"All tax revenue is the result of holding a gun to somebody’s head. Not paying taxes is against the law. If you don’t pay your taxes, you’ll be fined. If you don’t pay the fine, you’ll be jailed. If you try to escape from jail, you’ll be shot."
P J O'Rourke
Monday, October 22, 2012
COBURN: 'Wastebook' unearths government excess - Washington Times
COBURN: 'Wastebook' unearths government excess - Washington Times
The only change Washington is interested in is in your pocket!
The only change Washington is interested in is in your pocket!
The American Spectator : Hope Turned Into Damnation
The American Spectator : Hope Turned Into Damnation
More than 5,500 people turned out Sunday afternoon at a mountaintop park in remote Buchanan County to show their support for coal.
With the "War on Coal" rhetoric that's been on a lot of Republicans' lips this election season, a lineup of political speakers that included Matt Romney, son of Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, came to talk about the resource that powers both the electricity and the economy here.
"Right now our country is in dire straits," Matt Romney said, promising that his father, if elected, would make the nation energy independent by 2020. "We can't ignore the vast natural resources we have in this country: coal, natural gas, oil."
In coal country, the issue is complex. On one hand, the Appalachian coal industry has been steadily losing jobs in recent decades, due in part to mechanization and declining reserves. On the other hand, new policies implemented by the Obama administration have had a painful, immediate impact.
It was clear in the mood of the crowd Sunday. Some talked about how thousands of recent coal industry layoffs have impacted their families and communities; others said they go to work every day wondering if they will still have a job when they get there.
"The only promise Obama kept was to kill coal," said Jerry Shortt, a coal miner from Richlands who was laid off temporarily right after Labor Day -- and learned Friday that for him, along with 189 other employees at the mine where he worked, the layoff would be permanent.
More than 5,500 people turned out Sunday afternoon at a mountaintop park in remote Buchanan County to show their support for coal.
With the "War on Coal" rhetoric that's been on a lot of Republicans' lips this election season, a lineup of political speakers that included Matt Romney, son of Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, came to talk about the resource that powers both the electricity and the economy here.
"Right now our country is in dire straits," Matt Romney said, promising that his father, if elected, would make the nation energy independent by 2020. "We can't ignore the vast natural resources we have in this country: coal, natural gas, oil."
In coal country, the issue is complex. On one hand, the Appalachian coal industry has been steadily losing jobs in recent decades, due in part to mechanization and declining reserves. On the other hand, new policies implemented by the Obama administration have had a painful, immediate impact.
It was clear in the mood of the crowd Sunday. Some talked about how thousands of recent coal industry layoffs have impacted their families and communities; others said they go to work every day wondering if they will still have a job when they get there.
"The only promise Obama kept was to kill coal," said Jerry Shortt, a coal miner from Richlands who was laid off temporarily right after Labor Day -- and learned Friday that for him, along with 189 other employees at the mine where he worked, the layoff would be permanent.
Killing bin Laden is not a foreign policy | WashingtonExaminer.com
Killing bin Laden is not a foreign policy | WashingtonExaminer.com#.UIUfXsXA--0#.UIUfXsXA--0#.UIUfXsXA--0
Osama bin Laden is dead, but President Obama is determined not to let him rest. The bearded terrorist who once led al Qaeda has become, for Obama and his surrogates, a bumper-sticker slogan to be trotted out at campaign events -- a symbol of the supposed success of his administration's foreign policy.
"Osama bin Laden is dead, General Motors is alive," is how Vice President Biden put it at the Democratic convention.
In a joking reference to Monday night's debate, President Obama said at last week's Al Smith dinner: "Spoiler alert: We got Bin Laden."
On ABC's "This Week," former White House green jobs czar Van Jones called his old boss a "towering figure in foreign policy: You've got somebody with a Nobel Peace Prize and he killed bin Laden." The administration has also leaked details of the raid and cooperated in the making of a Hollywood movie on the raid that is due later this year.
Those of us at The Washington Examiner fist-pumped like everyone else when we heard the news that the SEALs had taken out bin Laden. But is this a grand foreign policy triumph for the ages? We don't think so, especially given recent events. And one successful assassination does not a coherent foreign policy make.
Obama deserves credit for making the right call, but let's be honest: It was not a uniquely tough call to make. As "Black Hawk Down" author Mark Bowden wrote in Foreign Policy magazine: "[N]early all the [administration] principals favored sending in the SEALs at their final meeting on the topic, three days before the raid. The biggest exception was Vice President Biden, who was the only one who urged the president not to attack the Abbottabad compound ... yet." It can't be that hard to choose when a room full of experts says "Yes!" and Biden says "No!"
Osama bin Laden is dead, but President Obama is determined not to let him rest. The bearded terrorist who once led al Qaeda has become, for Obama and his surrogates, a bumper-sticker slogan to be trotted out at campaign events -- a symbol of the supposed success of his administration's foreign policy.
