. Florida, this past march, had to pass a bill in order to stop this practice (I know it went through their House; no idea if it was passed into law after that).
Liberals:
WH Press Secretary Jay Carney: "The fact is that the balanced budget amendment would be, is basically an admission by Congress that they can't do anything, right? And that's not true, as [evidenced by] these discussions that we're engaged in right now. And it should not be true. And it's a shame if people actually believe that. So no, we don't support it."
President Obama: “And I have tasked the men and women of NASA with an ambitious new mission: to break new boundaries in space exploration, ultimately sending Americans to Mars. I know they are up to the challenge - and I plan to be around to see it.”
White House senior adviser David Pouffe: "The average American does not view the economy through the prism of GDP or unemployment rates or even monthly jobs numbers. People won't vote based on the unemployment rate, they're going to vote based on: `How do I feel about my own situation? Do I believe the president makes decisions based on me and my family?'"
Bill Clinton on many states passing voter I.D. laws in order to reduce voter fraud: "I can't help thinking since we just celebrated the Fourth of July and we're supposed to be a country dedicated to liberty, that one of the most pervasive political movements going on outside Washington today is the disciplined, passionate, determined effort of Republican governors and legislators to keep most of you from voting next time. There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today."
White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer: "We cannot ask the middle-class and seniors to bear all the burden of higher costs and budget cuts. We need a balanced approach that asks the very wealthiest and special interests to pay their fair share as well, and we believe the American people agree."
Bill Maher: "If you can look at a crime where everything points to one answer and not see it, you're a dumbass. And if you can look at the deficit and not see that the problem is that the rich stopped paying taxes, you're a Republican."
Richard Cohen: “The hallmark of a cult is to replace reason with feverish belief. This the GOP has done when it comes to the government's ability to stimulate the economy. History proves this works - it's how the Great Depression ended - but Republicans will not acknowledge it.” As an aside, the stock market and unemployment rates were back to normal during Eisenhower’s presidency.
Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel: "What would Jesus do this weekend [of debt-ceiling negotiations]? Or Moses. Or Allah. Or anyone else. I don't want this book (debt negotiations) closed without the clergy having an opportunity to forcefully express themselves as well as I know they can do."
New Black Panther Party's Malik Zulu Shabazz: “We want the president to do better but he hasn’t fired one shot at a white man yet. Everyone he shoots is black or brown.”
Louis Farrakhan: “If they’re successful at killing brother Kadaffy, this is not gonna be the end. This is the beginning of horrors, as you will see...all of you who love war will be drown in your own blood, as it is written, those wh olike to shed the flood of others, Allah will make drunk with your own blood, as sweet wine.”
The Liberal Press:
Washington Posts’s Bob Woodward: "I'm not sure the United States has been looked at as the grown-up nation for a long time...You travel around the world a little bit, and, and there's, there's not even tough love for the United States"
Liberals from the past:
Even though Attorney General Eric Holder claims not to have known anything about Operation Fast and Furious (aka, Operation Gunrunner), he said this in 2009: "Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail."
Liberals being civil:
MSNBC's Chris Matthews: “Also, is the Republican Party willing to risk economic armageddon in the name of religion, that is the religion of no taxes? Well, the GOP has become the Wahhabis of American government, willing to risk bringing down the whole country in the service of their anti-tax ideology. This is no phony crisis. If you're not careful, if we're not careful, the country risks becoming Greece. Not ancient Greece, by the way, current Greece.” As an aside, it is easier to make the argument that nearly all Muslims are Democrats than it is to argue that Matthews is a newsman.
Chris Matthews: “The Tea Party Republicans who are ready to bring down this country's economy in the name of ideology. This is really getting serious, and I believe scary, what's really being perpetrated here. Possibly, the defaulting of United States government on our debt in the world. The party's being driven by fanatics and they're determined to bounce America's savings bonds and have the United States begin to become like Greece.”
Chris Matthews: And I look around me with fanatics. I see fanatics, mostly on the right, some of the left. It seems to me that they're quite willing when I hear them talking, your own colleague Senator Roy Blunt dismissing the debt ceiling deadline saying, quote, ‘the deadline is never really a deadline. I don't think world markets are going to get roiled and I don't think our creditors are not going to get paid.’ "
Chris Matthews: “[Republicans want to] go right off the cliff and take this country into Greece, into the way the world watches us go down the hill."
Richard Cohen: “This intellectual rigidity has produced a GOP presidential field that's a virtual political Jonestown. The Grand Old Party, so named when it really did evoke America, has so narrowed its base that it has become a political cult.”
Daily Beast’s Andrew Sullivan: "There are two options the president can take [when dealing with incalcitrant Republicans]. The first is what you are told to do when a criminal or terrorist holds a gun to your head. You surrender."
The Daily Beast editor-in-chief Tina Brown: “I think they're the suicide bombers in all of this.” She was referring to the Republicans in the debt ceiling negotiations.
Liberals making sense:
President Obama, at the twitter townhall: “I think we should acknowledge that some welfare programs in the past were not well designed and in some cases did encourage dependency. . . . As somebody who worked in low-income neighborhoods, I've seen it where people weren't encouraged to work, weren't encouraged to upgrade their skills, were just getting a check, and over time their motivation started to diminish. And I think even if you're progressive you've got to acknowledge that some of these things have not been well designed.”
David Gregory last month was tough on DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz for Obama’s economic record; and this week, he was just as tough on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner: “Talking about what's good for the economy , a lot of this discussion about debt is ultimately to free up space for jobs to be created. It's not happening. People are still out of work. Here's the chart of the president's economic record . This is based on government information, Treasury Department , U.S. Bureau of Labor Stats . Unemployment 7.3 percent Inauguration Day . Up to 9.2 percent with the latest report. Up 26 percent. You see the debt figures up 35 percent”
Crosstalk:
Bill Maher, Host of HBO’s Real Time: I think the Teabaggers who are always.
Ann Coulter: Oh, please.
Maher: .always ill-informed. I, when they, 'cause they're gonna, they're against raising the debt ceiling no matter what. I think they think that this is money we haven't spent yet. I think that they need to be educated.
Coulter: No, we know perfectly well it's been spent.
Maher: You do.
Coulter: That's why we want the debt ceiling.
Maher: You do. Not the rubes you talk to. You know.
Coulter: I do not talk to rubes except right here.
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I recall E. J. Dijon (?) bragging about the wide ranger of viewpoints carried by NPR, and talked about how they would counter-balance him with David Brooks or someone even more conservative. David Brooks is the most conservative person on NPR, and he is a moderate. Charles Krauthammer expressed the same opinion:
Gordon Peterson, Host of Inside Wasington: “Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader's talking about conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks' column on July 4th which he says the Republican Party is no longer a normal party. It's been infected, Brooks says, by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical governing alternative. Its members, Charles, he says don't accept the logic of compromise. What do you think of that?”
Charles Krauthammer: “Well, forgive me, but I have to correct your copy again. Conservative columnist? He's a great columnist, but he's not a conservative.”
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Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary: “They [ordinary American voters] do not sit down analyzing the Wall Street Journal or other -- or Bloomberg to analyze the numbers. Now, maybe some folks do, but not most Americans. I think that is the point David Plouffe was making. That's the point the president was making just moments ago in the statement in the Rose Garden.”
Charles Krauthammer: “[What I heard] was the gun and God-clingers don't read. This is pure Obama condescension. Numbers are stuff that we hear in the White House, we intellectuals, we in the political class observe, talk about, and read. But that's abstract. All that ordinary people care about is what is happening in their home. Of course everybody cares about what happening in their home, but ordinary Americans are aware and they read and they think, and a number means something.”
_______________________________________
Michele Bachmann: “Well, first of all it isn't true that government would default on its debt, because, very simply the Treasury Secretary can pay the interest on the debt first and then from there we have to just prioritize our spending.”
Chris Matthews: “This, to me, is scary. What's your view? That these people are willing to go right into armageddon, not face the warning signs. Go right off the cliff and take this country into Greece, into the way the world watches us go down the hill.”
_______________________________________
Hasan Al-Arian, Muslim Brotherhood leader: “We need to give the West and the whole world a new, a new version of democracy.”
NBC’s Richard Engel: “The Brotherhood says it is not antagonistic to the United States, but it is staunchly anti-Israel.”
Al-Arian: “Israel cannot tolerate peace.”
Engel: “Why not?”
Al-Arian: “Because they want to live in war. It is the history of Jewish people.”
Conservatives:
Senator Marco Rubio: “So you look at all these taxes that are being proposed and here's what I say. I say he should analyze every single one of them through the lens of job creation, issue number one in America. I want to know which one of these taxes that they're proposing will create jobs. I want to know how many jobs are gonna be created by the plane tax. How many jobs are gonna be created by the oil company tax that I heard so much about? How many jobs are created by going after the millionaires and billionaires that the president talks about? I want to know, how many jobs do they create?”
Presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann on raising the debt ceiling: "It's time for tough love. Don't let them scare you by telling you that the country's going to fall apart."
Presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty: "I hope and pray and believe they should not raise the debt ceiling. These historic, dramatic moments where you can draw a line in the sand and force politicians to actually do something bold and courageous are important moments."
John Boehner: "Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes."
Sen. Marco Rubio: "We don't need new taxes. We need new taxpayers, people that are gainfully employed, making money and paying into the tax system. Then we need a government that has the discipline to take that additional revenue and use it to pay down the debt and never grow it again."
Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol on the possibility of a budget-debt ceiling agreement in Congress: "It sounds as if it's heading towards a deal. It's not a deal that I'm going to like, I suspect, and I think it's going to be a bad deal for conservatives and Republicans. But I think they are intimidated. The president has been running around talking about corporate jets and the rich and how the sky is going to fall unless Republicans cave. And I think they're getting ready to cave in a pretty big way on Sunday."
Speaker of the House John Boehner: "There is no agreement, in private or in public. . . It's not like there is some imminent deal about to happen." I like John; I just hope that I can believe him this time around.
Rick Santelli, of CNBC: “Nothing will pass the House if they stick together."
Rick Santelli: “I think what we need to do is live within the revenue intake...and do not ask taxpayers for more money or an increased tax ceiling until you give us a darned budget...there are going to be plenty of people who don’t get programmed money—I understand that...the right think is to create a better environment to create jobs by not living in the red.”
Herman Cain: "This is demonstrably and empirically the worst economic `recovery' in American history"
Michele Bachmann: “I will not vote to raise the debt ceiling.”
George Will: “The question is, has the congressional power to regulate interstate commerce been so loosely construed that now Congress can do anything at all, that there is nothing it cannot do. Let me ask the three of you. Obviously, obesity and its costs affect interstate commerce. Does Congress have the constitutional power to require obese people to sign up for Weight Watchers? If not, why not?”
Fox News contributor Nina Easton: "This President has this M.O. in which he's always scolding people. So we go back to he was scolding Supreme Court Justices at the State of the Union. He was scolding his own colleagues as 'sanctimonious' when they didn't like extending the tax breaks. He invited Republicans to that speech earlier this Spring about the budget and scolded them right to their face after extending an invitation. And then this week, we hear him scold them because they're not like his daughters, they're not able to complete their homework assignment on time."
Allen West: "[Operation Fast and Furious] is just another sad chapter in the Eric Holder book of ineptness and incompetence. Eric Holder needs to be brought before an investigative committee and if those charges are warranted he needs to be held accountable. At least the president needs to realize that Eric Holder needs to be removed from the Department of Justice . . . or else it appears President Obama is complicit and in approval of the actions of his attorney general."
Sarah Palin, article headline from Facebook: The Sugar Daddy Has Run Out of Sugar; Now We Need New Leaders
Statement issued by The Family Leader, an Iowa-based conservative group led by Bob Vander Plaats: "Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President"
Rush Limbaugh: "Obama can warn about the risk of defaults with what seems like genuine concern. He can smile, scowl, lecture and chide. He can talk about the full faith and credit of the United States and the dollar, but on the reality side of life, he's saying all this stuff after he spent and committed the money for years to come."
Rush Limbaugh: "Obama is in as full a political retreat as this town has seen in years. Nothing he's doing is working. You can't point to anything and say we need to keep doing more of this, so why are we even talking about doing more of it?"
Rush: "The ATF's Special Operation Fast and Furious sold 2,500 guns in Arizona to straw purchasers under the assumption that those guns would end up in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels. We're talking about a potential impeachable offense, one worse than Watergate."
Rush: "When 47% of US households pay no income tax at all and get money back, that's one hell of a tax loophole."
Rush: "The Democrats have already bought close to 43% of the population. That's the percentage of people who get some kind of government money to live."
Rush: "So basically, David Plouffe is saying you people are a bunch of selfish twits. As long as your personal situation is okay, you don't care if the country's going to hell, you'll vote for the guy taking it there."
Conservatives from the Past:
Sarah Palin from 2009: "We also have to be mindful about the effect of the stimulus package on the national debt and the future economic health of the country. We won't achieve long-term stability if we continue borrowing massive sums from foreign countries and remain dependent on foreign sources of oil and gas."
Conservatives not making any sense:
House Speaker John A. Boehner: "Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes. I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase."
Republican Mudslinging:
Tim Pawlenty: "I like Congresswoman Bachmann. I've campaigned for her. I respect her. But her record of accomplishment in Congress is non-existent. It's non-existent. So, we're not looking for folks who just have speech capabilities. We're looking for who can lead a large enterprise in a public setting and drive it to conclusion. I've done that, she hasn't."
Presidential hopeful Thaddeus McCotter tweeted: "Unemployment rising, people struggling in the Obama-Romney economy."
He later explained: "We have Obama as the champion of big government, we see Romney as champion of bail out banks in Wall Street bailout. They are less rivals than they are running mates"
An Iranian senior Revolutionary Guard commander threatened this week that U.S. aircraft carriers would be targeted if Iran came under attack because of Tehran's nuclear program.
