Wednesday, February 29, 2012

MILLER: Congress needs rehab - Washington Times

In treating addiction, experts say admitting there is a problem is the first step to recovery. Steps Two through 12 require stopping the drug of choice and taking action not to start again. When it comes to a spending and legislating addiction, Congress can’t get past Step One. In order to tackle the nation’s $15.4 trillion debt, Washington must stop creating new programs and start eliminating the excess.

On Tuesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa held a hearing on the second annual report to Congress from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on duplicative and overlapping government programs. It lists specific areas across federal agencies that should be consolidated or eliminated, saving tens of billions.

For example, there are 14 grant and loan programs at the Environmental Protection Agency, Transportation Department and Energy Department all for the purpose of reducing diesel emissions. There are 94 different programs to promote “green building” initiatives at 11 agencies. It takes 50 programs across nine agencies to find employment for people with disabilities.

The government has seven entities training foreign officials to identify fraudulent travel documents. There are a whopping 209 science, technology, engineering and mathematics education programs at 13 different agencies that cost a total of $3 billion a year.




Link:MILLER: Congress needs rehab - Washington Times

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Quote Of The Day

"Liberals seem to assume that, if you don't believe in their particular political solutions, then you don't really care about the people that they claim to want to help." -Thomas Sowell



PRUDEN: The ignorance of Rick Santorum - Washington Times

There’s a tiny priest living in Rick Santorum’s trim, toned body, struggling to get out. The rogue priest escaped Sunday and said foolish things.

The candidate most admired for plain speech made it plain and clear that he doesn’t believe in the wall between church and state and doesn’t think much of John F. Kennedy for saying he did.

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” he told ABC News. “The idea that church can have no influence or involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.”




PRUDEN: The ignorance of Rick Santorum - Washington Times

Has Romney Electability Evaporated? - Charlie Cook - NationalJournal.com

Polls these days show an unusually large degree of volatility. In the nine most recent polls covered by RealClearPolitics.com, President Obama’s job approval ratings have ranged from 44 percent to 53 percent, the highest any national poll has shown since last May, soon after Osama bin Laden was killed. In general, in election matchups between Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the range is from a tie in the new Gallup/USA Today national survey to a 10-point lead for Obama. When matched up against former Sen. Rick Santorum, the range has been from a Santorum lead of three points to Obama being up by 11 points.


In such situations, the first thing to do is to knock out the high and low polls and average the rest; it’s the easiest way to provide a control for the inevitable outlier surveys. In terms of Obama’s job approval, the remaining seven averaged 47 percent. It should be noted, though, that the three highest, all 50 percent, were from two weeks ago. Going into Election Day, an incumbent wants to see a job approval rating of 50 percent or higher. But one with 48 or 49 percent approval can still win by a nose. President George W. Bush did this, with a 48 percent job approval rating in the final Gallup Poll before his narrow, 51 percent-to-48 percent win over John Kerry in 2004.

In the Obama-Romney trial heats, the average of the seven represented a 7-point lead for the incumbent. When up against Santorum, it was just under an 8-point lead. Trial heat figures this far out do not have as good a track record of indicating election outcomes as later ones. The takeaway from these numbers is that the electability premium that Romney had over Santorum has, for now, virtually evaporated. It’s not to say there isn’t a lot more for Democrats to exploit running against Santorum than against Romney. But the natural edge is largely gone, with very different results from a few months ago—though admittedly, Santorum was an unknown then.


Link:Polls Apart - Charlie Cook - NationalJournal.com

The American Spectator : Santorum and the Silence of the Shams


In a recent column, Charles Krauthammer laments the undeniable reality that Obamacare is fading as an issue in the presidential campaign, and calls it "a huge failing of the opposition party." He points out that the Republican presidential candidates have all promised to repeal the Potemkin "reform" law, but asks if any have been "making the case for why?" This is a surprising question, coming from a man of Krauthammer's credentials and erudition. He obviously hasn't been listening as closely as one might have expected. Three of the four remaining Republican presidential candidates have indeed failed to give the issue the attention it merits. Rick Santorum, however, has been all over it.




Link to article:The American Spectator : Santorum and the Silence of the Shams

Founding Father Quote

Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.

Patrick Henry

Monday, February 27, 2012

42% Strongly Disapprove of Obama

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 26% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16 (see trends). That’s the president’s lowest rating in over a month.

We Can Learn From Europe!


"Right now, I'd rather be in Sweden than in the U.S. because we have seen the problems and are moving away from the welfare state. On your side of the Atlantic you are moving right into it, and you risk destroying your country."
-- Ian Wachtmeister
(1932-) Swedish industrialist and politician, member of the Swedish parliament from 1991 to 1994

A Plan For No More Democrats!


Brilliant in its  Simplicity................
 
A)  Back  off and let those men who want to marry men, marry men.

B)  Allow  those women who want to marry women, marry women.

C)  Allow those folks who want to abort their babies, abort their babies.

D)  In  three generations, there will be no Democrats.
 
 

I love it when a good plan comes together!
 
 

Quote of the Day!

"A successful economy depends on the proliferation of the rich, on creating a large class of risk taking men who are willing to shun the easy channels of a comfortable life in order to create new enterprise, win huge profits, and invest them again."

George Franklin Gilder

Arizona Gov. Brewer endorses Romney for president

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) endorsed Mitt Romney for president during her appearance Sunday morning on “Meet the Press.”
Brewer said she viewed Romney as the most electable candidate to challenge President Obama this fall, and that she made her conclusion after meeting with the candidates and after a debate this week in Arizona.
“I have decided that I am going to publicly endorse Mitt Romney. I think he's the man that can carry the day,” Brewer said. “I think Mitt is by far the person who can go in and win.”
Brewer has become a national figurehead for efforts to curb illegal immigration after leading an effort to install one of the nation’s toughest immigration laws.






Arizona Gov. Brewer endorses Romney for president

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Founding Father Quote

"The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind."

Thomas Jefferson, 1790

The End of Affirmative Action?

‘Equal Justice Under the Law’: Why the End Is Near For Affirmative Action
By David Wohl on Sat, 25 Feb 2012 20:17:41 +0000

It’s been more than three decades since the U.S. Supreme Court first gave thumbs up to the doctrine of affirmative action in higher education. The decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 1978 is somewhat complex, but the crux of the multi-pronged ruling is that while affirmative action policies are constitutional, a quota system based on race is unconstitutional. Many thought the decision amounted to judicial hair-splitting, and sure enough, the controversy was far from over.



Here in California, voters decided they should have the final say. It was the mid-1990’s, 1996 to be precise, and the state’s politics still showed signs staunch conservatism. Two years earlier, voters gave a thumbs up by a large margin to Proposition 187, the “Save Our State”initiative. It would have established a state-run citizenship screening system to prohibit illegal aliens from using health care, public education, and other social services in the California. With Prop 209 the state’s voters outlawed “preferential treatment” by race, effectively ending affirmative action in the Golden State.