"Osama bin Laden is dead, General Motors is alive," is how Vice President Biden put it at the Democratic convention.
In a joking reference to Monday night's debate, President Obama said at last week's Al Smith dinner: "Spoiler alert: We got Bin Laden."
On ABC's "This Week," former White House green jobs czar Van Jones called his old boss a "towering figure in foreign policy: You've got somebody with a Nobel Peace Prize and he killed bin Laden." The administration has also leaked details of the raid and cooperated in the making of a Hollywood movie on the raid that is due later this year.
Those of us at The Washington Examiner fist-pumped like everyone else when we heard the news that the SEALs had taken out bin Laden. But is this a grand foreign policy triumph for the ages? We don't think so, especially given recent events. And one successful assassination does not a coherent foreign policy make.
Obama deserves credit for making the right call, but let's be honest: It was not a uniquely tough call to make. As "Black Hawk Down" author Mark Bowden wrote in Foreign Policy magazine: "[N]early all the [administration] principals favored sending in the SEALs at their final meeting on the topic, three days before the raid. The biggest exception was Vice President Biden, who was the only one who urged the president not to attack the Abbottabad compound ... yet." It can't be that hard to choose when a room full of experts says "Yes!" and Biden says "No!"
Dorothy Rabinowitz: The Unreality of the Past Four Years - WSJ.com
Dorothy Rabinowitz: The Unreality of the Past Four Years - WSJ.com
In the 1967 film "A Guide for the Married Man," a husband, played by a peerless Walter Matthau, is given lessons in ways to cheat on his wife safely. The most essential rule: "Deny! Deny! Deny!"—no matter what. In an instructive scene, he's shown a wife undone by shock, and screaming, with reason: She has just walked in on her husband making love to a glamorous stranger.
"What are you doing," she wails, "who is that woman?"
"What woman, where?" the husband serenely counters, as he and the tart in question get out of bed and calmly dress.
So the scene proceeds, with the distraught wife pointing to the woman she clearly sees before her, while her husband, unruffled, continues to look blankly at her, asking, "What woman?" Confused by her spouse's unblinking assurance, she gives up. Two minutes later she's asking him what he'd like for dinner.
For much of the past four years, the Obama administration's propensity for asserting views of reality wildly at odds with those evident to most rational citizens has looked increasingly like a page from that film script.
All administrations conceal, falsify and tell lies—this is understood—but there's no missing the distinctive quality of the prevaricating issuing from the White House in these four years.
It's a quality on vivid display now in the administration's mesmerizing narrative of the assault on the U.S. consulate in Libya. Here's a memorable picture, its detail brutally illuminating, of Obama and company in crisis mode over their conflicting stories about who knew what when. The resulting costs to truth-telling and sanity, or even the appearance thereof, are clear. Nor can we forget the strong element of farce—think U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on those five Sunday talk shows, reciting with unflagging fervor that official talking point regarding mob violence and a YouTube video. Farce, but no one is laughing.
In the 1967 film "A Guide for the Married Man," a husband, played by a peerless Walter Matthau, is given lessons in ways to cheat on his wife safely. The most essential rule: "Deny! Deny! Deny!"—no matter what. In an instructive scene, he's shown a wife undone by shock, and screaming, with reason: She has just walked in on her husband making love to a glamorous stranger.
"What are you doing," she wails, "who is that woman?"
"What woman, where?" the husband serenely counters, as he and the tart in question get out of bed and calmly dress.
So the scene proceeds, with the distraught wife pointing to the woman she clearly sees before her, while her husband, unruffled, continues to look blankly at her, asking, "What woman?" Confused by her spouse's unblinking assurance, she gives up. Two minutes later she's asking him what he'd like for dinner.
For much of the past four years, the Obama administration's propensity for asserting views of reality wildly at odds with those evident to most rational citizens has looked increasingly like a page from that film script.
All administrations conceal, falsify and tell lies—this is understood—but there's no missing the distinctive quality of the prevaricating issuing from the White House in these four years.
It's a quality on vivid display now in the administration's mesmerizing narrative of the assault on the U.S. consulate in Libya. Here's a memorable picture, its detail brutally illuminating, of Obama and company in crisis mode over their conflicting stories about who knew what when. The resulting costs to truth-telling and sanity, or even the appearance thereof, are clear. Nor can we forget the strong element of farce—think U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on those five Sunday talk shows, reciting with unflagging fervor that official talking point regarding mob violence and a YouTube video. Farce, but no one is laughing.
Anatomy of a Failed Foreign Policy
Anatomy of a Failed Foreign Policy:
As he runs for re-election, President Obama has tried to portray his foreign policy as a success. A closer look suggests a different picture.
Let us begin with a list of areas where US f...
As he runs for re-election, President Obama has tried to portray his foreign policy as a success. A closer look suggests a different picture.
Let us begin with a list of areas where US f...
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