Iran claims this week to have fired 2 long-range missiles into the Indian Ocean this past year.
These are both short; email them to people you know:
Romney’s 32 second ad (I must admit, even though I don’t think much of Romney, his ads are quite good):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VgqP6vOVY58
Karl Rove’s excellent 1 minute vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ESAszBVMnC4
And if you have 4 minutes, then enjoy this:
George Will schools the liberal host and the 3 liberal guests on how far they think Congress can go; you will note, that not one of them is able to give a straight answer; not one of them wants to admit to the logical conclusion of Obamacare (text and video; this is great).
CNBC’s Rick Santelli:
Beck’s last shows were quite good, but then most of his shows were quite good:
http://thedailybeck.com/2011/07/06/glenn-beck-tv-show-july-6-2011/
The second-to-the=last episode; the big picture episode:
http://thedailybeck.com/2011/06/29/glenn-beck-tv-june-29-2011/
The Last Beck show:
http://thedailybeck.com/2011/06/30/glenn-beck-tv-june-30th-2011-the-last-episode/
More Ann Coulter on Bill Maher, and his goofy ideas exposed (again). Text and video.
Michigan teacher quits union over its political agenda:
http://weaselzippers.us/2011/07/07/michigan-teacher-quits-the-union-over-its-political-agenda/
Representative Ben Quayle of Arizona (listen to the first vid):
http://www.youtube.com/user/RepBenQuayle
Jay Leno: "Democrats warned that if the debt ceiling isn't raised, the government would cease to function. How would you be able to tell?"
Jay Leno: "You know what the scary part is? Not that the government will cease to function, that they think this is actually the government functioning. They think it is working well.
1) Laura Ingraham asked a question the other day: how is it that, the better-looking candidate (Romney) lost the primary to an opponent who was clearly less attractive (McCain); yet, in the presidential election, usually, the more attractive and taller candidate wins. In the 2008 primary there were two things at work: most people who vote in a primary know more about politics and therefore tend to vote more ideologically; secondly, there were a number of Democrats who crossed over and voted to choose our Republican candidate.
2) Let me say it again: leaving the current debt ceiling in place automatically corrects the deficit problem. It is nearly equivalent to a balanced budget amendment.
3) I am not sure if you listen to Hannity or to Rush, but if you think that these conservative hosts (along with many others) are simply Republican shills, you have not been listening. They are not cheerleaders for (House Speaker) Boehner or for (Senate minority leader) McConnell, ready to support any deal that they make with the Democrats. If a lousy deal is made, Boehner and McConnell will be castigated by Rush and Hannity (and pretty much everyone else on the right).
4) Rush suggested that, Obama did not want the Congress to go home because they would find out, no matter where they go, that the people do not want to see the debt-ceiling raised (or, they do not want to see it raised without severe spending cuts—not those which go out 10 or 12 years).
5) In case you are trying to figure out a reason for Operation Fast and Furious (the ATF operation where we actually sent guns over the border so that we could “track them” —without tracking devices, of course), Rush suggested that, this was an end-run to get rid of the 2nd amendment.
6) No matter what the reason was, Operation Fast and Furious is just another example (like FNMA and FHLMC) of government acting stupidly. No normal organization or person would ever come up with the idea, “Hey, let’s just let a few thousand guns go over the border into the hands of drug dealers and see what happens.”
7) I am all for a tax rate reduction and for tax simplification. It bothers me greatly to allow people to forgo paying payroll taxes. What, so that 25 years later, they can demand their social security check, saying, “But I paid into this all my life.”
8) Typically, a section 8 person is credited about $8000/year toward her housing. Most of the time this is based upon being an unwed mother. Here’s an idea I am just throwing out there: if she marries the father of 1 or more of her children, and they both can qualify (good credit, job stability, and a real verifiable income which meets the traditional 33/40 ratios), the government will pay $8000 toward the purchase of a house. $2000–$3000 must come out of their own pockets to purchase the house (no gifts), they must sign paperwork which disallows them from collecting any government handouts for the next 10 years (no food stamps, no section 8, no welfare, no social security), and they must remain married for the next 10 years. Divorce or an arrest of either parent means that the government may take this money back from them in any way it wants to. This does several things: it gets these women off the dole and gets their children into a two-parent home, all for the cost of a year’s worth of section 8 payments. I’m just thinking out loud here.
9) One of the liberal talking points out there is, the Stimulus package was good, but it was not big enough; we would have seen a more robust recovery had we spent more money. There are many problems with this: (1) few economists and real people actually believe that the Stimulus really did much with regards to our recovery (despite last summer as being recovery summer); (2) And, even if the recovery was minor, it should have been better than the Coolidge, JFK, Reagan or Bush recoveries (it was not because the stimulus thinking is flawed at its very foundation). (3) None of this philosophizing by the left takes into account the great cost of the Stimulus and that some future generation will have to pay for it.
10) As a footnote, it is claimed that 40% of the Stimulus package was tax cuts. That is simply a lie. They were a mixture of tax credits, tax loopholes, and a removal of the payroll tax for those who donot pay federal income tax in the first place. A true tax cut is changing the tax rate from a higher percentage to a lower percentage for a significant number of people.
11) President Obama has not pulled us back from the brink. Ask any person who is not ideologically predisposed, and most will believe that, right now, we are still standing right on the brink of economic collapse. Even some people who believe in Obama also believe that we are still on the brink.
12) I don’t know exactly why Glenn Beck separated from FoxNews, but it appears to me that it is his decision (recall that he does have a vision problem which may or may not be manifest yet). Beck’s final shows were all live; he could have said anything; and FoxNews has been running reruns of his shows—so that suggests to me that leaving FoxNews was Beck’s choice.
13) I must say, I was quite surprised that no one picked up on what I think is a problem in a Michele Bachmann presidential ad. She ends it with the phrase, “I will not vote to raise the debt ceiling.” I have seen pundits talk about this on a couple of occasions, and they all seem to miss they key problem—Presidents do not vote to do anything; they sign bills into law, they let them sit on their desks and allow them to become laws, or they veto the bill. Maybe Bachmann was keeping it simple, and giving herself wiggle room to sign a debt-ceiling bill if she becomes president, but did no one realize that this sounded more like an ad for her running for Congress than for president?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvdM3he8beE
14) Bill O’Reilly believed that Casey Anthony should have been declared guilty of killing her child; and Sean Hannity did not. I must admit, Bill finally won me over, after the verdict, by repeating that, no normal mother with a missing child would not report this to the police immediately; and no normal woman whose daughter is missing would give the police false information to make it more difficult for them to find the child. Like everyone else, I cannot tell you how the child died, but based upon Casey Anthony’s behavior, it is obvious that she was hiding something, which would be, at the very least, the death of her child by parental neglect. However, what I am unable to explain is, why she knew to tape her child’s mouth shut (I think that was done to keep blood DNA from ending up in places she did not want it to end up) and that a decomposed body would be impossible to analyze for cause of death. It is almost as if her father was coaching her to do these things?
15) You cannot lift people out of poverty by giving them money. Ask American Blacks and American Indians.
16) Right now, it is projected that, by the end of his first term, Obama will add enough debt to the United States to equal all 43 presidents before him. This is not 100% Obama’s fault; one might even argue this is not even half is fault (given the trajectories of social security and Medicare). However, a massive debt is the challenge he signed up for as President of the United States. Instead of actually tackling this problem, he has made wonderful sounding speeches; assembled a debt commission, which he later ignored; and has intentionally spend huge sums of money on a stimulus package and on Obamacare (which will not save money but will cost trillions). Here is what he could have done: looked at the numbers with his economic team, recognized that our country was in deep, and then, in one of his 1,632 speeches to the American people, leveled with us, shown us the projections, and come up with reforms to deal with this problem (such as, following the recommendations of his own debt commission). Bam! He could have been the most popular presidents since Ronald Reagan.
Unemployment went up to 9.2%; long-term unemployment rivals depression era long-term unemployment. Only 18,000 jobs were created in June.
Our economy would have to produce 254,000 jobs per month for 65 months to get back to pre recession unemployment levels. That’s over 5 years, for you math-challenged types.
51% of Americans pay no taxes at all,
30% make a profit off the current tax system
Nearly 90% of President Obama's domestic travel in the first six months of this year has been either partially or entirely political, and almost all the costs are borne by taxpayers, according to a White House Dossier Analysis.
Green reforms in Britain will cause power bills to go up 30%.
On his new network, Keith Olbermann is getting about ¼ of the viewers that he got on MSNBC (which was not a large audience to begin with), and these ratings have dropped off by about 25% since his new show premiered.
In 2004, the median net worth of white households was $134,280, compared with $13,450 for black households, according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by the Economic Policy Institute. By 2009, the median net worth for white households had fallen 24 percent to $97,860; the median net worth for black households had fallen 83 percent to $2,170, according to the institute.
Rasmussen:
72% of Likely U.S. Voters believe a free market economy is better than an economy managed by the government.
14% think a government-managed economy is better.
14% are not sure.
Wonderful article on the bias of today’s news:
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When was the last time your media source went through the many examples of the times when the debt ceiling was not raise (sometimes for weeks or even months), and the sky did not fall? What we are faced with here is not unique, nor is there a drop-dead date.
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I have already mentioned that twice, President Obama was unable to get into the White House, and he kept trying locked doors (and a locked window that he seemed to think was a door). The media played and replayed President George W. Bush trying to open a locked door after speaking in an unfamiliar place, as though, “Look at Bush; he is such a doofus.” It was played again and again. The Obama attempts to open locked doors and windows, which is caught on video, not so much. It was played, but not played and replayed and replayed until everyone saw it.
Some time ago, President George W. Bush used the word internets and this was played and replayed. This week, President Obama said internets (and corrected himself). This was not played and replayed (not even on FoxNews).
It’s simple. In the Obama Media Complex, Democrats are brilliant scholars, and whatever gaff they make is just a gaff, and not really a reflection of their true nature of mental brilliance. However, Republicans are stupid. Watch Saturday Night Live—nearly every spoof of a Republican politician is about them being way-dumb. So, when a Republican has a gaff—even if it is minutia of the founding of our country, or the use or misuse of the words blood-libel, these are presented as evidence that the speaker is way stupid. So, when Obama talks about 57 states, that is a slip of the tongue, and he is tired and worn out from campaigning; but when Michele Bachmann says that John Wayne was born in Waterloo, Iowa (where she was born), and it turns out that he was not, that indicates that Bachmann just is not very smart.
Spending on tax breaks and deductions for the wealthiest Americans = not raising taxes on these Americans
Shared sacrifice = that 51% of Americans who do not pay taxes will continue not paying taxes
Do you have any idea how excessive and confusing regulations, healthcare requirements, and an unsettled and complex tax code destroys job growth?
Follow up: Do you understand that it is the very policies which you have instituted and advocate which has stunted American growth?
Liberals and the Democratic party have continued to make a pretty good showing on the political vocabulary front. There are a number of people who see the maintainance of tax rates for all people as tax cuts for the rich and something which costs us money.
Obama is going to run on two things: (1) withdrawing troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and (2) pulling us back from the brink. He may brag about healthcare and the huge banking bill, but only to his base.
More Proof Obama is an Amateur
Obama, had he come to an agreement with the Republicans, giving them everything that they wanted, could have come out of the debt talks smelling sweet. Bill Clinton and the Democratic party have gotten all kinds of mileage out of Bill Clinton balancing the federal budget, as if it was his idea and the result of his persistence. Obama, short-term, could have agreed to all of this, gotten the praise from all the media, and then, if reelected, gotten even more nutty when it comes to his big government/socialist agenda. As the song goes, “You have to know when to hold’em; know when to fold ‘em.”
You Know You’re Being Brainwashed if...
If you think that August 2nd (or whenever) is a drop-dead date for raising the debt-ceiling, and that, if we do not do that, our economy will be ruined. We know this because this is not the first impasse of this nature that we have had.
_____________________________________
If you think that, 4 or 5 different news persons all just happened to portray the Republicans at the debt ceiling talks and TEA party supporters as “economic terrorists” (or words to that effect). Do you think that just happens? When many newsmen say roughly the same thing, is that just a coincidence?
Although Obama has already begun to campaign (mostly to get money for his campaign), he is not going to run on Obamacare. We are not going to see lots and lots of ads about how Obama worked and worked to get Obamacare passed. We are not going to see ads as to how great things are, now that Obmacare is passed.
A debt ceiling deal will be reached.
Half the People You know Do Not Pay Federal Income Tax
Eric Holder Appears to be Lying about Operation Fast and Furious
You may recall the story from this past week of a TSA worker who would steal stuff from work and then sell it on Ebay. Weasel Zippers had the best headline for this story:
TSA: Is that my iPad in your pants or are you just happy to frisk me?
Second best headline, also from Weasel Zippers, about Donald Trump thinking about getting back into the presidential race:
The Brett Favre of GOP Politics, Donald Trump Says He May Decide to Get Back in the Presidential Race
Woman is taken to task by city code enforcement for having a vegetable guarden in her front yard, in Oak Park, Michigan. Headline:
Does Michelle Obama Know About This?
Come, let us reason together....
The Media Explains the Debt Ceiling
Vermont Public Radio: “But as the August deadline creeps closer, and the specter looms of having to choose between paying the military or sending out Social Security checks...”
CNN Money: “[Going month to month without raising the debt ceiling] could mean deferring payments to Social Security beneficiaries, Medicare doctors, weapons vendors or taxpayers expecting refunds.”
Washington Post on raising the debt ceiling: in the first 3rd of the article were the disastrous consequences of not raising the debt ceiling, as outlined by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and WH press secretary Jay Carney. Both emphasized the credit ratings of the United States.