Conversely, in 2003, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor authored a high court decision reaffirming the doctrine, saying in a case involving the University of Michigan Law School that colleges and universities could institute as policy limited racial preferences in order to achieve “diversity on campus”. At the time, O’Connor suggested, rather randomly, that after another 25 years, if racial prejudice continued to wane, such preferences would no longer be defensible.

Just this week, the High Court announced it will hear the case of a Texas woman whose plight highlights the urgent need for the policy of affirmative to be revisited on a national level. Abigail Fisher from Sugar Land, Texas, was turned down for admission at the University of Texas in 2008. Her grades were not good enough to put her in the top 10% of her class, which would have resulted in automatic admission to the school. However, she presented evidence that her tests and grades greatly exceeded those of many of the admitted minority candidates. She sued, alleging racial discrimination in violation of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.


Predictably, Fisher’s claim was rejected by a federal judge and the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, sending it to the Supreme Court. Fisher has since enrolled at Louisiana State University where she is due to graduate this spring.

Why is the race based doctrine of affirmative action now on very thin ice?

Equal Justice Under Law. The words are etched in stone on the front of the United States Supreme Court building. Far too many students, like Abigail Fisher, don’t benefit from that simple constitutional concept. Many students, depending on their race–Black or Hispanic–in particular, receive preferential treatment at the expense of their White and Asian brethren. No one argues that we don’t benefit from a diverse student body at our universities, but evidence suggests the issue is actually being addressed. As of five years ago, the University of Texas, Austin campus said it had a record high number of entering Black and Hispanic students, making up about 26% of the freshman class. While the numbers of Black and Hispanic students in California universities dipped after Prop 209’s passage, they have since increased.

In 2028, as predicted by Justice O’Connor, will affirmative action suddenly not be necessary? Will the beneficiaries of the doctrine simply agree that they no longer need the extraordinary boost engendered in the discriminatory policy? Not likely. In fact there is still tremendous resistance in California to the idea that race is no longer a factor in university admissions. Because Prop 209 amended the California Constitution, it repealed all existing public sector affirmative action programs in California not required by federal law. In reality, the programs have stayed in place because the liberal California Legislature has declined to repeal them and no lawsuit has been filed to challenge their constitutionality.

Now that Justice O’Connor has been replaced by Samuel A. Alito Jr., a five justice conservative majority is on record against the use of “racial balancing” AKA affirmative action, by universities. In a recent Supreme Court ruling that prohibited race-based transfer policies in elementary and high schools, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” You don’t say.

The rationale for the forthcoming Supreme Court decision is likely to be based in a clear cut constitutional protection: No state shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The ruling in Abigail Fisher’s case will likely severely restrict if not eliminate affirmative action.

In the aftermath of the ruling an important message will be sent to American school kids: Work hard and reap the benefits of your success, no matter what your ethnicity. It’s fair. It’s the American way.

Reckless Spenders: IBDINVESTORS

Bleak Future: A fresh report says the new federal debt ceiling of $16.4 trillion will likely be reached just after Election Day. Those driving it up will be relatively unaffected. They'll just deliver the bill to our children.

The Bipartisan Policy Center has set the next DC-Day for late November, after just a few weeks earlier saying it would hit in the spring of 2013. Pundits will no doubt wonder how the earlier date will affect the election.

And for good reason: Yet another debate over raising the debt ceiling will swing some voters.

But largely lost in the endless analyses, high-speed spin and roaring rhetoric is one fact that reflects poorly on today's political class: The debt burden will fall hardest on those who have no vote and no say in this country's public policy.

Liable for the biggest chunk of the debt are children being born today. According to the Senate Budget Committee, each member of this group, which employs no lobbyists, already owes $1.53 million in federal debt.

Those with the next highest burden — today's high school students — will owe only about half that of today's babies: about $870,000. College students are third, inheriting $681,000 in debt.

Those who ran up the indebtedness get off lightly. Baby Boomers are on hook for only $157,000 each.

These are, of course, averages among age groups.

More specific totals depend on birth date. President Obama, for example, in a mere three years has run up more debt than all the presidents from Washington to Clinton combined. He'll be responsible for only $208,301, according to a debt calculator created by the GOP staff on the Senate Budget Committee.

The president's oldest daughter Malia, will be stuck with $978,849 in debt, while second-born Sasha will have to pay $1.1 million.

Don't forget that this is the father who in an open letter to his children said he ran for president "because of what I want for you and for every child in this nation."

We have to presume that what he wanted was to put them in position to spend their lifetimes paying off an incomprehensibly steep liability that he's helped run up.

We also must infer that his daughters' debt meets his definition of "fairness" — that it is the "hope" and "change" he promised while campaigning.

Of course, it isn't just Obama. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who owes a mere $71,286 — and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — $71,927 — have taken part in this inter-generational crime. And, yes, so have many Republicans. This is a bipartisan disaster.

But in 2012, the federal debt will cut hard between the parties. There will be a clear choice between the camp that will continue to irresponsibly crank out more debt, and the other, which will run on a platform of bringing the wild federal beast under control.

If voters make the wrong choices, future generations will be too indebted to have lives of their own.

Friday, February 24, 2012



Non-Catholic Christian groups, state governments sue over Obama birth control mandate
Jason Howerton
At least seven religious plaintiffs have filed lawsuits against the Obama administration over the president's contraception mandate for health care coverage. That requirement forces most health insurance plans to offer free preventative services for women.

So far the majority of civil complaints have come from small religious colleges and universities that claim the mandate infringes upon their religious liberty and forces institutions to provide services that violate their faith.

Read more at The Daily Caller...


Steve Manning

Conservative Humor!

I was eating lunch on the 19th of February with my 4 year-old granddaughter and I asked her, "What day is tomorrow?"

She said "It's President's Day!"

She is a smart kid. So, I asked, "What does President's Day mean?"

I was waiting to hear something about Washington, or Lincoln, etc.

She replied, "President's Day is when President Obama steps out of the White House and if he sees his shadow we have one more year of unemployment."

Thursday, February 23, 2012

EDITORIAL: Obama's burning Koran apology - Washington Times

EDITORIAL: Obama's burning Koran apology - Washington Times


Raucous Afghan mobs have forced a presidential apology, even after two American soldiers were killed. The extremists win again.

Yesterday, Afghanistan saw its third day of rioting after workers collecting garbage at NATO's Bagram air base found charred remains of religious texts, including the Koran. The texts in question had been defaced with extremist propaganda and had been disposed of. It’s unclear who did the disposing, but it was reported that the process was overseen by a U.S. officer. Since then, crazed mobs have gathered in Afghan streets chanting “Death to America,” and the Taliban urged Afghans to “continue seeking revenge until punishment is dished out with your hands.” On Thursday, outside a U.S. base in eastern Nangarhar province, an Afghan soldier did just that, killing two American soldiers and escaping into the welcoming arms of an approaching mob.

Comment: I am sick and tired of Obama apologizing for America!

Quinnipiac: Americans Want Obamacare to Be Repealed

Quinnipiac: Americans Want Obamacare to Be Repealed

A new Quinnipiac poll released today shows that, by a wide (and widening) margin, Americans want Obamacare to be repealed.  By a margin of 13 percentage points (52 to 39 percent), Americans support the repeal of President Obama’s centerpiece legislation.  That represents a swing of 8 points, against Obamacare, since a little over a year ago, at which time Quinnipiac showed that Americans supported repeal by a margin of 5 points (48 to 43 percent).

National Review: We Are Already Europe!

With seemingly every day bringing more bad news from Europe, many are beginning to ask how much longer the United States has before our welfare state follows the European model into bankruptcy. The bad news is: It may already have.

This year, the fourth straight year that we borrowed more than $1 trillion to support the U.S. government, our budget deficit will top $1.3 trillion, 8.7 percent of our GDP. If you think that sounds bad, it’s because it is. In fact, only two European countries, Greece and Ireland, have larger budget deficits as a percentage of GDP. Things are only slightly better when you look at the size of our national debt, which now exceeds $15.3 trillion, 102 percent of GDP. Just four European countries have larger national debts than we do — Greece and Ireland again, plus Portugal and Italy. That means the U.S. government is actually less fiscally responsible than countries like France, Belgium, or Spain.

And as bad as things are right now, we are on an even worse course for the future. If one adds the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare to our official national debt, we really owe $72 trillion, by the Obama administration’s projections for future Medicare savings under Obamacare, and as much as $137 trillion if you use more realistic projections. Under the best-case scenario, then, this amounts to more than 480 percent of GDP. And, under more realistic projections, we owe an astounding 911 percent of GDP.
Meanwhile, counting both official debt and unfunded pension and health-care liabilities, the most indebted nation in Europe is Greece, which owes 875 percent of GDP. That’s right, the United States potentially owes more than Greece. France, the second most insolvent nation in Europe, owes just 549 percent of GDP. Even under the most optimistic scenario, we owe more than such fiscal basket cases as Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.

So far we have been able to avoid the consequences of our profligate ways because the very public turmoil in Europe has helped prop us up as the world’s safe haven for foreign investment. Compared to the euro’s problems, the dollar looks pretty safe. This means that others are still willing to lend us money at absurdly low rates. But that won’t last forever. In fact, already seven European countries, including Germany and Sweden, have better credit ratings than the U.S.

Perhaps we can take some solace in the fact that our welfare state is not yet as big as Europe’s. But the key word here is “yet.” Today, our federal government spends more than 24 percent of GDP. Throw in state and local spending, and government at all levels consumes over 43 percent of everything produced in this country over the course of a year. As bad as that is, it’s still less than Europe, where the average of government spending at all levels is slightly more than 50 percent of GDP. But the Congressional Budget Office projects that federal-government spending in this country is currently on a path to exceed 42 percent of GDP by 2050. Government spending at all levels will exceed 59 percent of GDP. And CBO assumes state and local spending will decline in the future, which seems unlikely.

By way of comparison, today, Ireland is the only country in Europe with a bigger government than the U.S.’s will be in 2050. That’s right, one can look at countries like France and Greece, or even Denmark and Sweden, and realize that we will eventually have bigger governments than those quintessential welfare states have today.

At that point does the United States cease being the United States as we have known it? At the very least, can our economy survive such a crushing burden of government spending, and its attendant level of taxes and debt?

Given this looming disaster, President Obama has just submitted a budget that explicitly rejects “austerity,” avoids any reform of Medicare or Social Security, and adds some $7 trillion to the national debt over the next ten years. And Republicans? They are busy debating the pros and cons of birth control.

What is wrong with this picture?

— Michael Tanner is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

DOJ dismisses leniency request for Border Patrol agent


Months after Rep. Duncan Hunter asked the Justice Department to consider leniency for Border Patrol Agent Jesus E. Diaz Jr., who was convicted of using excessive force in arresting an illegal immigrant, the Obama administration has brushed that request.

In October and again in November, Mr. Hunter, a California Republican, asked the Justice Department to forgo collecting a court-imposed fine until after Diaz is released from prison, saying his family would have to struggle to make the payments.

In two short letters sent Feb. 13, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich responded, dismissing Mr. Hunter's request and saying "the case against Mr. Diaz was fully litigated in federal court." Mr. Weich also sent Mr. Hunter the press release the department issued when the judgment was handed down. Mr. Hunter's office made the letters public this week.

In a statement, Mr. Hunter said the replies were an "embarrassment."

"This response shows the insensitivity and disrespect of this Justice Department, even as a Border Patrol officer sits in jail for reasons that aren’t clear," he said. "The Justice Department has a real problem on its hands, with this case and Fast and Furious, and still there’s no interest in setting the record straight and taking responsibility. What’s most disappointing about this response is what it says to the men and women of the Border Patrol.”




DOJ dismisses leniency request for Border Patrol agent

Politicians Fiddle While Fiscal Crisis Looms

Imagine this family budget:

Last year, you earned $24,700. But you spent $37,900, incurring $13,300 in debt, and you were already $153,500 in debt.



So you say, "I promise I'll spend $300 less this year!"

Anyone can see that your cutback is pathetic and that you need to spend much less.

Yet if you add eight zeroes, that's America's budget.

The president says again that he will cut spending -- but don't be fooled. He wants to spend more on some items, those he euphemistically calls "invest(ment) in the things that will help grow our economy." (As though politicians can know what a free market would reveal.)

He says he wants to reduce the deficit by raising taxes on the rich -- but again, don't be fooled. Even if he took every penny over $1 million from the rich, it would reduce the deficit by only $616 billion.

The politicians are spending us into oblivion. But I can't blame only them. The American people are complacent. We like the goodies. We think we're getting something for nothing. We are like alcoholics who know we have a problem but just can't resist one last fix. One more infrastructure bill or jobs plan will jumpstart the economy. Then we'll kick our spending addiction once and for all.

But we don't stop spending. Almost all budget categories grow, even when adjusted for inflation. This is a break with most of America's history. When the economy grew most dramatically, government was less than 5 percent of gross domestic product. Today, it's well over 20 percent.

Since Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty began in the late 1960s, government spending has gone up relentlessly. This is just not sustainable. So what do we do? We must cut. But I fear Americans aren't up for that. People on the street told me that the budget is out of control. But when I then asked them, "What would you cut?" most just stared ahead.

But there's plenty to cut. We can easily cut things like foreign aid, NPR, Amtrak and post office subsidies, and the war on drugs. But we should not pretend that such cuts would be enough to stop the coming crisis. They're not. Killing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a hundred other subsidy programs would help more. But that still makes only a dent in the deficit.