Early in a Reuters release: “Moody's warning increases pressure on President Barack Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in the U.S. Congress, to strike a deal soon or risk upsetting global financial markets. Geithner has predicted a financial catastrophe if Congress fails to increase the current $14.3 trillion borrowing cap by Aug. 2, when his department will exhaust the extraordinary cash management measures it has been using since reaching the debt limit on May 16.”
First two paragraphs in a story from the Hill (this is from a couple month’s back): “White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that Republicans should not "play chicken with the economy" and should vote to raise the debt ceiling quickly. Carney warned that "the consequences of not raising the debt ceiling would be Armageddon-like in terms of the economy." ”
First paragraph in an older LA Times story: “Seeking to raise the limit on the nation's growing debt, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner formally warned Congress on Thursday of "unthinkable" consequences for the economy and the nation's creditworthiness if lawmakers do not increase the level to reflect increased borrowing.”
What sent me on a quest to dig up a few stories from known media outlets was a story on NPR today, which said, if the debt ceiling is not raise, then the president would be faced with making choices between paying social security recipients on time or paying doctors who are owed medicare payments.
Go to any source in the Obama Media Complex, this is the song which is being sung. If you do not see a problem with the paragraphs above, then you are brainwashed.
Of the traditional media outlets and the new Soros-backed media sources, it is the same song with different words. If the debt ceiling is not raised, then our bond rating could be lowered, we might not be able to pay our debts, we may have to defer payments to social security recipients and we may to defer payments to doctors who have treated patients under Medicare or Medicaid.
In California, they did the same thing each and every year. New teachers all got pink slips. It had to be out there in the public that, this could be the year that California really, really has to let tens of thousands of teachers go, because we just don’t have the money to pay them.
When you do an addition to your house in California, you may need to get 5 or so permits and have the addition inspected 5 or 6 or more times. Do you ever hear California officials warn you that this permitting process may need to be streamlined because of budget cuts? Does the Sacramento Bee issue the dire warning that, maybe this next year, the government might only be able to do 4 inspections on your home addition? Of course not!
Does President Obama every warn us that we might have to cut the budget of the Department of Energy or the Department of Education, the two most worthless organizations on planet earth? Of course not.
The government is a big money-eating machine. They always need more. And if you don’t give them more, then they will lay off teachers, reduce the number of police men and firemen, and they might send you an IOU instead of the tax refund that they owe you.
Government gets you to pony up more money by always threatening to cut its most worthwhile services. All we hear nowadays out of Washington is a deal on the debt ceiling. Damn it, I don’t want a deal! I want Congress to spend the next 3 or 4 years going over the budget line-by-line, eliminating every service which is not an essential service.
I want the president to set up another one of his commissions, and I want their sole purpose to be, how do we pay this month’s bills without cheating our creditors, and paying all those things related to the military, social security and Medicare. It can be done.
When we have to borrow 40¢ out of every dollar government spends, then I think it is incumbent upon Congress to find those 40¢ worth of spending reductions, and to do it month after month after month. I am not interested in some kind of a deal.
Since the late 1970s, 163 million female babies have been aborted by parents seeking sons
[a book review] by Jonathan V. Last
Mara Hvistendahl is worried about girls. Not in any political, moral or cultural sense but as an existential matter. She is right to be. In China, India and numerous other countries (both developing and developed), there are many more men than women, the result of systematic campaigns against baby girls. In "Unnatural Selection," Ms. Hvistendahl reports on this gender imbalance: what it is, how it came to be and what it means for the future.
In nature, 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. This ratio is biologically ironclad. Between 104 and 106 is the normal range, and that's as far as the natural window goes. Any other number is the result of unnatural events.
Yet today in India there are 112 boys born for every 100 girls. In China, the number is 121-though plenty of Chinese towns are over the 150 mark. China's and India's populations are mammoth enough that their outlying sex ratios have skewed the global average to a biologically impossible 107. But the imbalance is not only in Asia. Azerbaijan stands at 115, Georgia at 118 and Armenia at 120.
What is causing the skewed ratio: abortion. If the male number in the sex ratio is above 106, it means that couples are having abortions when they find out the mother is carrying a girl. By Ms. Hvistendahl's counting, there have been so many sex-selective abortions in the past three decades that 163 million girls, who by biological averages should have been born, are missing from the world. Moral horror aside, this is likely to be of very large consequence.
In the mid-1970s, amniocentesis, which reveals the sex of a baby in utero, became available in developing countries. Originally meant to test for fetal abnormalities, by the 1980s it was known as the "sex test" in India and other places where parents put a premium on sons. When amnio was replaced by the cheaper and less invasive ultrasound, it meant that most couples who wanted a baby boy could know ahead of time if they were going to have one and, if they were not, do something about it. "Better 500 rupees now than 5,000 later," reads one ad put out by an Indian clinic, a reference to the price of a sex test versus the cost of a dowry.
But oddly enough, Ms. Hvistendahl notes, it is usually a country's rich, not its poor, who lead the way in choosing against girls. "Sex selection typically starts with the urban, well-educated stratum of society," she writes. "Elites are the first to gain access to a new technology, whether MRI scanners, smart phones-or ultrasound machines." The behavior of elites then filters down until it becomes part of the broader culture. Even more unexpectedly, the decision to abort baby girls is usually made by women-either by the mother or, sometimes, the mother-in-law.
If you peer hard enough at the data, you can actually see parents demanding boys. Take South Korea. In 1989, the sex ratio for first births there was 104 boys for every 100 girls-perfectly normal. But couples who had a girl became increasingly desperate to acquire a boy. For second births, the male number climbed to 113; for third, to 185. Among fourth-born children, it was a mind-boggling 209. Even more alarming is that people maintain their cultural assumptions even in the diaspora; research shows a similar birth-preference pattern among couples of Chinese, Indian and Korean descent right here in America.
Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men
Ms. Hvistendahl argues that such imbalances are portents of Very Bad Things to come. "Historically, societies in which men substantially outnumber women are not nice places to live," she writes. "Often they are unstable. Sometimes they are violent." As examples she notes that high sex ratios were at play as far back as the fourth century B.C. in Athens-a particularly bloody time in Greek history-and during China's Taiping Rebellion in the mid-19th century. (Both eras featured widespread female infanticide.) She also notes that the dearth of women along the frontier in the American West probably had a lot to do with its being wild. In 1870, for instance, the sex ratio west of the Mississippi was 125 to 100. In California it was 166 to 100. In Nevada it was 320. In western Kansas, it was 768.
There is indeed compelling evidence of a link between sex ratios and violence. High sex ratios mean that a society is going to have "surplus men"-that is, men with no hope of marrying because there are not enough women. Such men accumulate in the lower classes, where risks of violence are already elevated. And unmarried men with limited incomes tend to make trouble. In Chinese provinces where the sex ratio has spiked, a crime wave has followed. Today in India, the best predictor of violence and crime for any given area is not income but sex ratio.
A high level of male births has other, far-reaching, effects. It becomes harder to secure a bride, and men can find themselves buying or bidding for them. This, Ms. Hvistendahl notes, contributes to China's astronomical household savings rate; parents know they must save up in order to secure brides for their sons. (An ironic reflection of the Indian ad campaigns suggesting parents save money by aborting girls.) This savings rate, in turn, drives the Chinese demand for U.S. Treasury bills.
And to beat the "marriage squeeze" caused by skewed sex ratios, men in wealthier imbalanced countries poach women from poorer ones. Ms. Hvistendahl reports from Vietnam, where the mail-order-bride business is booming thanks to the demand for women in China. Prostitution booms, too-and not the sex-positive kind that Western feminists are so fond of.
The economist Gary Becker has noted that when women become scarce, their value increases, and he sees this as a positive development. But as Ms. Hvistendahl demonstrates, "this assessment is true only in the crudest sense." A 17-year-old girl in a developing country is in no position to capture her own value. Instead, a young woman may well become chattel, providing income either for their families or for pimps. As Columbia economics professor Lena Edlund observes: "The greatest danger associated with prenatal sex determination is the propagation of a female underclass," that a small but still significant group of the world's women will end up being stolen or sold from their homes and forced into prostitution or marriage.
All of this may sound dry, but Ms. Hvistendahl is a first-rate reporter and has filled "Unnatural Selection" with gripping details. She has interviewed demographers and doctors from Paris to Mumbai. She spends a devastating chapter talking with Paul Ehrlich, the man who mainstreamed overpopulation hysteria in 1968 with "The Population Bomb"-and who still seems to think that getting rid of girls is a capital idea (in part because it will keep families from having more and more children until they get a boy). In another chapter she speaks with Geert Jan Olsder, an obscure Dutch mathematician who, by an accident of history, contributed to the formation of China's "One Child" policy when he met a Chinese scientist in 1975. Later she visits the Nanjing headquarters of the "Patriot Club," an organization of Chinese surplus men who plot war games and play at mock combat.
Ms. Hvistendahl also dredges up plenty of unpleasant documents from Western actors like the Ford Foundation, the United Nations and Planned Parenthood, showing how they pushed sex-selective abortion as a means of controlling population growth. In 1976, for instance, the medical director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Malcom Potts, wrote that, when it came to developing nations, abortion was even better than birth control: "Early abortion is safe, effective, cheap and potentially the easiest method to administer."
The following year another Planned Parenthood official celebrated China's coercive methods of family planning, noting that "persuasion and motivation [are] very effective in a society in which social sanctions can be applied against those who fail to cooperate in the construction of the socialist state." As early as 1969, the Population Council's Sheldon Segal was publicly proclaiming the benefits of sex-selective abortion as a means of combating the "population bomb" in the East. Overall Ms. Hvistendahl paints a detailed picture of Western Malthusians pushing a set of terrible policy prescriptions in an effort to road-test solutions to a problem that never actually manifested itself.
There is so much to recommend in "Unnatural Selection" that it's sad to report that Ms. Hvistendahl often displays an unbecoming political provincialism. She begins the book with an approving quote about gender equality from Mao Zedong and carries right along from there. Her desire to fault the West is so ingrained that she criticizes the British Empire's efforts to stamp out the practice of killing newborn girls in India because "they did so paternalistically, as tyrannical fathers." She says that the reason surplus men in the American West didn't take Native American women as brides was that "their particular Anglo-Saxon breed of racism precluded intermixing." (Through most of human history distinct racial and ethnic groups have only reluctantly intermarried; that she attributes this reluctance to a specific breed of "racism" says less about the American past than about her own biases.) When she writes that a certain idea dates "all the way back to the West's predominant creation myth," she means the Bible.
Ms. Hvistendahl is particularly worried that the "right wing" or the "Christian right"-as she labels those whose politics differ from her own-will use sex-selective abortion as part of a wider war on abortion itself. She believes that something must be done about the purposeful aborting of female babies or it could lead to "feminists' worst nightmare: a ban on all abortions."
It is telling that Ms. Hvistendahl identifies a ban on abortion-and not the killing of tens of millions of unborn girls-as the "worst nightmare" of feminism. Even though 163 million girls have been denied life solely because of their gender, she can't help seeing the problem through the lens of an American political issue. Yet, while she is not willing to say that something has gone terribly wrong with the pro-abortion movement, she does recognize that two ideas are coming into conflict: "After decades of fighting for a woman's right to choose the outcome of her own pregnancy, it is difficult to turn around and point out that women are abusing that right."
Late in "Unnatural Selection," Ms. Hvistendahl makes some suggestions as to how such "abuse" might be curbed without infringing on a woman's right to have an abortion. In attempting to serve these two diametrically opposed ideas, she proposes banning the common practice of revealing the sex of a baby to parents during ultrasound testing. And not just ban it, but have rigorous government enforcement, which would include nationwide sting operations designed to send doctors and ultrasound techs and nurses who reveal the sex of babies to jail. Beyond the police surveillance of obstetrics facilities, doctors would be required to "investigate women carrying female fetuses more thoroughly" when they request abortions, in order to ensure that their motives are not illegal.
Such a regime borders on the absurd. It is neither feasible nor tolerable-nor efficacious: Sex determination has been against the law in both China and India for years, to no effect. I suspect that Ms. Hvistendahl's counter-argument would be that China and India do not enforce their laws rigorously enough.
Despite the author's intentions, "Unnatural Selection" might be one of the most consequential books ever written in the campaign against abortion. It is aimed, like a heat-seeking missile, against the entire intellectual framework of "choice." For if "choice" is the moral imperative guiding abortion, then there is no way to take a stand against "gendercide." Aborting a baby because she is a girl is no different from aborting a baby because she has Down syndrome or because the mother's "mental health" requires it. Choice is choice. One Indian abortionist tells Ms. Hvistendahl: "I have patients who come and say 'I want to abort because if this baby is born it will be a Gemini, but I want a Libra.' "
This is where choice leads. This is where choice has already led. Ms. Hvistendahl may wish the matter otherwise, but there are only two alternatives: Restrict abortion or accept the slaughter of millions of baby girls and the calamities that are likely to come with it.
From:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576361691165631366.html [there are videos as well in this review]
By Paul Krugman
[Krugman is a far, far left economist who believes that the Stimulus Bill did not spend enough money]
On Thursday, President Obama met with Republicans to discuss a debt deal. We don't know exactly what was proposed, but news reports before the meeting suggested that Mr. Obama is offering huge spending cuts, possibly including cuts to Social Security and an end to Medicare's status as a program available in full to all Americans, regardless of income.
Obviously, the details matter a lot, but progressives, and Democrats in general, are understandably very worried. Should they be? In a word, yes.
Now, this might just be theater: Mr. Obama may be pulling an anti-Corleone, making Republicans an offer they can't accept. The reports say that the Obama plan also involves significant new revenues, a notion that remains anathema to the Republican base. So the goal may be to paint the G.O.P. into a corner, making Republicans look like intransigent extremists - which they are.