To really save America, we need to cut whole departments: Commerce, Energy, Education, Agriculture, Labor. We don't need them.

Commerce just happens. It doesn't need an expensive Cabinet department that hands out money to politically connected businesses.

The same is true for the Energy and Agriculture departments. Some states now have more agriculture bureaucrats than farmers!

Education is not a federal responsibility. Federal spending of $106 billion a year has not raised test scores one bit.

Now I've cut $329 billion. It's still not enough.

The military is about a fifth of the budget. I want to support our troops, but we could do that and save money if the administration would shrink the military's mission to what it is supposed to be: protecting us from external threats. We cannot put America on a road to solvency without cutting military spending, too.

Of course, what will really bankrupt America are entitlements, especially Medicare. That's the big one.

Why even call it an entitlement? Are we entitled to the money? People think we are, but the money is taken from the taxpayers -- by force. The program is totally unsustainable. We now live so long that most of us get back about three times what we paid into these programs.

So we have to raise the retirement age, maybe index it to life spans, and turn Medicare into an insurance plan that sustains itself. That will mean that if I want the latest in high-end medicine, I have to pay for it myself.

We're on the way to becoming Greece -- while our "leaders" stand and watch. A catastrophe is happening before our eyes, but the politicians won't act to avert it. How did they ever end up with enough power to sink our society? 








Politicians Fiddle While Fiscal Crisis Looms

Founding Father Quote

"Great ambition, unchecked by principle or the love of glory, is an unruly tyrant."

Alexander Hamilton

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Unemployment Up To 9%!

Unemployment in the U.S. rose to nine percent in mid-February, up from 8.3 percent a month earlier, according to a new Gallup survey. The polling company said this suggests that it is “premature” to assume the economy will not feature prominently in the 2012 election season.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Breitbart.tv » As Gas Prices Rise, Keystone Pipeline Battle Heats Up

Breitbart.tv » As Gas Prices Rise, Keystone Pipeline Battle Heats Up

Questions concerning President Obama's domestic oil policy are beginning to surface as the average price of gas spikes around the nation. The Administration is taking credit for the increased domestic oil production of the last year but Republicans claim that is because of the previous administration's policies. Now that gas prices are back at economically painful levels, the President's decision to reject the XL Pipeline proposal is under scrutiny.

The Sacred Dogma of the Left

In the conflict between the Obama administration and the Catholic church over mandated contraceptive coverage in health insurance policies, it’s easy to understand the motivations of the church. Catholics object to artificial contraception—and to abortifacients and sterilization, reimbursement for which is also mandated—as a matter of doctrine, owing to their beliefs about the dignity of the human person.


The church’s allies—evangelical Christians, Tea Partiers, and other non-Catholic conservatives—are motivated by a conviction that, theology aside, the Obamacare edict forcing the church to pay for procedures it finds morally objectionable is an unconstitutional trespass on the free exercise of religion.


The Sacred Dogma of the Left

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Founding Father Quote

"I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites on the labor of the industrious."

Thomas Jefferson

40% Consider Reagan Most Influential President Of Last 50 Years

Americans continue to believe Ronald Reagan is the most influential president of the last half century, but they are a bit more divided over which president should be next in line to be honored by a federal holiday.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that 40% regard Reagan as the most influential president of the past 50 years. Bill Clinton is a distant second with 16%, closely followed by John F. Kennedy with 14%. Barack Obama, who is making his first appearance in this question, comes in fourth with 11%. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Just five percent (5%) say Richard Nixon was most influential, followed by Lyndon B. Johnson (4%). Both Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush are seen as the most influential by three percent (3%), while just one percent (1%) see George H.W. Bush.

The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on February 15-16, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Kentucky Supreme Court Court Sets Oral Arguments in Redistricting Case

By Jack Brammer jbrammer@herald-leader.com


FRANKFORT — The Kentucky Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of the General Assembly’s redrawing of state legislative districts at 10 a.m. on Feb. 24. In a two-page order Friday, the high court said each side will be given 15 minutes to argue its case. It also said any other relief sought by legislative leaders has been denied at this time because the court has expedited a hearing. Parties involved in the case had to file their records with the Supreme Court by noon Friday. Briefs for the Feb. 24 hearing must be filed by noon Feb. 22. At issue is a Feb. 7 ruling by Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd that declared Kentucky’s newly-drawn legislative districts unconstitutional. Shepherd also ordered election officials to use previous district lines in this year’s state legislative elections.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Founding Father Quote

"The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are… entrusted to the hands of the American people."

George Washington

Deja Vu All Over Again!

"The problem is that the way [President] Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents -- number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome -- so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay
back. [That's] $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That's irresponsible.
It's unpatriotic."
-- Barack Hussein Obama
(1961-) 44th President of the United States
Source: July 3, 2008

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Leading Indicator of Decline

The $489 billion cut to defense budgets engineered by Barack Obama — as well as the played-for-fool Republican accomplices on Capitol Hill — won't just mean less American military power. These cuts have significant consequences for America's allies, as well.

Consider the case of the F-35 Joint Strike fighter program. The Obama Pentagon has reduced the 2013 purchase of Lightnings from 42 to 29 and reduced the planned five-year buy by more than 100 aircraft. This will drive the cost of each F-35 up, yet again; the development costs of the plane remain the same regardless. And because the JSF program has been an international effort since its conception, Obama’s decision increases the cost for everyone.

Thus it comes as little surprise that yesterday Italy announced a significant reduction, from 131 to 91, in its planned F-35 purchases. Rome’s decision threatens to sow doubt among other international partners. The timing of the announcement, only days after the U.S. fiscal year 2013 budget was released, shows that the Italians are following Obama's lead — the White House has given them cover in using defense reductions as the principle ingredient in accepting government "fiscal discipline." In “extending” the U.S. buy of F-35s—in practice, the purchase of 179 fewer Joint Strike Fighters through fiscal year 2017—the United States has thrown into question the economics of the program and opened the door for partner-nations to back out of commitments.

Link:Leading Indicator of Decline

Intel Official: Iranian Missiles Could Hit Nearby U.S. Targets, Europe - DOTMIL (usnews.com)


Iran has the ability to fire missiles at U.S. targets in the Middle East and "temporarily" close a key sea transit route, a senior intelligence official said Thursday.

Tehran has a missile arsenal capable of reaching "targets throughout the region and into Eastern Europe," Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, Defense Intelligence Agency director, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Iran has … threatened to launch missiles against the United States and our allies in the region in response to an attack" on its nuclear facilities or other targets, he said.

What's more, Iran "could also employ its terrorist surrogates worldwide," Burgess said. He also noted that "Iran can close the Strait of Hormuz," the key sea lane used to move oil and other goods to destinations around the globe. The U.S. intelligence community believes Iran "is unlikely to initiate or intentionally provoke a conflict or launch a preemptive attack," Burgess told the panel.