But let's be frank. It's getting harder and harder to trust Mr. Obama's motives in the budget fight, given the way his economic rhetoric has veered to the right. In fact, if all you did was listen to his speeches, you might conclude that he basically shares the G.O.P.'s diagnosis of what ails our economy and what should be done to fix it. And maybe that's not a false impression; maybe it's the simple truth.
One striking example of this rightward shift came in last weekend's presidential address, in which Mr. Obama had this to say about the economics of the budget: "Government has to start living within its means, just like families do. We have to cut the spending we can't afford so we can put the economy on sounder footing, and give our businesses the confidence they need to grow and create jobs."
That's three of the right's favorite economic fallacies in just two sentences. No, the government shouldn't budget the way families do; on the contrary, trying to balance the budget in times of economic distress is a recipe for deepening the slump. Spending cuts right now wouldn't "put the economy on sounder footing." They would reduce growth and raise unemployment. And last but not least, businesses aren't holding back because they lack confidence in government policies; they're holding back because they don't have enough customers - a problem that would be made worse, not better, by short-term spending cuts.
In his brief remarks after Thursday's meeting, by the way, Mr. Obama seemed to reiterate the Herbert Hooveresque view that deficit reduction is what we need to "grow the economy."
People have asked me why the president's economic advisers aren't telling him not to believe in the confidence fairy - that is, not to believe the assertion, popular on the right but overwhelmingly refuted by the evidence, that slashing spending in the face of a depressed economy will magically create jobs. My answer is, what economic advisers? Almost all the high-profile economists who joined the Obama administration early on have either left or are leaving.
Nor have they been replaced. As The Wall Street Journal recently noted, there are a "stunning" number of vacancies in important economic posts. So who's defining the administration's economic views?
Some of what we're hearing is presumably coming from the political team, whose members seem to believe that a move toward Republican positions, reminiscent of former President Bill Clinton's "triangulation" in the 1990s, is the key to Mr. Obama's re-election. And Mr. Clinton did, indeed, rebound from a big defeat in the 1994 midterms to win big two years later. But some of us think that the rebound had less to do with his rhetorical move to the center than with the five million jobs the economy added over those two years - an achievement not likely to be repeated this time, especially not in the face of harsh spending cuts.
Anyway, I don't believe that it's all political calculation. Watching Mr. Obama and listening to his recent statements, it's hard not to get the impression that he is now turning for advice to people who really believe that the deficit, not unemployment, is the top issue facing America right now, and who also believe that the great bulk of deficit reduction should come from spending cuts. It's worth noting that even Republicans weren't suggesting cuts to Social Security; this is something Mr. Obama and those he listens to apparently want for its own sake.
Which raises the big question: If a debt deal does emerge, and it overwhelmingly reflects conservative priorities and ideology, should Democrats in Congress vote for it?
Mr. Obama's people will no doubt argue that their fellow party members should trust him, that whatever deal emerges was the best he could get. But it's hard to see why a president who has gone out of his way to echo Republican rhetoric and endorse false conservative views deserves that kind of trust.
From:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/opinion/08krugman.html?_r=2&hp
Herman Cain on our current economic recovery:
http://www.thestatecolumn.com/capitol/herman-cain-on-june-jobs-report-worst-recovery-in-u-s-history/
The Business Insider on the “Scariest Jobs Chart Ever”
http://www.businessinsider.com/details-from-the-awful-june-june-jobs-report-2011-7#ixzz1RZBlVjq0
State Senator who said he wanted to punch NJ Governor Chris Christie in the head is almost struck by lightning. Too bad these were not nearly simultaneous events.
Here is one of the many examples of government officials (in this case, Obama) transparently buying votes:
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2011/jul/la-raza-group-teams-feds-push-govt-aid-spanish
This is a claim out there that Operation Gunrunner was funded by the Stimulus Bill; I did a search on the Stimulus Bill and could not find it; is the article incorrect or was this removed?
http://weaselzippers.us/2011/07/07/atf-gunrunner-project-funded-by-stimulus-bill/
Did Obama’s auto-bailout chief say, “I did this for the unions”?
Obama Regime ready to sell 125 M1A1 tanks to Egypt as well as other weapons, equipment, parts, training, and logistical support
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/07/10/stop-obamas-egyptian-tank-sale/
AP: Economists, Analysts, and Experts Are 'Baffled,' 'Confounded' By Job Market That Is 'Defying History'
Holder from 2009 on Operation Gunrunner:
http://www.justice.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech-090402.html
Traffic stop nets a possible 43 guns from Operation Fast and Furious:
Planned Parenthood’s sexual rights guide for young people; your tax dollars at work undermining parental and/or religious training:
Politi-fact on what percentage of Americans pay taxes:
Climate change pretty much has caused every disaster we have witnessed as of late:
Obama to double U.S. debt:
Fear: GOP Will Cave on Sunday, Agree to Hike Taxes with Fake Cuts
RUSH: There's a lot of deciphering that has to be done over that meeting yesterday on the debt ceiling. There's some really potentially disastrous things that could happen from this. I haven't been able to confirm 'em, and Boehner's denying it, but there are too many indications coming out that the House Republicans are going to cave on a number of things, such as more defense cuts than even Obama wants. Now, I'm hoping it isn't true, but I'm hearing it from too many different places. So we'll get into that in detail.
Now, Boehner, I was heartened by this because last night I was up late. The panic started at about 10:25 last night when people started e-mailing me with things that they had heard and press reports. It wasn't just things people had heard, there are very disturbing press reports, but they are press reports. There's a lot to decipher here, there's a lot to wade through, there's a lot of malarkey. And I was wading through it until early this morning, and I've got it all ready to present to you here today for you to learn and make up your own mind and apply your own thought to, as well as, of course, listen to my interpretation.
RUSH: All right, here's what got everything going last night. This is at 10:25. Now, I could have known this had I been watching the Fox All Stars earlier at 6:40 last night, but I wasn't. I didn't learn of this 'til somebody sent me the notation. Bill Kristol last night on Special Report on Fox predicted that the Republicans are gonna cave in a very big way on the debt ceiling negotiation. Now, that immediately caught my attention because all through the week I have been pretty steadfast in my confidence that they weren't gonna cave, that they could make Obama cave. If you've been listening all week you know what I've been saying, that Obama is at the weakest a president has been politically in a long time in this country. Why our guys don't realize it, we were talking yesterday, why is it that we continually fear that they fall for decade-old traps that the Democrats set. It's because they do. It's because they sometimes do fall for these traps.
So on Thursday's Special Report, Kristol said that the Republicans are gonna give in and agree to the terms set forth by the regime. Here's the quote. "It sounds as if it's heading towards a deal. It's not a deal that I'm going to like I suspect, and think it's going to be a bad deal for conservatives and Republicans but I think they're intimidated. The president has been running around talking about corporate jets and the rich, and how the sky is going to fall unless Republicans cave. And I think they're getting ready to cave in a pretty big way on Sunday." Which is the next meeting. Obama canceled another vacation, was gonna go to Whitefish, Montana on Sunday but then he discovered that if he made these guys work on Sunday and went to Whitefish it wouldn't look good. He's probably kicking the teleprompter that made him say that these guys need to work through the weekend because now he has to as well.
Now, Kristol said he doesn't know anything specific. He's just basing this on what Republican leaders have said publicly, which, I have to admit, I've missed. "Kristol forecast that defense spending cuts, tax increases and other cuts would be dressed up to be more than they really are in the end. And that would lead to a conservative revolt against Republicans. 'So great, we have a Republican House, and they are going to agree to the huge defense cuts, tax increases, phony spending cuts and increased debt,' Kristol said. 'I think there will be a huge rebellion among conservatives in the country if Republicans sign on to this deal.'" Well, that triggered my own search for news stories, and I was able to find 'em. They were all over the place, Washington Post, Politico, they were all there. Now, my antenna went up and I said, "Okay, some red flags here," and there could be a little reverse psychology being employed by Kristol, you never know. I hadn't gotten a wind of this myself.
Now, this morning, Boehner "said that no budget agreement with Democrats is 'imminent,' and he didn't see differences between the two parties narrowing in recent days," which is the opposite of what Obama is saying. He said, Boehner did, there's no deal between him and the president in public or private. His remarks came "as congressional leaders and President Barack Obama plan to work this weekend to reach a compromise agreement that includes as much as $4 trillion in deficit reductions over the next decade and an increase of the U.S. debt ceiling." I just want to fill you in on all the things that I subsequently learned after this. I just want to tell you with extreme confidence that if any of this happens, if there is a cave by House Republicans on this debt limit, if Obama gets what he wants, all of what he wants as Kristol is alluding to here and was backed up by other reports, then you can say good-bye to the Republican National Committee. It will implode. People will stop sending it money. You can say hello to an Obama second term because there will be a third party. The Tea Party will organize as a third party.
If there is a cave on this we could lower the debt ceiling and make our debt payments, as I detailed yesterday. We are not at risk of default. We are not in danger of default. Anybody, either party who says we are is engaging in demagoguery and the same classic Washington tactic of creating for you a crisis, an apocalyptic crisis that has to be solved now or else. I'm telling you, that isn't true. Just as the world was going to end if we didn't get TARP, that wasn't true. None of the forecast crises and their accompanying apocalypse have been true. Nothing that they have tried to scare us with since 2008 has been true. So if this cave happens, hello third party, it's going to happen, and then you're gonna see a wave of new presidential candidates get in the race, and Rick Perry will decide at that moment, it's time to get in, and Paul Ryan, who knows.
I don't mean to be alarmist here, but if these guys cave, the November elections of 2010 -- see, the thing to me is that Boehner isn't under any pressure. His base does not want to compromise. We do not want a compromise. Whatever pressure Boehner thinks he's under is coming from somebody else, 'cause it's not coming from us. We don't want him to cave. We want what's right. If they come out of there with no deal that's advantageous for us and is not representative at all of the November 2010 elections, I'm afraid to predict what's gonna happen to these incumbent Republicans. Rasmussen today, 72% of the country favor free market economy over one managed by the government. Seventy-two percent, in other words, want to fire Obama. Seventy-two percent want to fire every Democrat in Congress. Seventy-two percent of the people want their country back. This is why Democrats hate the Tea Party, and this is why the Republicans have to hold firm.
The Politico yesterday had this little passage, second paragraph: "Debt Talks, Bottom Lines Loom -- With White House debt talks due to resume Sunday, the next few days will sorely test the mettle of President Barack Obama and Speaker John Boehner as they try to finalize a landmark budget and tax reform deal, held prisoner thus far by the rhetoric of both parties." Sorry, Politico, there's no rhetoric that is holding anything prisoner here. It's hard, cold reality, and it's called saving the nation. Here's the second paragraph: "Boehner's forces appeared shaken Thursday by the skepticism they encountered for even entertaining new tax revenues as part of the package. And the GOP's divisions broke into the open at a White House meeting hosted by Obama for congressional leaders." I read that and I said, "Whoa." Boehner's forces appeared shaken Thursday by the skepticism they encountered for even entertaining new tax revenues.
Now, who are Boehner's forces? Who's this talking about? And then I learned what the rest of this means is, the Republicans' divisions broke into the open in a White House meeting. This means that other elements of the Republican leadership at the meeting with Boehner openly broke with him in front of Obama, while Obama was still in the room, other Republicans -- that's what this report says. Now, it's Politico, folks, sad to say we don't know how much of this is true because Boehner's out there saying there is no deal imminent; I don't know what this is all about, but we haven't moved close. I hope that's true. Hope this other stuff is BS. I hope Kristol's got it all wrong. But Boehner isn't under any pressure. What pressure could there be to cave to Obama? What's the pressure? It isn't coming from the American people. The American people don't want Obama's deal here.
RUSH: This is Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard last night, Special Report with Bret Baier during the All-Star Panel.
KRISTOL: It sounds as if it's heading towards a deal. It's not a deal that I'm going to like I suspect and I think it's going to be a bad deal for conservatives and Republicans, but I think they are intimidated. The president's been running around talking about corporate jets and the rich, and how the sky's gonna fall unless Republicans cave, and I think they're getting ready to cave in a pretty big way on some things.
RUSH: That's what he said. Now, again, the media is all hoping that that this true and the things the media was writing last night independent, by the way, of anything Kristol said, the media was writing gave indications that there's something to this. For example, again this Politico story, "Boehner's forces appeared shaken Thursday by the skepticism they encountered for even entertaining new tax revenues as part of the package. And the Republican divisions broke into the open at a White House meeting hosted by Obama for congressional leaders," at the big meeting. Now, let's just take this at its word. It's the Politico, but let's take it at its word. They're in the meeting, there's a bunch of Republicans in the leadership there, of course, with Speaker Boehner.
At some point in the meeting Boehner signals willingness to entertain the idea of new tax revenues as part of the package, and at that moment elements within the Republicans that were with him revolted, and Boehner was shocked. Politico said Boehner's forces appeared shaken by the skepticism. How can you be so tone deaf? I read this, and I said, "Boehner cannot be this tone deaf. He cannot possibly think that a winning thing for him or the Republicans is to go along with tax increases." This just doesn't compute. He's not under any pressure from the base, anyway. We don't want to compromise with Obama here. We want Obama caving, which can be made to happen.
RUSH: Now, again, "Boehner's forces appeared shaken." See, I can't get beyond the hard, cold reality that I can't fathom what pressure Boehner's under. Now, the traditional way that Republicans get snookered here is to be made to believe that the American people are clamoring for whatever it is the Democrats want. I don't care, Obama, Barney Frank, I don't care, that's always the template, whatever Democrats want, the people want. And that the Republicans are the obstructionists and that they're standing in the way and they're not working with anybody and they're racists sexists bigots homophobes and they're mean-spirited extremists and now they're Wahhabis holding guns to people's heads and all this sort of stuff.