LinkIntel Official: Iranian Missiles Could Hit Nearby U.S. Targets, Europe - DOTMIL (usnews.com)

Pelosi: Govt. Should Require Church To Pay for Birth Control | The Weekly Standard


House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday morning that the government should require self-insured religious institutions, such as the Catholic church in Washington, D.C., to directly pay for contraception and abortifacients.

At a press conference, Leader Pelosi was asked by THE WEEKLY STANDARD: "The Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., is a self-insured institution. Should the Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., be required to pay for these morning-after pills and birth control if they find that morally objectionable?"

Pelosi talked about the importance of women's health, and then said, "Yes, I think that all institutions who cover, who give, health insurance should cover the full range of health insurance issues for women."

President Obama said last week that he would accommodate religious institutions by requiring their insurers to pay for free contraceptive and abortive drugs rather than the religious institutions themselves. Many scholars and other public figures have said Obama's "accommodation" is a distinction without a difference--an accounting gimmick that will still leave religious institutions footing the bill for services they find morally objectionable.



Link to articlePelosi: Govt. Should Require Church To Pay for Birth Control | The Weekly Standard

It’s math, not politics: Vast debt a killer | UTSanDiego.com

The $3.8 trillion 2012-13 federal budget proposed by President Barack Obama instantly became a political football among partisans. Among the pundit class, the conventional wisdom is that the spending plan is more a campaign document to help the president win re-election. Given that Congress hasn’t passed an actual budget in three years, this cynicism is defensible.

But at some point we wish everyone – the political class, the media, taxpayers of all ideologies – would just accept this as a given: As a nation, we can’t continue spending vastly more than we take in. The Obama plan, if enacted, would add $901 billion to the national debt. This is less than in recent years but still enormous on a historical scale – the U.S. spending 31 percent more than it receives in revenue.

A household that for years on end spent 31 percent more than it took in would soon be spending more on interest on debt than on most priorities. As a nation, we are already there. In 2010-11, the federal government spent $454 billion in interest on the national debt – 12 percent of the entire budget. That’s only going to go up, up and away unless deficits are finally, substantively addressed. We w



Link:It’s math, not politics: Vast debt a killer | UTSanDiego.com

RealClearPolitics - We Are on the Road to Bankruptcy

President Obama said in his State of the Union speech, "We've already agreed to more than $2 trillion in cuts and savings."

That was reassuring.


The new budget he released this week promises $4 trillion in "deficit reduction" -- about half in tax increases and half in spending cuts. But like most politicians, Obama misleads.

Cato Institute economist Dan Mitchell cut through the fog to get at the truth of the $2 trillion "cut."

"We have a budget of, what, almost $4 trillion? So if we're doing $2 trillion of cuts," Mitchell said, "we're cutting government in half. That sounds wonderful."

But what the president was talking about is not even a cut. The politicians just agreed that over the next 10 years, instead of increasing spending by $9.48 trillion, they'd increase it by "just" $7.3 trillion. Calling that a "cut" is nonsense.






Link:RealClearPolitics - We Are on the Road to Bankruptcy

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Founding Father Quote

"[T]he accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."
-- James Madison

Shrinking Senate Hopes

A year ago, Republican capture of the Senate in the 2012 election was regarded as close to a sure thing. The political direction of the country had shifted in favor of Republicans. Democrats faced the unenviable task of defending 23 seats, Republicans only 10. And 8 of the GOP seats were safely in Republican hands.


Now Republican prospects are not as rosy. The odds on a Republican Senate are no worse than 50-50, maybe better. But the effort to oust Democrats, who currently control the Senate 53-47, looks more difficult than it did.

What has changed? Most significant may be President Obama’s improved chances of reelection. He has enormous liabilities, but he has managed to alter the political environment enough to make Republicans and the rich a live issue in the campaign. Before, his record in the White House, especially on the economy, was the lone issue.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen says how Obama fares will affect Senate races.  The relationship is pretty simple. If Obama is reelected, Democrats are likely to hold the Senate. If the Republican nominee wins, Republicans are odds-on to take over the Senate, while retaining the House.








Shrinking Senate Hopes

A Post-Obama Vision in 100 Words

Dana Milbank is wrong: the GOP does not have an “anger management” problem. It has a vision problem. It needs to imagine, and believe in, the post-Obama future.
What Republicans want to do can be summarized in just five points, or 100 words:
***
Restore fiscal strength by balancing the federal budget, eliminating unnecessary federal departments, reducing the national debt and reforming entitlements.

Grow the economy by simplifying the tax code, removing harmful regulations, developing fossil fuels, and expanding free trade.
Protect our republic by respecting the constitutional limits of government, enforcing the border, celebrating individual freedom, and defending the sanctity of life.
Maintain national security by reversing military decline, standing with our allies, and confronting new threats while respecting the limits of intervention.
Invest in the future by encouraging personal savings, offering educational choice, and repealing ObamaCare in favor of patient-centered reform.
***
All that Republicans lack–as of today–is a nominee to carry that vision forward.




A Post-Obama Vision in 100 Words

Obama On Failed Promise To Cut Deficit In Half: "Recession Turned Out To Be A Lot Deeper"

In an interview with Atlanta's local Fox affiliate WAGA-TV Preisdent Obama explains why he was unable to cut the deficit in half in his first term, a promise he made as a candidate.

Obama was lobbed the question by a sympathetic reporter who said he is getting "pelted in the media" for making a campaign promise he did not keep.

"Well we're not there because this recession turned out to be a lot deeper than any of else realized," Obama said about his inability to cut the deficit in half.

"Everybody who is out there back in 2009, if you look back what their estimates were in terms of how many jobs had been lost, how bad the economy had contracted when I took office everybody had underestimated it. People thought that the economy contracted 3%, it turns it was close to 9%. We lost 8 million jobs just in a year's span, about half a year before I took office and about a half a year after I took office," Obama said.

"So, the die had been cast and a lot of us didn't understand how bad it was going to get. That increases the deficit because less tax revenues come in and it means more people are getting unemployment insurance, we're helping states more so they don't teachers, etc. The key though is that we're setting ourselves on a path so that we can get our debt under control."





Link:Obama On Failed Promise To Cut Deficit In Half: "Recession Turned Out To Be A Lot Deeper"

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Obama's New Budget Will Put America In The Poor House!

How credible is President Obama on taxes and spending? In recent days, he's repeatedly condemned the "fact" that billionaire investor Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than does his secretary. So in the 2013 budget proposal Obama unveiled yesterday, he proposes a new millionaires tax to make sure people like Buffett pay their "fair share." But guess what we find when we look a little closer at the president's tax proposals, as former New York Sun managing editor and current futureofcapitalism.com blogger Ira Stoll did? We find a bottom-line tax cut for Buffett worth an estimated $1.1 billion. Let there be no further denials that Obama is practicing precisely the demagoguery of a class warrior.