So that would add up to me to be media pressure, and we know that in Washington media pressure is intense. We know that, sadly, more often than not, Republicans react to it. But there certainly is no pressure on the Republicans from their voters to do this. I mean to give Obama what he wants here, more spending, to give him a lifeline to the 2012 campaign and reelection? That's what our base wants? I mean, forget for a moment, even if you want to take it to the detail that, well, maybe Boehner's not a movement conservative, okay, fine. Maybe Boehner's not a movement conservative; he's not a liberal Democrat. And again, I have to remind you here that Boehner has said, it's been reported all over the place, he had a press conference, "Look, I don't care what you're hearing, no deal is imminent here. We're not close, either in public or private."
He didn't specifically address any of the claims that have been made in some of these news stories. For example, where is it, TheHill.com is reporting that they discussed cutting the military yesterday from between 600 to $700 billion. Now, Obama, his original proposal was to cut defense $400 billion. There's TheHill.com reporting that they were discussing cuts in the range of 600 to $700 billion. Now, the fear, the fear here is that nondefense cuts will be weak, as they always are, and they'll be spread out, they always are, the cuts in defense much heavier than we should have, and that something smells on the revenue side, why are we even talking about revenue, this ought to be all spending they're talking about. But apparently they're not talking about serious course reversal, no serious steps to fend off what's coming.
Nobody's reporting that the Republicans in the meeting are telling the president no more spending. Okay, all right, Republicans are creatures of Washington. What does Washington do? It spends money. It's what it thinks it has to do. That's what the role of government is, spend money, that's how you please people, it's how you pay people off, it's how you buy their vote, whatever. Those days are gone now; we don't have the money. We're under the impression that the people we elected in November know it. And we're under the impression that the people we elected in November are there to put the brakes on and to represent those who elected them in a huge landslide, always remembering that that November election result was an anti-Obama vote. It wasn't so much a pro-Republican vote; there wasn't a Republican message per se.
There wasn't a Republican personality or identity people could latch onto in that election. They were talking House and Senate races, down-ballot state legislatures. It was a slam dunk. It was an overwhelming landslide and it was resulting from the Democrats, Reagan Democrats and independents fleeing Obama. That was an anti-Obama, anti-liberal, anti-Obama policy vote in November. Those people haven't changed their minds. Unemployment news today, you've heard it, 9.2%. The president with a pathetic announcement about it today. CNBC and some other business channel experts were all predicting a rosy economy by now. They're eating crow left and right.
You've got David Plouffe -- did you see this? Obama's campaign ace in 2008 said, (paraphrasing) "You know what, unemployment's not even gonna be an issue in 2012. Is not even gonna be an issue." You know why unemployment's not gonna be an issue in 2012, folks, you know why? Essentially he said because voters are stupid, they don't care about anybody but themselves. He said the voters are going to be voting on their own circumstances, and if their future looks good they're not gonna want to change anything, they're not gonna want to change horses in the middle of the stream. Fine. That's a crazy thing to say. Who in the world, in a majority, does that include? When I see a poll 72% want a free market economy, not government-run, when 60-plus percent say they don't like the direction the country is going, where in the world does anybody get from that that Obama wins reelection because people are comfortable and happy with their own personal circumstance? Oh, yeah, the unemployment rate doesn't matter. Of course you say that now that they've figured they're not gonna be able to get it below 8%.
In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics played another little game starting this year in order to keep that number at 9.2%. Not only are they monkeying around with the total number of jobs in the universe and reducing it, they are now expanding from two years to five years a statistic regarding the number of people unemployed. I will explain that to you in detail as the program unfolds. Also, there's a panicked press release today from some commercial real estate people, trade people, that in the discussion yesterday, Obama -- and, by the way, he has made this official in 2009 budget documents he's presented that he wants to get rid of the carried interest tax break for hedge funds, private equity groups, and commercial real estate people.
Now, carried interest, I gave myself a challenge today, make the complex understandable. What is it? Gave myself a challenge, be able to explain carried interest inside of a minute. I think I've been able to do it. But essentially carried interest is profits for original investors in hedge funds, private equity firms, commercial real estate that is at present taxed at capital gains levels, and they want to convert this to ordinary income, which would move it up to about 35 and then eventually 39.6 if Obama gets his tax increase wish, which would shut down commercial real estate investment. It would just end it. So basically in less than a minute I told you what it was. So apparently these people in the commercial real estate industry are panicked that the Republicans are gonna cave on that. I got that this morning in the e-mail.
Then you got the corporate jet guys, they're panicked over what's planned there. So something is clearly going on. If you look at what Obama has achieved, his stimulus is now part of the baseline of every single budget. He wants to slash defense, bye-bye NASA as of today. There's talk about revenue being generated, and the Republicans are engaging in those talks, when revenue shouldn't even be an issue. Obamacare is not being discussed, and that's the biggest spending problem to come down the pike, that's got to be defunded or repealed, and that's not even being discussed. And Obama's talking about spreading out budget cuts over more than a decade, meaning they will never occur. So you, as a Congress, you agree to budget cuts today that will happen in 2010. Well, by the time the Congress of 2020 comes along they're gonna say screw those guys in 2011, we're gonna do what we want to do now.
So all these long-term, out-year cuts, they're never gonna happen. It's as old as the Democrat Party the playbook. I don't know why the Republicans feel any pressure to do this. What am I missing, folks? What am I missing? Where is the pressure? I know there's media pressure on the Republicans. What, Snerdley, what? Okay. So the pressure is that we have to expand the debt ceiling, 'cause it's the responsible thing. If we don't raise the debt ceiling, we default. That's the pressure. Okay, all right, so who's saying that? The media is saying that and Obama's saying that. All right. Well, I know Boehner is saying it. In fact, there's a Politico story here, I'll find it, I've got stuff scattered over different places here, but Boehner has said we gotta do this by August 2nd, and we don't. We don't. We could lower the debt ceiling and still service the debt. But I don't know how much of this is gamesmanship and Obama being pressured by Boehner in a little reverse game here.
Regardless, apparently the Republicans are feeling pressure from someplace but from the wrong place. They're reacting to the wrong pressure and they're reacting to the wrong people. Obama does the same thing every time, the same thing every time. I've figured it out. This is what happens. In order to keep the public in the dark about what he's doing and to bypass the usual legislative process, Obama waits until the last minute for everything. He doesn't get involved in talks until the final moments, then when he does get involved, the meetings are in secret. He comes out of the meetings framing the issues and some deal gets cut, and the public really has no idea what the details are until there is a vote.
This is how he operates. This is how he undermines the legislative process, by the way. This is how he controls the media spin. This is how he deceives the public. This is how he leads from behind, and he only gets away with it because the Republican leadership is somehow caught constantly off guard and lets it happen knowing full well that it's coming. Now, on the other side the Democrats are fit to be tied, too. Pelosi, when she heard that Social Security and Medicare cuts are part of what Obama's offering, she's flipping her wig, and so's David "Rodham" Gergen. We've got sound bites of that to share with you. This is why I am here, my friends, to cut through all of this drivel, all of this bilge to get to the essence of what's being discussed and what's taking place.
RUSH: There's another element at play here, of course, and that's big money, who could Boehner and the Republicans be feeling pressure from. McConnell, could be Wall Street types, could be big money types who want, you know, for their world to function, have the debt ceiling raised, no worries about credit ratings and bond ratings and all that and could very well be that that's where the pressure Boehner is feeling is coming from.
RUSH: By the way, Byron York via Twitter: "John Boehner's office responds to Bill Kristol's prediction the Republicans will cave on the budget talks, Boehner's spokesman said, 'Well, that's clear as crystal. No tax hikes.'" Further from the DC Examiner: "Boehner: No, GOP Won't 'Cave' in Budget Talks -- House Speaker John Boehner's office is pushing back against speculation that Republican negotiators will 'cave' to President Obama in talks on raising the national debt ceiling. 'Every Republican has been clear as crystal: No tax hikes,' says a Boehner spokesman. 'Tax hikes destroy jobs and they cannot, and will not, pass the House.'" That 's clear as crystal, they're spelling that c-r-y-s-t-a-l. That formulation, I mean that's no accident. Kristol spells his name K-r-i-s-t-o-l. That's clear as crystal. So Boehner's office is pushing back.
Folks, that 44,000, this Reuters number, Labor Department said that the economy created 44,000 fewer jobs in April and May than previously thought. That means they cut the numbers by half. Forty-four thousand means they cut the numbers by half. The May number alone was revised down by 25,000. That cut the number of jobs added in May in half. That means that this number today that we created 18,000 jobs, that's not true. That's going to be revised. They're just now telling us how bad they missed it in April and May. The thing is, I don't have to tell you. You know this. Everyone's living this. Everybody is living it.
RUSH: Yesterday on CNBC, Herbie Allen's got his Big Media confab going on in Sun Valley in Idaho, and I can never figure out why it really happens. I've never been invited, and I'm Big Media. Without me there, I don't know how anything that matters can get done. Well, Warren Buffett goes out there; Bill Gates goes out there, the guys from Microsoft; Apple goes out there; from the record companies, the presidents, they go out there; Brokaw goes out there; Dan Rather used to go out there, Bob Iger from Disney ABC goes out there; Rupert Murdoch goes out. Big Media confag. Herbie Allen does this big bash. I've been to Sun Valley, beautiful, beautiful place. I got a friend who lives there not far from where John -- well, I'm sorry, Teresa Heinz Kerry owns a house, and Kerry lives there when he's in town. The hotel accommodations are not five star in Sun Valley. I don't know where they all stay. No big deal. I'm just thinking aloud.
Anyway, Buffett's out there, he was interviewed on CNBC yesterday. Essentially he said that we're playing Russian roulette with ourselves if we don't raise the debt limit. Rick Santelli, remember him? Original Tea Party guy on CNBC, he lost it. He went nuts after Buffett appeared. He was on Street Signs on CNBC yesterday, they're having a discussion about Buffett's remarks about government playing Russian roulette with these debt negotiations, and Rick Santelli and an author of a book, A Million Is Not Enough, Michael Farr, had this little exchange.
SANTELLI: I so disagree with Warren Buffett, so disagree. Who's holding who hostage? You know, any addict, you can't bend the rules. There's the steps you follow when you're an addict. It isn't anything you can bend. In November there was an election. People in the House were sent there because the voters had an appetite for less spending. They wanted DC to control their spending. And if whatever comes out of these meetings doesn't satisfy the electorate, guess what? November comes in a calendar once a year, and maybe the next election will make the midterms look like child's play.
RUSH: Okay, this is where this Farr guy gets involved.
SANTELLI: If not now, when? Now is the time. Now, now, now.
FARR: Now is the time, but they can't use this gun.
SANTELLI: Oh, let me tell you something. Nothing will pass the House if they stick together. End of story. That's the way the game works.
FARR: So where does compromise come from, Rick?
SANTELLI: I don't believe in compromise on spending. There's no compromise.
FARR: Hey, Rick, Rick.
SANTELLI: Stop spending. Live within your means.
RUSH: It's exactly right. Don't compromise on spending, and that's what this is talking about. Why compromise here on the future of the country? It's absurd, and this is not why these guys were elected. They kept talking. This is not over.
SANTELLI: Do not ask taxpayers --
FARR: Okay, but you got --
SANTELLI: -- for more money or an increased debt ceiling 'til you give us a darn budget.
FARR: 'Til you give us a budget. But we're running out of time. I mean somewhere in here they've gotta figure this --
SANTELLI: And whose fault is that? What have they been doing for two years?
FARR: -- fault, but it's a practical problem, right? I mean we still have to --
SANTELLI: It's a practical problem.
FARR: -- come up with a practical solution.
SANTELLI: We can pay our interest payments. The rating agencies --
FARR: That's right.
SANTELLI: -- unlike Europe, aren't going to come after us. Be plenty of people that aren't going to get programmed money. I understand that. But maybe the programs need less money, need to be streamlined. It isn't a question --
FARR: Absolutely.
SANTELLI: -- about whether you need to tackle Social Security; it's how long do you think that bullet's gonna take before it comes out of the revolver?
RUSH: That's Rick Santelli with a Limbaugh echo on CNBC yesterday talking about no need to compromise on spending, and that we're not gonna default. We're not going to be unable to make debt payments if we don't raise the debt ceiling. Keeping on doing the same damn thing is not compromise. Obama and the Democrats want to keep on doing the same damn thing, and that isn't compromise. It's doing the same damn thing. The Democrats are saying let's compromise. Let's keep doing things our way. The answer to the Democrats is we're not gonna keep doing things your way, and we're not going to compromise on spending, and we are not going to raise taxes. And we don't care what Richard Cohen says and we don't care what David Brooks says, and we don't care what the establishment says about this. It's gonna come down to who the congressional Republicans are gonna listen to. It's gonna come down to whoever they think they have the most to fear from.
RUSH: John in Daytona, Florida, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: (garbled cell connection) Hey, Rush, would it be wrong of me to say that Warren Buffett should butt out of the American economy because at this point I don't remember him being elected for anything, and he doesn't have $12 trillion; his company's worth $25 billion. Huh huh huh.
RUSH: Well, no, because, that would be like telling any citizen to butt out of it. No, you can't tell him to butt out of it. We are a representative republic. He's on TV and he can say whatever he wants. He doesn't have to be right, he can say what he wants.
CALLER: Look, he is confusing because I do respect his business sense, and I don't think he would run Berkshire Hathaway the same way. He wouldn't run it this way. He wouldn't run it (garbled).
RUSH: No. No. He doesn't. That's the thing. The Kennedys didn't run their businesses the way they make everybody else run theirs.
CALLER: No, they didn't.
RUSH: The liberals do not send their kids to public schools.
CALLER: No.