Then there is Obama's smug White House chief of staff, Jack Lew, who went on two different Sunday news shows to talk up the president's new budget. Twice he claimed Senate Democrats haven't passed a budget in more than 1,000 days because "you can't pass a budget in the Senate of the United States without 60 votes and you can't get 60 votes without bipartisan support. So unless Republicans are willing to work with Democrats in the Senate, Harry Reid is not going to be able to get a budget passed." In fact, Senate rules only require a simple majority of 51 votes to approve a budget.

But wait, there's more to the Obama record of double-talk and misrepresentation about federal taxes and spending. Take his claim that his budget cuts the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that most of Obama's deficit "savings" come either from spending cuts already enshrined in law or money that was never requested for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bottom line: Over the next decade, Obama's budget raises taxes by $1.9 trillion, raises spending $2.7 trillion, and increases the debt $3.6 trillion. Higher taxes, higher spending and more debt -- that is Obama's plan for the United States.

Less than a month after Obama was sworn into office, he hosted a "fiscal responsibility" summit at the White House where he pledged "to cut the deficit we inherited in half by the end of my first term in office." And the first budget Obama produced projected he would do just that. It showed a $1.7 trillion deficit for 2009 and a $581 billion deficit for 2012. But then reality intervened. Obama's $757 billion economic stimulus program failed to get the economy growing again. His Obamacare is driving health care costs ever higher, even before it is fully implemented. And he just "doubled down" on throwing more tax dollars at failed green energy efforts like the Solyndra bankruptcy. The result? Now Obama asks Americans to accept a $1.33 trillion deficit in 2012 and deficits every year for the next decade averaging $1.4 trillion.

What this country needs is an honest leader who will tell the truth about our entitlement spending crisis and identify real reforms. But Obama's latest budget does none of that. Instead, he offers double doses of deficits, tax hikes and crony capitalism. America deserves better.

Washington Examiner Editorial

Social Security reserves forecast to run dry in 2022 - Washington Times

Social Security’s bank account will go bust in 2022 — the first time the program’s combined trust funds will run a deficit, according to President Obama’s budget released Monday.

One of Medicare’s trust funds also will be in the red for much of the next decade, according to the numbers in the briefing book that the White House provided to Congress along with the budget, which lays out Mr. Obama’s tax and spending plans for fiscal year 2013 and beyond.

Social Security has taken in less in taxes than it has paid out in benefits since 2010, but the shortfall has beenmade up as the government has dipped into IOUs left in the trust funds from previous years.

Monday’s numbers, though, show the combined trust fund itself will run a deficit of $2.6 billion in 2022.






Link:Social Security reserves forecast to run dry in 2022 - Washington Times

WTF?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is weighing options for sharp new cuts to the U.S. nuclear force, including a reduction of up to 80 percent in the number of deployed weapons, The Associated Press has learned.

First Obama destroys our economy; now he wants to destroy our national defense apparatus!

McGurn: The Do-Nothing Senate No Budget Passed In Last Three Years!- WSJ.com


Back in the dog days of George W. Bush's second term, when each month seemed to bring new lows for the president's approval ratings, there was almost always this consolation: The surveys would show that Congress was even less popular than he was.

In general, that's going to be the advantage an executive enjoys over a collective body such as a legislature. Hence the decision by Barack Obama to take a page out of Harry Truman's 1948 playbook and campaign for re-election against a "do-nothing Congress." Given his record, it may be his wisest course.

It's also a gift to Republicans—if the party's presidential nominee has enough wit to turn it to his advantage.

Let's take the politics first. However useful the "do-nothing Congress" theme may be for Mr. Obama, it's not exactly a ringing endorsement of Harry Reid in an election when the Democratic majority he enjoys in the Senate is up for grabs. To the contrary, it opens the door for Republicans to turn the tables in a way that squeezes Mr. Reid and his fellow Senate enablers: between a Democratic president attacking them implicitly, and a Republican presidential contender attacking them explicitly.


Link:McGurn: The Do-Nothing Senate - WSJ.com

Muslim Brotherhood Warns U.S. Aid Cut May Affect Egypt’s Peace Treaty With Israel | CNSNews.com


A top Muslim Brotherhood official has warned that any cuts in U.S. aid to Egypt could affect Cairo’s peace treaty with Israel – the latest sign that Egypt’s emerging political forces intend to call Washington’s bluff over the diplomatic dispute triggered by a crackdown on non-governmental organizations.

Nothing like a little blackmail! So much for the Arab Spring!




Muslim Brotherhood Warns U.S. Aid Cut May Affect Egypt’s Peace Treaty With Israel | CNSNews.com

Obama punts on budget

President Barack Obama has apparently decided that he is not going to be part of the solution to the nation’s enormous deficit — which would make him, yes, part of the problem.

The president is expected to release his budget today that projects a $1.3 trillion deficit for the ongoing fiscal year — that would be the fourth year in a row of $1 trillion or more deficit spending, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. And surprise, surprise, the Obama budget will also include yet another pitch to raise taxes on top income earners from 35 percent to 39.6 percent as part of some $1.6 trillion in tax hikes proposed over the next decade.

It is, in fact, an election year budget in the very worst sense of that phrase. It proposes $476 billion in spending over six years on roads and surface transportation. And it does precious little to address the long term solvency of the big ticket items of government spending — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.


Link to editorial:Obama punts on budget

A Little Political Humor

An Israeli doctor says: "in Israel, medicine is so advanced that we cut off a man’s testicles, put them on another man and in 6 weeks, he is looking for work, 

The German doctor says: "that’s nothing, in Germany we take part of a brain, put it in another man, and in 4 weeks he is looking for work

“The Russian doctor says: “gentlemen, we take half a heart from a man, put it in another's chest and in 2 weeks he is looking for work. “The United States doctor laughs:

"You all are behind us. Three years ago, we took a man with no brains, no heart and no balls and made him President. Now, the whole country is looking for work. 

The Obama Budget: Some Day My Cuts Will Come

It’s being reported that in his 2013 budget President Obama will propose to increase spending now and reduce the deficit some day.  Isn’t that what every budget promises these days? As I noted last summer during the debt ceiling fight at the Britannica Blog, fiscal conservatives should be very skeptical of plans and proposals that  promise to cut spending some day—not this year, not next year, but swear to God some time in the next ten years:

As the White Queen said to Alice, “Jam to-morrow and jam yesterday—but never jam to-day.” Cuts tomorrow and cuts in the out-years—but never cuts today.

We’ve become so used to these unfathomable levels of deficits and debt—and to the once-rare concept of trillions of dollars—that we forget how new all this debt is. In 1981, after 190 years of federal spending, the national debt was “only” $1 trillion. Now, just 30 years later, it’s past $15 trillion.






Link:The Obama Budget — Some Day My Cuts Will Come

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Obama's Constituents!

The number of Americans dependent on the federal government has exploded over the past five years, reaching a record 67.3 million people, according to Heritage’s annual Index of Dependence on Government. That means 1 in 5 Americans (21.8 percent) today receive some level of assistance from the federal government

˜No Precedent for the Government Ordering Private Companies to Offer a Product for Free

Saturday's lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal discusses the White House's “accommodation” concerning its decree that all new private insurance plans must cover birth control pills, morning-after pills, and the abortion drug ella—and must cover them free of charge. The Journal writes, “Under the new rule, which the White House stresses is an 'accommodation' and not a compromise, nonprofit religious organizations won't have to directly cover birth control and can opt out.  But the insurers they hire to cover their employees can't opt out. If that sounds like a distinction without a difference, odds are you're a rational person.”


The Journal writes that if, say, Notre Dame doesn't choose to include such (free) coverage in the health plans it offers to its employees, “Notre Dame's insurer will . . . be required to offer the benefit as an add-on rider anyway, at no out-of-pocket cost to [the employee], or to any other worker, or in higher premiums for the larger group.” The Journal notes, “The reality, as with all mandated benefits, is that these costs will be borne eventually via higher premiums.  The balloon may be squeezed differently over time, but eventually prices will find an equilibrium.  Notre Dame will still pay for birth control, even if it is nominally carried by a third-party corporation.”


Link to article:‘No Precedent for the Government Ordering Private Companies to Offer a Product for Free’

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Today's Founding Father Quote

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."

-Patrick Henry

Catholic Bishops Reject Obama Deal on Birth-Control Coverage

Bishops Reject Deal on Birth-Control Coverage

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203646004577217181415407806.html

NRA official: Obama wants to outlaw guns in 2nd term

NRA official: Obama wants to outlaw guns in 2nd term


A top official with the National Rifle Association said Friday that President Obama will move to "destroy" gun rights and "erase" the Second Amendment if he is re-elected in November.

While delivering one of the liveliest and best-received speeches at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said the president's low-key approach to gun rights during his first term was "a "conspiracy to ensure re-election by lulling gun owners to sleep."

Friday, February 10, 2012

Today 's Quote

"A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.”


Citizens United v. FEC, 130 S. Ct. 876, 954 (2010) (Stevens, J., dissenting)

An Economics Lesson!

5 hours agoMartha Gray
Steve - I thought you might appreciate this:
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that.
Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
By: Ed Will (whomever he is.)

Andy Barr Statement on Congressional Redistricting

Andy Barr Statement on Congressional Redistricting

Lexington, Ky. – Andy Barr released the following statement regarding the
Congressional redistricting plan that earlier today passed the Kentucky
General Assembly:

“Today, Ben Chandler has turned his back on tens of thousands of his own
constituents by cutting a backroom deal to get rid of them. This brazen
and desperate attempt to avoid accountability for supporting Barack
Obama’s job killing agenda is exactly why the American people are so
disillusioned with politics and career politicians. At the end of the day,
the Chandler-Obama agenda of bigger government, fewer jobs and massive
debt has been a disaster for all of the people of Kentucky, no matter
where they live. I look forward to taking that message to the many new
voters of the Sixth District, and offering a better, more hopeful
alternative.”

Today's Conservative Quote

"The task of government in this enlightened time does not extend to actually
dealing with problems. Solving problems might put bureaucrats out of work. No,
the task of government is to make it look as though problems have been solved,
while continuing to keep the maximum number of consultants and bureaucrats
employed dealing with them."
-- Bob Emmers
Source: Orange County Register

Breitbart.tv » Ryan Open To VP; Doesn’t Rule Out Convention Draft

Radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt asked Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) if he would consider being a vice presidential nominee on the GOP ticket. Ryan said, "If it happens, I'll think about it then; If I ever got to that bridge, I'll think about whether to cross it or not."

Asked if he would be "available" in the event of a convention deadlock, Ryan explained that it's nowhere "close to [his] mind" but did not categorically rule it out.



Breitbart.tv » Ryan Open To VP; Doesn’t Rule Out Convention Draft

GHEI: A nation of moochers - Washington Times

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke warned Tuesday against both raising taxes and cutting spending. In testimony before the Senate Budget Committee, Mr. Bernanke said we must protect the fragile economic recovery, which saw some 243,000 jobs created in January. The problem with his line of thinking is that it adds to our ever-increasing debt, which is not only a burden for the current generation but also means higher taxes on our children and grandchildren. It is hardly a sustainable fiscal future.

The more we delay bringing our books into balance, the closer our problems resemble those that have crippled Europe. Going by the latest Index of Dependence on Government, released by the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday, we may already be a lot closer to Greece than we thought.

The Heritage study found more than 70 percent of federal spending goes to dependence programs, which it divides into health care and welfare, housing subsidies, retirement, higher education and agricultural subsidies. The index grew a dramatic 8.1 percent in 2010 alone. Growth in agricultural subsidies is perhaps the most egregious example of subsidizing the rich. Farm incomes grew by $7,271 in 2010, while the average non-farm American household saw income drop by $500. Despite the improved situation, farm subsidies have not declined.





Link:GHEI: A nation of moochers - Washington Times

Republican Governor Has Turned State Around:Michigan Must Decide What to Do With an Unexpected Surplus - NYTimes.com

Over most of the past decade, budget deliberations in Michigan have taken on a glum and familiar monotony: What do we cut now?

Gov. Rick Snyder must decide what to do with the surplus in Michigan.Michigan has had an increase in revenue as well as in jobs.

But the state that experienced an economic downturn earlier, deeper and longer than most of the rest of the country has made an unlikely discovery as its officials closed out its latest financial books: Michigan has a $457 million surplus.

Even more surprising: Revenues, which had sunk or had been mostly flat for all but one year since 2000, have grown. Not a lot, but grown.


Link:Michigan Must Decide What to Do With an Unexpected Surplus - NYTimes.com

Unconscionable - The Editors - National Review Online


The Obama administration is now telling liberals that it is not backing down on its new health-care mandate, even as it coos of compromise to religious groups appalled by it. These messages may seem to be contradictory, but actually the administration has been quite consistent: Nothing it has ever said on this issue has been trustworthy.

Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, has been the leading misleader. The administration, recall, has decided that almost all employers must cover contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients in their employees’ insurance plans — even if those employers are religious universities, hospitals, and charities that reject those practices.



Link:Unconscionable - The Editors - National Review Online

The American Spectator : Justice Ginsburg Should Resign


If she can no longer support and defend the Constitution, as she is sworn to do, she should leave -- and take the New York Times with her.


Link to article:The American Spectator : Justice Ginsburg Should Resign

The American Spectator : The Delousing of a Movement


Occupy Wall Street-This health hazard and social menace is what the Left regards as America's next great political cause?