RUSH: The liberals are not out there driving battery powered cars. It's no different. So you say, "Why do they do it?" Well, it's the age-old class warfare: This is how they relate or try to make the average, middle class American think that they support 'em, that they've got their back. It's no more complicated than that. Pure and simple. Now, where you're right is: Okay, Warren Buffett has -- I forget, $43 billion -- $50 billion; and he and Gates and some of these other high-rollers have signed this pledge to give all their money to Gates, basically, when they die. (laughing) To Gates' charity! Stop and think of that. (laughing) That's fine, but don't tell me I have to. If you don't want to keep what you've earned for your family when you pass away, that's fine, but don't tell me that I have to give my estate away.
Fine. Now, there's one Democrat that ran his business like the Democrats do. In other words, the Democrats don't send their kids to public schools, the Democrats don't drive electric cars. The Democrats don't do all these things that they're suggesting, particularly economically and fiscally. They don't. The Democrats do invest their money in the stock market, but they don't want you to. The Democrats fly corporate jets. The Democrats do all these wealthy, rich things. They just don't want you to know about it. There's one Democrat who ran his business like the government does (and there have been lesser ones) and that's Bernie Madoff. Bernie Madoff was the one Democrat who solidly through -- from front to back, start to finish, top to bottom -- ran his business the exact way the Democrats run the government.
Romer: The Growthless Recovery
RUSH: Here's Christina Romer, April 12th, earlier this year, Washington University in St. Louis. She is the former chairwoman of Obama's White House Council of Economic Advisors.
ROMER: If you ask me, I think what we're experiencing isn't in fact closer to a "growthless" recovery than to a jobless one. Because GDP started to grow more than a year and a half ago, but with the exception of just a couple of quarters, growth has not been noticeably above its trend rate of about 2-1/2 percent a year. I don't rejoice at the news that we added 216,000 jobs in March. About a hundred thousand of that 216,000 is needed every month just to keep up with the growth in the labor force. At this rate of job growth, it would take most of the decade to replace the eight 8-1/2 million jobs that were lost in the recession.
RUSH: It's worse than that, but at least she got pretty close to that. But how about the notion here of a "growthless recovery"? There's no such thing, folks, as a "growthless recovery," by definition. But this is what she was telling the young skulls full of mush at Washington University in St. Louis.
Where's the Civility, Democrats?
RUSH: See, I think there's a new strategy. I don't think this is happenstance. It's for the Drive-Bys to specifically refer to Republicans as terrorists and suicide bombers. And, you know, folks, the last thing, I'm very uncomfortable giving these people any kind of publicity anyway because nobody really watches 'em, and it's very frustrating for Cookie and Cookie's little helpers 'cause most of this crap happens on MSNBC, and I told 'em I really don't want to give them any attention. Nobody else watches 'em, why should we give 'em any attention? And they get very frustrated because MSNBC is the best example of where all this crap is happening. It does happen throughout the left-wing media, but MSNBC is just where it's all codified, condensed, and concentrated.
Chris Matthews, I can remember when he once guest hosted this show. It once was sufficient that we could put him on here to guest host the program. It wouldn't happen anymore. I don't know what's happened to the guy, I really don't. That whole network is a loony bin, and it's a loony bin filled with people who are overflowing with uncontrollable rage, anger, unhappiness, and misery, by design. This is their niche. They've chosen it. Chris Matthews said Tuesday it was scary that Republicans like Michele Bachmann were willing to not face the warning signs about raising the federal debt ceiling and take the United States right off the cliff. His guest was Senator Claire McCaskill from Missouri. She noted that it was a misconception that raising the debt ceiling would permit Congress to spend more. (laughing) My brother went to law school with her and I remember he used to say she was okay. They've gone nuts. I mean, a misconception, raising the debt ceiling would permit Congress to spend more?
"All we're doing is making good on the spending that's already occurred," she said, "It's like they bought a new car and don't want to make the payment." That's a crock. It's not true. And then Joan Walsh at Salon, who is also out of control, and these people are all part of the cabal that, you know, the Duke lacrosse case, without any evidence those lacrosse players were guilty as sin. These people were recently embarrassed on a similar type story, they all piled on, they were all wrong about, I forget what it was. I don't think it was DSK. I'll find out what it was. Anyway, Joan Walsh was a guest, and Matthews said, "Republicans' plans to hold the debt ceiling hostage until the Democrats agreed to budget cuts was terrorism." Now, I say this in the context, okay, if we're gonna suspend Halperin for using the word "dick," I'm just telling you there is a lot worse and more incendiary language out there being used.
This is dangerous stuff. I mean it really is over the line. Tina Brown, "Republicans are acting like economic suicide bombers." That was on MSNBC. She was talking to Mika Brzezinski. Tina Brown is the editor of the Daily Beast and Newsweek now. And Chris Matthews called the Republicans the Wahhabis of American government. Meaning that the Republicans are Muslim terrorists. Wahhabiism is the militant Islam. And I'm just saying this stuff is far more incendiary than what Halperin said. And of course, (imitating New Castrati) "It's not civil, it just isn't civil and we're supposed to be civil." Remember that, Obama goes out there to Arizona, Gabrielle Giffords thing, and talks about the need for new civilivity because these people lied about Sarah Palin being responsible for the shooter out there, and then me? And then you got these guys making these kinds of comments?
RUSH: By the way, speaking of this Matthews and Tina Brown stuff, Obama said during his Twitter town hall yesterday that the GOP was holding a gun to the head of the country. I mean these people on the left are using this incendiary, murderous type lingo. And of course you ask, "Where is the civility?" And this is the same man, Barack Obama, who lectured us on dangerous rhetoric after the Giffords shooting when he kicked off his reelection campaign in Tucson.
Furious: The Obama Regime Gave 2,000 Guns to Mexican Drug Lords
RUSH: This Fast and Furious thing, folks, we're talking about a potential impeachable offense here with the selling of guns to Mexico.
RUSH: Yesterday morning there was a stunning development in Congress' investigation of the Justice Department Fast and Furious gunrunning program. You remember this. This is where ATF allowed a criminal element to purchase AK-47s and other weapons and ammo at Phoenix gun stores, Arizona gun stores; and then take them across the border into Mexico. The theory, or the stated objective here, was to track this stuff back to Mexican drug lords so we could find out who they are and how they were using the stuff and all that, and it turned out the weapons ended up being used to kill Americans, and I'm gonna tell you right now. As I said the first time I mentioned this whole story to you, I will guarantee you -- well, it's gonna be hard to guarantee it, but I am "confident."
I'll put it that way: I am confident. This is a government-run program. It's out of the Justice Department, Eric Holder; and that means it's Obama. It will never get up to Obama, but don't doubt me on this. This was an attack on the Second Amendment. The purpose of this was to have it all go wrong, have American guns (sniveling liberal impression) "because they're so widely available; you can go into any gun store in America and buy an assault rifle," quote, unquote; end up owned by Mexican drug lords. (Gasp!) We were supposed to be so appalled and outraged by that that the American people would clamor for gun control. That's what they were trying to do; nobody's gonna ever convince me otherwise. Nobody.
But the PowerLine guys reported: "This morning, there was a stunning development in Congress's investigation of the Justice Department's 'Fast and Furious' gun-running program: it was revealed," and this is big, "that on July 4, Kenneth Melson, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Obama [regime's] intended fall guy in the scandal, broke ranks with his superiors. Without their knowledge, he gave an interview to Darrell Issa's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, accompanied only by his personal attorney. While a transcript of that interview is not yet public, it is clear that he blew the whistle on senior officials in the Justice Department.
"This morning, Issa and Senator Charles Grassley released a letter that they sent yesterday to Attorney General Eric Holder. It is explosive, to say the least. You should read it in its entirety; here are some excerpts: 'Yesterday, Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson participated in a transcribed interview regarding Operation Fast and Furious and related matters with both Republican and Democratic staff. He appeared with his personal counsel, Richard Cullen of McGuire Woods LLP. His interview had originally been scheduled through the Justice Department to occur on July 13 in the presence of DOJ and ATF counsel.
"'As you know, however, under our agreement Department witnesses who choose to attend a voluntary interview with their own lawyer are free to exercise that right rather than participate with counsel representing the Department's interests. After being made aware of that provision of our agreement, Acting Director Melson,'" the ATF guy, "'chose to exercise that right and appeared with his own lawyer,'" not ATF lawyers, not DOJ lawyers. "'We are disappointed that no one had previously informed him of that provision of the agreement. Instead, Justice Department officials sought to limit and control his communications with Congress. ...
"'Mr. Melson said that he told the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) at the end of March that the Department needed to reexamine how it was responding to the requests for information from Congress. According to Mr. Melson, he and ATF's senior leadership team moved to reassign every manager involved in Fast and Furious, from the Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations down to the Group Supervisor, after learning the facts in those documents.' ... The evidence gathered by Issa's oversight committee suggests that the Obama [regime] may actually have financed the purchases of firearms by known criminals, which then wound up in the hands of Mexican gangs and were involved in murders, including the murder of an American border patrol agent:
"'The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons [out of the country] but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities," may have bought those weapons, "may have financed those engaging in" buying these weapons. "'While this is preliminary information, we must find out if there is any truth to it. According to Acting Director Melson, he became aware of this startling possibility only after the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and the indictments of the straw purchasers, which we now know were substantially delayed by the US Attorney's Office and Main Justice.' ...
"The full transcript of Melson's testimony, when released, will be a fascinating document. In the meantime, it appears clear that the Fast and Furious scandal reaches to the very top of Barack Obama's Department of Justice." So the acting director of ATF decides, "I don't want to wait for lawyers from the DOJ and the ATF. I'm gonna get my own and I'm gonna go testify privately," which he did on July 4th. He said apparently taxpayer dollars were used to buy these weapons that ended up in Mexico. Now, from HillBuzz: "Mexico is [ticked off]... The more that is known about the Fast and Furious fiasco, the more apparent it is that the US screwed up and allowed 2500 assault rifles and revolvers to be transported into Mexico by thugs.
"These guns were supposed to be traced to high level mob-type gun traffickers (and drug cartel members) but for some reason..ATF agents just sat back and let the bad guys be bad guys and in the process, numerous people were murdered with these weapons (including a US border patrol agent.RIP Brian Terry ). Now Mexican officials want the ones responsible for Operation Fast and Furious (aka Project Gunrunner) to not only be tried in the US but also in Mexico. " So this program, folks -- and you know why they did this. All this talk about tracking the movement of Mexican drug cartel members and so forth, yeah, it sounds good, but this?
I know liberals. I know it sounds like something where you think, "They would never go that far. Come on. Don't say that." Folks, this is really not that bad compared to things they're totally capable of and have done -- and I tell you, I believe that one of the primary objectives here was to get the American people so upset that they would clamor for more gun control. I think that's what they were trying to do. Andrew Breitbart's website, big government, a post here by AWR Hawkins: "Which Was Worse: Watergate or Operation 'Fast and Furious'? -- After The Washington Post broke the news of the Watergate break-ins in 1972, the Nixon administration circled the wagons. And in 1997 - a full 25 years after the fact - Katherine Graham, who was with The Post in 1972, vividly recalled how 'Nixon began making threats of economic retaliation against the paper.' According to Graham, Nixon bullied the paper, sought to silence it, and launched a 'campaign to undermine public confidence in [it].' ...
"Judging from what Graham said, it appears that Nixon wanted to be sure people understood that if they continued to pry into Watergate or talk about Watergate or break news about Watergate as it unfolded, there would be harsh ramifications. (Keep in mind - Nixon had nothing to do with planning Watergate. Only with covering it up once he learned of it after the fact.) Honestly folks, Watergate provided the Left with such a singularly sweet opportunity to bring down a Republican president that they've never gotten over it. ... No one died during the Watergate break-ins or as a result of Nixon's cover-up. Switch gears and jump to 2009, and the ATF's special operation 'Fast and Furious.' An operation with which you're all familiar by now, where upwards of 2500 guns in Arizona were sold to 'straw purchasers' under the assumption that those guns were going to end up in the hands of Mexican cartel members who could then be arrested."
You know the rest of the story. Worse than Watergate. Here, people died.
Since there are some links you may want to go back to from time-to-time, I am going to begin a list of them here. This will be a list to which I will add links each week.
Watts Up With That (a lot of recent scientific news is posted here—there were 9 stories for July 5th alone):
Corruption Chronicles (wtching things judicial):
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog
If you are a small business and you want to air out your problems with how government has hampered your business, here’s the place to go (enjoy the video):
http://jobs.majorityleader.gov/
Excellent economic news:
Uncover age, sometimes a sensational right wing blog site:
The Bare Knuckled Pundit, a right-wing blog site with in-depth articles.
http://www.bareknuckledpundit.com/
Front Page Mag; in-depth right-leaning stories:
Framing the Dialogue (mostly individually produced blog postings and interesting articles):
http://www.framingthedialogue.com/
Obamacare 411 (stories about what to expect from Obamacare):
http://obamacare411.wordpress.com/
Heritage.Org “Saving the Dream” plan:
The U.S. misery index, determined month-by-month:
http://www.miseryindex.us/customindexbymonth.asp
TEA Party . Org (conservative news and views):
Seems to be a middle-of-the-road news organization; iwatch news:
Front Page magazine, which is conservative with Jewish emphasis:
The fake Obama Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002453027874&sk=info (the name "Harrison J. Bounel" - a suspected Obama alias, based on official records)
Our Dirty Spending Secrets:
http://www.dirtyspendingsecrets.com/
The Right Perspective (blog):
http://rightperspective.wordpress.com/
Conservative byte (conservative blog; news):
The Government is not God, a political action committee:
Obama’s autopen twitter account:
http://twitter.com/#!/ObamasAutopen
The Minority Report (conservative blogging and news):
http://www.theminorityreportblog.com/
Shadow Government Statistic; excellent economics site (some information is free, but this is a subscription site):
A George Soros funded site to go after specific Fox anchors through their advertisers (is there any parallel to this on the right?):
Cato Institute’s Downsizing Government
http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/
Cool blog with a lot of excellent articles:
http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/
Slimeball comics:
http://slimeball-comics.blogspot.com/
Anti-Fox, anti-conservative “news and opinion” site:
Lots of current vids:
Men with Foil Hats (occasionally borders on conspiratorial without being completely nuts; mostly a repository of news stories from elsewhere):
http://www.menwithfoilhats.com/
iwatch news is a repository of interesting news items; there might be a slight left slant? It is hard to tell.
Calculated Risk Blog:
http://cr4re.com/charts/charts.html
Calculated Risk Charts and Graphs:
http://cr4re.com/charts/charts.html
This website, asks the eternal question...
http://www.isglennbeckright.com/
Renew America:
The Party of 1776:
Climate Realists:
http://climaterealists.com/index.php
In case I did not list it before, Iowa Hawk (insightful economic blogging):
American Legislative Exchange Council (Limited government, free markets and federalism):
http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home
Right Wing News Watch
http://www.rightwingnewswatch.com/
It is mostly libs who post here, but this way, you get their weird perspective on things political:
http://www.politico.com/arena/
The Right Scoop:
Pro-Life Unity:
Christian Healthcare Ministries (an alternative to health insurance)
Daniel Mitchell’s blog:
http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/
Capitalism Magazine
http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/
The truth wins (mostly commentary on economics).
Conservative 21 (blog)
http://www.conservative21.com/index.cfm
Translating Jihad. What is broadcast in the Arabic is one thing; and how it is said in English is something entirely different:
http://translating-jihad.blogspot.com/
Here is a chart you MUST see (it is about political party donors):
The Center for Responsive Politics:
What if George Bush did that?
http://whatifgeorgebushdidthat.wordpress.com/
The Lonely Conservative (news and conservative opinion):
http://lonelyconservative.com/
The right weather underground (blog, with some emphasis upon the phony green agenda).
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/sebastianjer/
An article on the federal reserve:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/fed_reserve.htm
The Economic Collapse Blog:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/
Albert Mohler’s blog, which is Christian and conservative:
Readers begin a discussion, and other join in:
The Other Half of History (the history which is ignored in the modern classroom):
http://historyhalf.com/columns/
American History:
Citizen Tom (news and conservative commentary):
Pronk Palisades (recent news and editorial videos and links):
http://raymondpronk.wordpress.com/
The Right brothers (sort of newsy and commentary):
http://therightbrothers.posterous.com/
Freedom Fighter’s Journal (news and opinion articles):
http://ronbosoldier.blogspot.com/
Liberty’s Army (mostly economic and middle eastern revolutionary news right now):
News and opinion articles:
http://iusbvision.wordpress.com/
STORM’s official Revolutionary document:
http://www.leftspot.com/blog/files/docs/STORMSummation.pdf
Climate Depot’s 321-page 'Consensus Buster' Report:
The Iowahawk, which is a blog, at times, heavy with stats, and at other times, it is hard to tell:
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/
Liberal collector of links and liberal news:
Good conservative news blog:
http://a12iggymom.wordpress.com/
The radio patriot; a news repository and right-wing blog:
http://radiopatriot.wordpress.com/
Glenn Beck’s news page; almost everything is a video:
Conservative Girls are Hot:
The Food Liberation Army (I am still unsure whether this is a put-on or not):
http://www.freeronald.org/en/fla/
Good news site—Buck’s Right:
In case you want to refer others to this; statistical comparison between gays and straights:
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS04C02
Palestinian Media Watch:
Right Bias:
Red, White and Blue news:
The Right Scoop (lots of videos):
Excellent news source:
Union refund? Really?
The Right Reasons (news and opinion):
http://www.therightreasons.net/index.php
Meadia Research Center where the bias of mainstream news is exposed again and again.
Pundit and Pundette:
http://www.punditandpundette.com/
News directly from people in Egypt (called Broadcasting from Tahrir Square):
Stand with Us:
A George Soros funded site:
Progressive media matters action network:
http://politicalcorrection.org/
The Jawa Report (there is some moderate emphasis upon Islam):
Kids Aren’t Cars:
http://www.kidsarentcars.com/blog/
Stuff you probably did not know about greenhouse gases (this is a good link for friends):
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html
The Top 100 Effects of Global Warming (I am fairly certain that this is serious; but it is really hard to tell). It is saying goodbye to French Wines, glaciers, guacamole, mixed nuts, French fries, baseball and Christmas trees and saying hello to cannibalistic polar bears, jellyfish attacks, giant squid attacks, more stray kittens, suffocating lemmings, burning cow poop and acidic oceans.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/09/climate_100.html
Comprehensive List of Tax Hikes in Obamacare (this includes individual health insurance costing as much as $695/month by 2016—which is not the only cost):
http://www.atr.org/comprehensive-list-tax-hikes-obamacare-a5758#
Tammy Bruce
[California’s] Public Speakers blog:
http://pubsecrets.wordpress.com/
Flashpoint—California’s most significant political news:
The Publius Forum (more of a newscast than a blog; located in Chicago, I believe):
Political Chips:
http://www.politicalchips.org/
Brits at their best:
http://www.britsattheirbest.com/
Political Affairs, which used to be called the Communist (in case you are interested in what the Democratic Par, I mean, the communist party is up to.
Headlines, short news stories:
Christmas is evil (Muslim website):
http://xmasisevil.com/index2.php
Conservative blogger:
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/
Verum Serum
The Tax Professor Blog
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/
Moonbattery:
Arbitrary Vote:
The Party of Know:
Slap Blog
The latest news from Prison Planet:
http://prisonplanet.tv/latest-news.html
Right Wing News:
The Frugal Café:
http://www.frugal-cafe.com/public_html/frugal-blog/frugal-cafe-blogzone/
The Left Coast Rebel:
http://www.leftcoastrebel.com/
The Freedomist:
Greg Gutfeld’s website:
This is one of my favorite lists; this is a list of things which global warming causes (right now, it causes over 800 things—most of these are linked):
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
The U.K.’s number watch:
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/number%20watch.htm
100 things we can say goodbye to (or, hello to) because of Global Warming (all of these are linked). They are very serious about these things, by the way:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/09/climate_100.html
If you are busy, and just want to read about the Top Ten things:
http://planetsave.com/2009/06/07/global-warming-effects-and-causes-a-top-10-list/
Observations of a blue state conservative:
http://lonelyconservative.com/
Thomas “Soul man” Sewell’s column archive:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell1.asp
Walter E. Williams column archive:
http://townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/
Israpundit:
The Prairie Pundit:
http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/
Conservative Art:
Conservative Club of Houston:
Conservative blog, but with an eye to the culture and pop culture (there is a lot of stuff here):
http://hallofrecord.blogspot.com/
Conservative and pop culture blog (last I looked, there were some Beatles’ performances here):
http://thinkinboutstuff.com/thinkinboutstuff/nfblog/
Raging Elephants:
http://www.ragingelephants.org/
Gulag bound:
Hyscience:
Politi Fi
TEA Party Patriots:
South Montgomery County Liberty Group:
http://sites.google.com/site/smclibertygroup/
Hole in the Hull:
National Council for Policy Analysis (ideas changing the world):
Ordering their pamphlets:
http://www.policypatriots.org/
Cartoon (Senator Meddler):
Bear Witness:
http://bearwitness.info/default.aspx
http://bearwitness.info/BEARWITNESSMAIN.aspx (there are a million vids on this second page)
Right Change (facts presented in an entertaining manner):
Bias alert from the Media Research Center:
http://www.mrc.org/biasalert/archive.aspx
Excellent conservative blogger:
http://mikesamerica.blogspot.com/
Send this link to the young people you know (try the debt quiz; I only got 6 out of 10 right):
Center for Responsive Politics:
The Chamber Post (pro-business blog):
Labor Pains (a pro-business, anti-union blog):
These people are after our children and after church goers as well:
Their opposition:
http://resistingthegreendragon.com/
The Doug Ross Journal (lots of pictures and cartoons):
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/
The WSJ Guide to Financial Reform
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703315404575250382363319878.html
The WSJ Guide to Obamacare:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574441193211542788.html
The WSJ Guide to Climate Change
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704007804574574101605007432.html
Video-heavy news source:
Political News:
Planet Gore; blogs about the environment:
http://www.nationalreview.com/planet-gore
The Patriot Post:
PA Pundits, whose motto is, “the relentless pursuit of common sense” (I used many of the quotations which they gathered)
http://papundits.wordpress.com/
Index of (business) freedom, world rankings:
http://www.heritage.org/index/pdf/2010/Index2010_ExecutiveHighlights.pdf
U.S. State economic freedom:
http://www.pacificresearch.org/docLib/20080909_Economic_Freedom_Index_2008.pdf
The All-American Blogger:
http://www.allamericanblogger.com/
The Right Scoop (with lots of vids):
In case you have not seen it yet, Obsession:
http://www.therightscoop.com/saturday-cinema-obsession-radical-islams-war-against-the-west
Inside Islam; what a billion Muslims think:
World Net Daily (News):
Excellent blog with lots of cool vids:
http://benhoweblog.wordpress.com/
Black and Right:
http://www.black-and-right.com/
The Right Network:
Video on the Right Network:
http://rightnetwork.com/videos/860061517
The newly designed Democrat website:
Composition of Congress 1855–2010:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774721.htm
Anti-American and pro-socialist, pro-Arabic:
http://www.zeropartypolitics.com/
The anti-Jihad resistence (which appears to be a set of links to similar websites):
http://www.antijihadresistance.com/
Seems to be fair and balanced with an international news approach:
Black and Right dot com:
http://www.black-and-right.com/ (the future liberal of the day is quite humorous)
Mostly a liberal blogger, who says vicious things about most conservatives; and yet, says something sensible, e.g. posting many of the things which the healthcare bill does to us.
Conservative news site (many of the stories include videos):
Muslim hope:
http://www.muslimhope.com/index.html
Anti-Obama sites:
http://howobamagotelected.com/
http://www.impeachobamacampaign.com/
International news, mostly about Israel and the Middle East:
News headlines sites (with links):
http://www.thedeadpelican.com/
Business blog and news:
And I have begun to sort out these links:
News and Opinions
Conservative News/Opinion Sites
The Daily Caller
Sweetness and Light
Flopping Aces:
News busters:
Right wing news:
CNS News:
Pajamas Media:
Right Wing News:
Scared Monkeys (somewhat of a conservative newsy site):
Conservative News Source:
David’ Horowitz’s NewsReal:
Pamela Geller’s conservative website:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/
The news sites and the alternative news media:
Andrew Breithbart’s websites:
http://biggovernment.breitbart.com/
Conservative Websites:
http://www.theodoresworld.net/
http://www.rockiesghostriders.com/
www.coalitionoftheswilling.net
A conservative worldview:
http://www.divineviewpoint.com/sane/
http://www.theamericanright.com/forums/index.php
Liberal News Sites
Democrat/Liberal news site:
News
CNS News:
News Organization (I mention them because I have seen 2 honest stories on their website, which shocked and surprised me):
Business News/Economy News
Investors Business Daily:
IBD editorials:
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/IBDEditorials.aspx
Great business and political news:
Quick News
Even though this group leans left, if you need to know what happened each day, and you are a busy person, here is where you can find the day’s news given in 100 seconds:
http://www.youtube.com/user/tpmtv
Republican
Back to the basics for the Republican party:
http://www.republicanbasics.com/
Republican Stop Obamacare site:
http://www.nrcc.org/codered/main.php
North Suburban Republican Forum:
http://www.northsuburbanrepublicanforum.org/
Politics
You Decide Politics (it appears conservative to me):
http://www.youdecidepolitics.com/
The Left
From the left:
Far left websites:
Weatherman Underground 1969 “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
http://www.archive.org/details/YouDontNeedAWeathermanToKnowWhichWayTheWindBlows_925 (PDF, Kindle and other formats)
http://www.antiauthoritarian.net/sds_wuo/weather/weatherman_document.txt (Simple online text)
Insane, leftist blogs:
http://teabaggersrcoming.blogspot.com/
http://poorsquinky.com/politics/all.html
Media
Media Research Center
http://www.mrc.org/public/default.aspx
Conservative Blogs
Mike’s America
http://mikesamerica.blogspot.com/
Dick Morris:
http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/
David Limbaugh (great columns this week)
Texas Fred (blog and news):
Conservative Blogs:
http://atimetochoose.wordpress.com/
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/*/index
The top 100 conservative sites:
Sensible blogger Burt Folsom:
Janine Turner’s website (I’m serious; and the website is serious too). This is if you have an interest in real American history:
http://constitutingamerica.org/
Conservative news/opinion site:
The Left Coast Rebel:
http://www.leftcoastrebel.com/
Good conservative blogs:
http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/
http://faultlineusa.blogspot.com/
http://makenolaw.org/ (the Free Speech blog)
http://www.baltimorereporter.com/
http://www.fireandreamitchell.com/
The Romantic Poet’s Webblog:
http://romanticpoet.wordpress.com/
Brain Shavings (common sense from the Buckeye State):
Green Hell blog:
Daniel Hannan’s blog:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/danielhannan/
Conservative blog:
Richard O’Leary’s websites:
http://www.eccentrix.com/members/beacon/
Freedom Works:
Yankee Phil’s Blogspot:
http://yankeephil.blogspot.com/
Excellent list of Blogs on the bottom, right-hand side of this page:
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/
Babes
And simply because I like cute, intelligent babes:
Liberty Chick:
Dee Dee’s political blog:
http://somosrepublicans.com/author/deedee/
The Latina Freedom Fighter:
http://www.youtube.com/user/LatinaFreedomFighter
Ann Althouse ("Crusty conservative coating, creamy hippie love chick center.")