Link:The American Spectator : The Delousing of a Movement

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Quote of the Day

“The federal government should do what it’s traditionally done since July 4, 1776, namely back out of intruding into the internal life of a church,”

-Cardinal Timothy Dolan

RIGHT SPEAK: Mitt Romney and the Angry GOP - Challenges Ahead - Michael Medved


Michael Medved nails Mitt Romney’s challenges in 2012, as well as the GOP’s.

From today’s The Daily Beast

On no significant issue has Romney moved to the left or to the center over the last four years; his platform of 2012 offers a program of conservative reform far bolder and more substantive than any ideas he put forward in 2008.

Mitt’s precise problem came into focus for me with an e-mail from an angry listener to my radio show who upbraided me for my open support of Romney as the most electable candidate against Obama. “We remember what you did to us last time, and we won’t let you get away with it again!” she wrote. “This time you’re trying to ram the RINO, Romney, down our throats and last time it was McCain. It was because of people like you that we got stuck with McCain, when we could have had a real conservative who would have beaten Obama!”

And who would have been that “real conservative” back in the distant days of 2008?

None other than … Mitt Romney, the “conservative’s conservative ” eagerly endorsed by Senator Jim DeMint and nearly all of my talk radio colleagues, including Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage and many more.

That Romney no longer counts as a “real conservative” doesn’t reflect any ideological shifts on his part, but it does suggest a significant movement of the entire GOP toward the enraged and indignant right. The far lower turnouts in Florida, Nevada, Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri all indicate that this tectonic movement hardly counts as a positive development for the Republican Party.
-----------------




Link to blog article:RIGHT SPEAK: Mitt Romney and the Angry GOP - Challenges Ahead - Michael Medved

The race card is a joker - NY Daily News


It’s racial code, we’re told, when Newt Gingrich accuses Barack Obama of being America’s “food stamp President.” It’s an assault on low-income Americans, some pundits insist, when Mitt Romney says he’s “not concerned” about the very poor, who he said have a safety net.

There’s more. When Gingrich assails Obama as “entertainer-in-chief” because the President crooned some Al Green, we’re told by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that Gingrich is depicting the singing Obama as a “minstrel.” Oh, really?

Charges of racism and class warfare, I think, should be made of firmer stuff.

When I watch MSNBC and read plenty of liberal commentary online, I get the distinct feeling that I am not living in 21st century America, but in some imagined past where racism is still an all-pervasive, all-powerful bogeyman.

Andrea Mitchell, among others, decried Gingrich’s racial overtones as “dog whistles” to whites. Chris Matthews piped in, accusing Gingrich of the racially charged use of “Juan” when Gingrich answered a question from journalist Juan Williams during a South Carolina debate.

MSNBC’s white anchors seem to think they know more about race and racism than I do. Their obsessed daily rants insist that almost everything the Republicans do is really about sending messages to white people about black people. Says who? Don’t they realize that when they overreach in playing the race card, it is a vicious insult to the intelligence of millions?



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/race-card-a-joker-article-1.1018726#ixzz1loh9A3Ve


Link to article:The race card is a joker - NY Daily News

Ky. lawmakers want burley in trade pact; The Last Nail In Tobacco's Coffin



Ky. lawmakers want burley in trade pact

By Randy Patrick — Associated Press

FRANKFORT — Legislators have drafted a bipartisan resolution urging the Obama administration to include burley tobacco in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

On Tuesday, Rep. Wilson Stone, D-Scottsville, and Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, introduced their resolution about the agreement being negotiated by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Stone said he is concerned that opponents in Congress and the administration want to use the trade agreement as a way to "drive a nail in the coffin" of the tobacco industry.

"For others to try to make public policy through our trade agreements is just not right. It's not fair to farmers," Stone said.

Almost all of the burley tobacco grown in the United States is grown for export, he added.

Hornback said the exclusion would be "devastating" for Kentucky's 75,000 to 100,000 tobacco farmers.

"We need to be able to compete on a level playing field with farmers from all over the world," Hornback said.

He said tobacco is important to the state's agricultural economy.

"We've already gone from a billion-dollar crop down to three or four hundred million, but three or four hundred million is still very significant, especially for our small farmers in the state," he said.

Roger Thomas, director of the Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy, said Gov. Steve Beshear has petitioned Kentucky's congressional delegation for action on the issue. The entire delegation has sent a letter to Trade Representative Ron Kirk protesting the possible "carving out" of tobacco.

The congressmen's letter said it is their "understanding that those seeking to exclude" tobacco have misinterpreted a provision called the Doggett Amendment.

"The Doggett Amendment does not require the United States to carve tobacco out of free trade agreements," the letter said.

State Agriculture Commissioner James Comer also spoke in favor of the resolution urging the administration's support for tobacco.

"We're just going to be very vocal about encouraging them to do everything they can to support Kentucky's small family farmers, because that's what Kentucky's burley growers are," Comer said.

The legislation is SR 130 and HR 128.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/02/08/2060072/ky-lawmakers-want-burley-in-trade.html#storylink=cpy

Administration names official advocate for illegal immigrants - Washington Times


Omama to appoint a taxpayer paid advocate for people in this nation illegally! Whatever happened to that part of the Presidential oath to uphold the constitution and laws of the U.S.?

Administration names official advocate for illegal immigrants - Washington Times

Drones over U.S. get OK by Congress - Washington Times


Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s … a drone, and it’s watching you. That’s what privacy advocates fear from a bill Congress passed this week to make it easier for the government to fly unmanned spy planes in U.S. airspace.

The FAA Reauthorization Act, which President Obama is expected to sign, also orders the Federal Aviation Administration to develop regulations for the testing and licensing of commercial drones by 2015.

Privacy advocates say the measure will lead to widespread use of drones for electronic surveillance by police agencies across the country and eventually by private companies as well.

“There are serious policy questions on the horizon about privacy and surveillance, by both government agencies and commercial entities,” said Steven Aftergood, who heads the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation also is “concerned about the implications for surveillance by government agencies,” said attorney Jennifer Lynch.

The provision in the legislation is the fruit of “a huge push by lawmakers and the defense sector to expand the use of drones” in American airspace, she added.

According to some estimates, the commercial drones could number 20,000 by 2020!

Drones over U.S. get OK by Congress - Washington Times

Dependent Nation: Dependency Index Surges 23% Under President Obama; 67 Million Get Aid - Investors.com


The American public's dependence on the federal government shot up 23% in just two years under President Obama, with 67 million now relying on some federal program, according to a newly released study by the Heritage Foundation.

The conservative think tank's annual Index of Dependence on Government tracks money spent on housing, health, welfare, education subsidies and other federal programs that were "traditionally provided to needy people by local organizations and families."

The increase under Obama is the biggest two-year jump since Jimmy Carter was president,


Dependent Nation: Dependency Index Surges 23% Under President Obama; 67 Million Get Aid - Investors.com