Judith Miller is one of the moderate and fairly level-headed voices for FoxNews:
A mixed bag of blogs and news sites
Left and right opinions with an international flair:
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/
This is an odd blog; conservativism, bikinis and whatever else posted by either a P.I. or the brother of a P.I.:
http://pibillwarner.wordpress.com/
More out-there blogs and sites
Angry White Dude (okay, maybe we conservatives are angry?):
Mofo Politics (a very anti-Obama site):
Info Wars, because there is a war on for your mind (this site may be a little crazy??):
The Magic Negro Watch (this is peppered with obscenities and angry conservative rhetoric):
http://magicnegrowatch.blogspot.com/
Okay, maybe this guy is racist:
Media
Glenn Beck’s shows online:
http://www.watchglennbeck.com/
News busted all shows:
http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/search.aspx?q=newsbusted&t=videos
Joe Dan Media (great vids and music):
http://www.youtube.com/user/JoeDanMedia
The Patriot’s Network (important videos; the latest):
PolitiZoid on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/politizoid
Reason TV
This guy posts some excellent vids:
http://www.youtube.com/user/PaulWilliamsWorld
HipHop Republicans:
http://www.hiphoprepublican.blogspot.com/
Topics
(alphabetical order)
Bailouts
Bailout recipients:
http://bailout.propublica.org/main/list/index
Eye on the bailout (this is fantastic!):
http://bailout.propublica.org/
The bailout map:
http://bailout.propublica.org/main/map/index
From:
Border
Do you want to watch what is happening on our border? These are actual videos of observations cams along the border:
http://borderinvasionpics.com/
Secure the Border:
Capitalism
Liberty Works (conservative, economic site):
Capitalism Magazine:
http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/
Communism
45 Goals of Communists in order to take over the United States (circa 1963):
http://www.rense.com/general32/americ.htm
How this correlates to the goals of the ACLU:
Congress
No matter what your political stripe, you will like this; evaluate your Congressman or Senator on the issues:
http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm
http://www.cagw.org/government-affairs/ratings/2008/ratings-database.html
http://www.cagw.org/reports/pig-book/2009/pork-database.html
Corrupt Media
The Economy/Economics
Bush “Tax Cut” myths and fallacies:
http://libertyworks.com/category/obamanomics/bush-tax-cut-myths-fallacies/
A debt clock and a lot of articles on the debt:
Recovery (dot) gov (where our money is being spent):
http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/home.aspx
A collection of articles by Michelle Malkin about Obama’s war against jobs:
http://michellemalkin.com/category/politics/obama-jobs-death-toll/
If you have a set of liberal friends, email them one chart a week from here (go to the individual chart, and then choose download and format):
AC/DC economics (start with the oldest lessons first; economics in 60 second bites):
http://www.youtube.com/user/ACDCLeadership#p/a
Economist and talk show host Walter E. Williams:
The conservative plan to get us out of this financial mess:
The Freedom Project (most a conservative news and opinion site which appears to concentrate on matters financial)
http://www.freedomproject.org/
Bankrupting America, with great videos and maps:
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org/
This appears to be a daily pork report, apparently as pork in Washington bills is discovered, it gets posted at Tom Coburg’s website:
http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=WashingtonWaste
Weekly poll, asking you to identify what we ought to cut in governmental spending:
http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut/
Global Warming/Climate Change
This is an interesting site; it seems to be devoted to the debate of climate change:
http://www.climatedebatedaily.com/
Global Warming headlines:
http://www.dericalorraine.com/
Dr. Roy Spencer on climate change:
Not Evil, Just Wrong video on Global Warming
http://www.letfreedomwork.com/
http://www.taskforcefreedom.com/council.htm
Global Warming Hoax:
http://www.globalwarminghoax.com/news.php
Global Warming Site:
Global Warming sites:
http://ilovecarbondioxide.com/
35 inconvenient truths about Al Gore’s film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5J7JNfLYco
http://www.noteviljustwrong.com/trailer
Wall Street Journal’s articles on Climate Change:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704007804574574101605007432.html
Michael Crichton on global warming as a religion:
http://www.michaelcrichton.net/speech-environmentalismaseligion.html
This man questions global warming:
http://themigrantmind.blogspot.com/
Healthcare
This is indispensable: the Wall Street Journal’s guide to Obama-care (all of their pertinent articles arranged by date—send one a day to your liberal friends):
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574441193211542788.html
Republican healthcare plan:
http://www.gop.gov/solutions/healthcare
Health Care:
http://fixhealthcarepolicy.com/
Betsy McCaughey’s Health Care Site:
http://www.defendyourhealthcare.us/home.html
Obamacare Watch:
http://www.obamacarewatch.org/
This looks to be a good source of information on the health care bill (s):
Obamacare class action suit (as of today, joining in on the suit costs you whatever you want to donate, if I understand the form correctly):
http://www.van4congress.org/contact/obamacare-class-action/
Islam
Islam:
Jihad Watch
Answering Muslims (a Christian site):
http://www.answeringmuslims.com/
Muslim demographics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaZT73MrYvM
Muslim Demographics (this is outstanding):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU
Muslim deception:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNZQ5D8IwfI
A Muslim apologetic site (they will write out letters to express your feelings, and all you have to do is sign them, and they will send them on):
http://www.faithfulamerica.org/
Celebrity Jihad (no, really).
Legal
The Alliance Defense Fund:
http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/
Liberty Counsel, which stands up against the A.C.L.U.
ACLU founders:
http://www.angelfire.com/mi4/stokjok/Founders.html
Military
Here is an interesting military site:
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/
This is the link which caught my eye from there:
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=169400
The real story of the surge:
http://www.understandingthesurge.org/
National Security
Keep America Safe:
http://www.keepamericasafe.com/
Race Relations
A little history of Republicans and African-Americans:
http://grandoldpartisan.typepad.com/blog/
Oil Spill
Since this will be with us for a long time, the timeline of the BP gulf oil spill:
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2010/05/obamas-katrina-illustrated-timeline.html
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/bp-gulf-oil-spill-timeline.php
This is cool: a continuous timeline of the spill, with the daily info and the expansion of the oil, and the response:
http://www.esri.com/services/disaster-response/gulf-oil-spill-2010/timeline-advanced.html
Cool Sites
Weasel Zippers scours the internet for great stuff:
The 100 most hated conservatives:
http://media.glennbeck.com/docs/100americans-pg1.pdf
Still to Classify
Army Ranger Michael Behenna sentenced to 25 years in prison for 25 years for shooting Al Qaeda operative
http://defendmichael.wordpress.com/
Maybe the White House does not need to hold press conferences? It releases exclusive articles daily right here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-and-releases
If you want to see 1984 style-rhetoric and tactics, see:
Project World Awareness:
http://projectworldawareness.com/
Bookworm room
This is quite helpful; it is a list of all leftist groups, with links to background information on each of these groups (when I checked, 879 groups were listed). This is a fantastic resource.
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/summary.asp?object=Organization&category=
Commentary Magazine:
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/
Family Security Matters (families and national security):
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/
America’s Right
Emerging Corruption (founded by an ACORN whistle blower:
http://emergingcorruption.com/
In case you need to reference this, here are the photos of all those on the JournoList:
http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=29858
A place where you may find news no one else is carrying:
http://www.lookingattheleft.com/
News Website to get the Headlines and very brief coverage:
National Institute for Labor Relations Research
Independent American:
http://www.independentamerican.org/
If you want to be scared or depressed:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/
Are you tired of all the unfocused news and lame talking heads yelling at one another? Just grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and see what is really going on in the world:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/video
It is not broken, but the White House wants to control it: the internet:
http://nointernettakeover.com/
John T. Reed comments on current events:
http://johntreed.com/headline.html
Conservative New Media (it is so-so; I must admit to getting tired of seeing the interviewer high-fiving Carly Fiorina 3 or 4 times during an interview):
http://conservativenewmedia.com/
Ann Coulter’s site:
Allen West for Congress:
http://allenwestforcongress.com/issues/
Their homepage:
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/default.asp
Wall Builders:
http://www.wallbuilders.com/default.asp
One of the more radical people from the right, calling for the impeachment of Obama:
The Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a free enterprise site (there are several videos on the flat tax):
http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/
The Tax Foundation:
Compare your state with other states with regards to state taxes:
http://taxfoundation.org/files/f&f_booklet_20100326.pdf
Political news and commentary from the Louisiana Political News Wire:
This is a pretty radical site which alleges that Obama is a Marxist hell-bent in taking over our country:
1982 interview with Larry Grathwohl on Ayers' plan for American re-education camps and the need to kill millions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWMIwziGrAQ
Another babebolicious conservative (Kim Priestap):
http://politics.upnorthmommy.com/
Stop Spending our Future:
http://stopspendingourfuture.org/
DeeDee also blogs at:
http://somosrepublicans.com/author/deedee/
Somos Republicans:
This is actually a whole list of stories about the side-effects of Obamacare (e.g., Obamacare may be fatal to your health savings account; Medical devices tax will cost jobs; young will pay higher insurance rates, etc.): Send one-a-day of each story to your favorite liberal friends:
In case you want to see how other conservatives are thinking,
Zomblog:
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/
Conservative news site:
http://www.liberalwhoppers.com/
http://conservativeamericannews.com/
Your daily cartoon:
Here’s an interesting new site (new to me):
http://www.overcomingbias.com/
Here is an interesting blog, but, it is not all conservative stuff:
http://afrocityblog.wordpress.com/
These are some very good comics:
http://hopenchangecartoons.blogspot.com/
Helps for liberals to call conservative talk shows:
Sarah Palin’s facebook notes:
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=24718773587
Media Research Center:
http://www.mrc.org/public/default.aspx
Must read articles of the day:
The Big Picture:
http://www.bigpicweblog.com/exp/index.php
Talk of Liberty
Lux Libertas
Conservative website:
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/
Excellent articles on economics:
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/
http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/ (Excellent video on the Department of Agriculture posted)
This is a news site which I just discovered; they gave 3 minute coverage to Obama’s healthcare summit and seemed to give a pretty decent overall view of it, without slanting one way or the other:
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/
(The segment was:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU-evdGu1Sk )
I have glanced through their website and it seems to be quite professional and reasonable. They have apparently been around since 1942.
An online journal of opinions:
http://caffeinatedthoughts.com/
American Civic Literacy:
http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/
The Dallas TEA Party Organization (with some pretty good vids):
America people’s healthcare summit online:
http://healthtransformation.net/
This is fantastic; Florida (the Sunshine State) is now putting its state budget online:
http://transparencyflorida.gov
New conservative website:
http://www.theconservativelion.com
Conservative website:
Suzanne Somers s supposed to be older than Bill O’Reilly? He interviewed her this week, and she looked, well, hot. She is big into vitamins and human growth hormones.
http://www.suzannesomers.com/Default.aspx
The latest Climate news:
Obama cartoons:
http://obamacartoon.blogspot.com/
Education link:
http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/
News from 2100:
How you can get your piece of the stimulus pie:
http://www.economicstimuluspackageinfo.com/
Always excellent articles:
http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/
The National Journal, which is a political journal (which, at first glance, seems to be pretty even-handed):
http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/
Conservative blog: Dan Cleary, political insomniac:
http://dancleary.typepad.com/dan_cleary/
Stand by Liberty:
And I am hoping that most people see this as non-partisan: Citizens Against Government Waste:
Lower taxes, smaller government, more freedom:
Citizens Against Government Waste:
Conservative website featuring stories of the day:
http://www.lonelyconservative.com/
Christian Blog:
http://wisdomknowledge.wordpress.com/
News feed/blog:
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/
News site:
Note sure yet about this one:
Conservative news and opinion:
http://bijenkorf.wordpress.com/
Conservative versus liberal viewpoints:
http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/other/conservative-vs-liberal-beliefs/
The Best Graph page (for those of us who love graphs):
http://midknightgraphs.blogspot.com/
The Architecture of Political Power (an online book):
Recommended foreign news site:
This website reveals a lot of information about politicians and their relationship to money. You can find out, among other things, how many earmarks that Harry Reid has been responsible for in any given year; or how much an individual Congressman’s wealth has increased or decreased since taking office.
http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php
Kevin Jackson’s [conservative black] website:
Notes from the front lines (in Iraq):
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/
Remembering 9/11:
http://www.realamericanstories.com/
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball site:
http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/
The current Obama czar roster:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26779.html
Blue Dog Democrats:
http://www.house.gov/melancon/BlueDogs/Member%20Page.html
Undercover video and audio for planned parenthood:
The Complete Czar list (which I think is updated as needed):
http://theshowlive.info/?p=572
This is an outstanding website which tells the truth about Obama-care and about what the mainstream media is hiding from you:
http://www.obamacaretruth.org/
Politico.com is a fairly neutral site (or, at the very worst, just a little left of center). They have very good informative videos at:
http://www.politico.com/multimedia/
Great commentary:
My own website:
Congressional voting records:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/
On Obama (if you have not visited this site, you need to check it out). He is selling a DVD on this site as well called Media Malpractice; I have not viewed it yet, except pieces which I have seen played on tv and on the internet. It looks pretty good to me.
http://howobamagotelected.com/
The psychology of homosexuality:
International News:
http://chinaconfidential.blogspot.com/
The Patriot Post:
Obama timeline:
http://exemployee.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/a-timeline-of-barack-obamas-political-career/
Tax professor’s blog:
I hate the media...
Palin TV (see her interviews unedited):
Liberal filter for FoxNews: News Hounds (motto:
We watch FOX so you don't have to). Be clear on this; they do not want you to watch FoxNews.
Asharq Alawsat Mid-eastern news site: