Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Political Digest for July 3, 2012

The Old Jarhead Blog: Bringing you news and information the MSM is too busy covering American Idol, celebrity affairs and sensational missing person cases to cover. Please forward to friends who need to be informed.

Free PDF Copy of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic.

If I had a son…
Cartoon.

Excerpt: I have a confession to make: I don’t quite understand the jubilation among the conservative-Republican forces during the last two months of the Obama crack-up, and here, unfortunately, is why: 1. The so-called Obama crash. I believe that Obamism — 41 months over 8% plus unemployment, anemic GDP growth, serial $1 trillion deficits, unsustainable rates of new aggregate debt, the takeover of health care, record numbers on unemployment insurance and food stamps — is not only strangling the country, but in the long run will be seen as such by most Americans. (Well, on the plus side, I get to say, “I told you so in 2008” a lot. ~Bob.

“Once corrupt.” Too funny. Like saying the “once-corrupt Chicago Democrat machine.” ~Bob. Excerpt: Enrique Peña Nieto, a dynamic, crowd-pleasing politician and the new face of a once-corrupt political party, was elected president of Mexico on Sunday by a wide margin, according to exit polls by the country’s major media outlets. Peña Nieto and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which lost power in 2000 after more than 70 years as the “perfect dictatorship,” performed a remarkable act of political rehabilitation, convincing voters tired of drug violence and slow economic growth that the 45-year-old former governor could make Mexico more prosperous, more secure and more fair.

GOP worries 2012 election may be last chance to defeat health law
Excerpt: Despite three years of political rancor, Republicans have largely failed to score a substantive win over President Obama’s healthcare law — and the November elections might be their last chance. Healthcare reform has been declared dead countless times since Obama first began the legislative push in 2009. The latest near-death experience came from the Supreme Court, which even many Democrats expected would strike down the healthcare law last week. (yes. And when this disaster is fully-implemented, and the best healthcare system in the world is but a sad memory, o one will take responsibility. Democrats will say that the GOP blocked them from doing it right, with single-payer. Roberts and the Court will say the law, not policy is their job. The Republicans will say they fought it, but in 2008, the voters gave all the power to Obama and the statists. Then they work on making it worse. ~Bob.)

Stung by Recession, Young Voters Shed Image as Obama Brigade
Excerpt: In the four years since President Obama swept into office in large part with the support of a vast army of young people, a new corps of men and women have come of voting age with views shaped largely by the recession. And unlike their counterparts in the millennial generation who showed high levels of enthusiasm for Mr. Obama at this point in 2008, the nation’s first-time voters are less enthusiastic about him, are significantly more likely to identify as conservative and cite a growing lack of faith in government in general, according to interviews, experts and recent polls.

Boehner pushes repeal, wants health law ‘ripped out by its roots’
Excerpt: House Speaker John Boehner vowed on Sunday to repeal the Affordable Care Act, saying the law, which the Supreme Court ruled as being constitutional this week, should be "ripped out by its roots."

Carlyle Group, Sunoco To Form Philadelphia Refinery JV - Quick Facts
Excerpt: The refinery processes 330,000 barrels of oil per day into various refined products and was slated for shut down in August of 2012. The joint venture is likely to save 850 jobs, secure the region's fuel supply by continuing the daily flow of 10 million gallons of various fuels, create 100-200 new, permanent jobs, and thousands of construction jobs. (In the 50s and 60s, it seemed like New Jersey and Delaware combined into one huge complex of oil and chemical refineries. No more. There are few refineries along the East Coast these days, and this is one of the larger ones. In today’s regulatory climate, Sunoco had made the decision to close it rather than invest the cash to make needed improvements. Not only does this action help ensure continuing supplies of gasoline and diesel to the Northeast and Atlantic regions, it might help eat up some of the glut of oil currently in the pipelines with nowhere to go. WSJ mentions it might help equalize the global versus US prices of oil (we’re currently $13 higher per barrel). Does anyone care to bet on how long it will take EPA to begin making trouble for them? --Ron P.)

Green ‘drivel’ exposed
Excerpt: Having observed that global temperatures since the turn of the millennium have not gone up in the way computer-based climate models predicted, Lovelock acknowledged, “the problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago.” Now, Lovelock has given a follow-up interview to the UK’s Guardian newspaper in which he delivers more bombshells sure to anger the global green movement, which for years worshipped his Gaia theory and apocalyptic predictions that billions would die from man-made climate change by the end of this century. Lovelock still believes anthropogenic global warming is occurring and that mankind must lower its greenhouse gas emissions, but says it’s now clear the doomsday predictions, including his own (and Al Gore’s) were incorrect. (Perhaps the most interesting of Lovelock’s comments come in the final third of this article in the form of four numbered concerns. I’ll never understand how he made it to 92 years of age without some maddened enviro-Nazi killing him—and he really did provide the foundation for a lot of their movement. Ron P.)

Too Many Broken Promises in Obamacare
Excerpt: Yesterday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) almost called Obamacare's individual mandate a tax, stopping mid-word to call it a "penalty". White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew and other spokespersons echoed this talking point. This is in spite of last week's Supreme Court ruling that deemed the mandate unconstitutional under both the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause, but ruled that it could stand as part of Congress's authority to "lay and collect taxes." Dubbing the individual mandate a tax saved the President's health care law, but it's a concept that President Obama himself has strongly denied.

Washington region expected to see surge of health-care jobs, study finds. By Steven Overly
Excerpt: The Washington region is likely to see a surge in health-care jobs through the remainder of the decade as an aging population puts a strain on the modern workforce, according to Georgetown University researchers. The report, produced by the university’s Center for Education and the Workforce, predicts a 25 percent increase in health-care jobs across the country from 2010 to 2020. (Good news: More people will get free healthcare. Bad news: You’ll pay for it, and it will take you two years to see a specialist. Good news: The DC Housing market will go up. Bad news: You’ll pay for that too, and your mortgage will still be underwater. ~Bob.)

Here's How To Change It. By John C. Goodman
Excerpt: One of the biggest problems plaguing the U.S. health care system is the fact that “insurers” have gotten into the business of managing our medical care, rather than insuring us against risk. Without correcting this anomaly, most measures intended to fix the system are doomed to fail, if not make things worse.

Free Markets = Sustainable Development: Without capitalism, true sustainability is impossible. By Ronald Bailey
Excerpt: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” declared the Brundtland report. It turns out that the only form of society that has so far met this criterion is democratic free-market capitalism. (alas, the evidence will never be convinced that hundreds of millions of consumers making billions of economic decisions for themselves can possible do a better job than having the leftist elites in charge, centrally planning the economy. ~Bob.)

Lawmakers Weigh Tax Schemes in the Garden State
Excerpt: New Jersey doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to taxes. Not only did the Garden State rank 50th in the 2012 State Business Tax Climate Index, its citizens also have the highest total tax burden in the country. Further, the state had the highest per capita property tax collection in 2009 and has been ranked as one of the top five states with the worst individual tax burden since 1977, say Scott Drenkard and Elizabeth Malm of the Tax Foundation. (I love South jersey, but it’s not on the places to retire list. ~Bob.)

Why the Education Bubble Will Be Worse Than the Housing Bubble. By Antony Davies, James R. Harrigan
Excerpt: The problem is not the interest rate but that the federal government subsidizes student loans at all. … From 1976 to 2010, the prices of all commodities rose 280 percent. The price of homes rose 400 percent. Private education? A whopping 1,000 percent.

Worth Reading: A Modest Suggestion for the American Election: The present administration and the Democratic Party have much to answer for. By David Solway
Excerpt: The corruption of electoral practice is now so deeply entrenched in American political usage, riveted in place by massive spending, systemic lying, media compliance, and the exercise of arbitrary power, that one despairs for the future of the country. This is especially the case with the Obama administration, which represents not the United States of America so much as the Democratic Party, its many dissident factions, radical groups, disaffected constituents, and its well-heeled backers. It is diligently engaged in subverting the electoral process to solidify its hold on national office, sparing no effort to bring about this problematic end.

Obama campaign rejects Factcheck.org report defending Romney. By Neil Munro
Excerpt: President Barack Obama’s campaign staffers are pushing back against the FactCheck.org site after it concluded June 29 that Gov. Mitt Romney had not exported any U.S. jobs before he left Bain Capital in 1999 to run the Winter Olympics. (They feel sucker punched, because they expect the media to accept anything they say as the gospel truth without checking. ~Bob.)

Iran preparing to down American passenger planes. By Reza Kahlili
Excerpt: A source who served in Iranian intelligence says the Iranian regime is preparing to down Western airliners in case of an attack on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program….The source said that Iran is close to obtaining a nuclear bomb, which regime leaders believe will make them invincible. The source and others disenchanted with the regime also wonder why the West is vacillating and allowing Iran to pursue its destructive goals. The Revolutionary Guards announced Sunday that they will conduct three days of war games starting Monday. (Seems to be the goal of US regime to assist. –Barb.)

Congressmen urge the UN to trample the US Constitution. By Chris Cox Executive Director, National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action
Excerpt: “Today begins the most important 26-day period for our Second Amendment freedoms in recent history….Specifically, the U.N. wants to implement international gun registration requirements, bans on commonly owned firearms, tracking and registration of ammunition purchases, and create a new U.N. gun control bureaucracy.…..In fact, a group of anti-gun members of the U.S. House of Representatives, led by U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), went so far as to circulate a letter last week to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, in which they “strongly urge the United States to take a leadership role in pushing for a strong, verifiable Arms Trade Treaty (F and F didn’t work. Plan B with UN. –Barb.)

Senate highway bill contains ‘smoothing’ pension gimmick. By Angelica Malik
Excerpt: The massive $109 billion highway bill snaking through Congress now includes a measure to disguise pension funding shortfalls. Months of negotiations in the House and Senate have led to a compromise on the massive bill. Section 40312 of Senate Bill 1813 allows “pension smoothing,” an accounting trick whereby pension managers downplay funding shortfalls by spreading losses across several years while overestimating projected investment returns.

Lew won’t confirm or deny whether President Barack Obama involved in Fast and Furious cover up, maintains claims this admin ‘most transparent ever.’ By Matthew Boyle
Excerpt: White House chief of staff Jack Lew on Sunday would neither confirm nor deny whether President Barack Obama himself is involved in the Operation Fast and Furious cover-up. ….Lew also defended Obama’s use of executive privilege to hide the Fast and Furious documents from Congress by trying to argue that Obama’s administration has been the most transparent in history. “This administration has been the most transparent ever,” Lew said, while attacking House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa’s investigation into the scandal. (Repeat a lie often enough and those with intelligence get tired of the lying. How about a special prosecutor without ties to DOJ? –Barb.)

More Scorn For Chief Justice Roberts As Details Of Switch Leak
Excerpt: Sunday on Face the Nation, Jan Crawford of CBS News said that two reliable sources told her that Roberts originally voted, in late March, with the four conservative justices to invalidate the individual mandate. According to Crawford, Roberts suddenly changed sides some six weeks later and then resisted “a month-long desperate campaign by the conservative justices to bring him back to the fold.”

52% Favor Repeal of President’s Health Care Law
Excerpt: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 52% of Likely U.S. Voters favor repeal of the health care law, while 39% are opposed. That’s little changed from a week ago. Indeed, support for repeal has barely budged since the law was passed. (On November 7, we’ll know if they mean it. ~Bob.)

DHS Tells Border Patrol Agents: Run And Hide When Shooting Occurs. By Mary Chastain
Excerpt: The Department of Homeland Security is telling Border Patrol agents in Arizona to run away and hide if they encounter a shooter in a public place. … The members of Tucson Local 2544/National Border Patrol Council think it is downright insulting to tell armed law enforcement agents to do the exact same thing as civilians. Only as a last resort are the agents even allowed to throw objects at the shooter. (Obviously protecting Cartel members for future use.... What oath of office? –Barb.)

How is Creating Green Jobs is Like Banning Tractors to Create Farm Jobs?
Excerpt: The reason solar power creates more jobs per $1 million is that solar is extremely inefficient, requiring more workers to do more as they produce less. We could easily apply this to other sectors. If we want to create more farm jobs (after all the percentage of farm jobs in the economy has fallen dramatically in the last century), we could ban tractors. Think of all the jobs we’d create for farm workers! (Whenever someone gives you an economic reason why down is up, check with a real economist to see how he’s trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Ron P.. Supposedly, a bureaucrat once showed Economist Milton Friedman a canal digging project. “Why are they using shovels instead of motorized digging equipment? Friedman asked. “because it’s a work project,” the bureaucrat proudly said. “Then why not have the workers use teaspoons? Freidman asked. ~Bob.)

Obama Team: Obamacare Still Not A Tax. By Ben Shapiro
Excerpt: The only legal peg on which Chief Justice Roberts was able to hang his hat in ruling Obamacare constitutional was a broad reading of the Taxing Clause. In order to do so, he had to deliberately misread the Obamacare law; had he not done so, the law would have been struck down as a violation of the Commerce Clause. Nonetheless, the Obama administration insists that Obamacare isn’t a tax. (He lies. His lawyers argued that it was a tax. ~Bob.)

President Readies Obamacare Handouts To Soften Repeal Support. By Tony Lee
Excerpt: After the Supreme Court ruled that Obamacare was constitutional, President Barack Obama immediately started to tout parts of Obamacare that people like, such as the provision allowing parents to keep their children on their health insurance plans until they are 26 years of age.

Defiant Mali Islamists pursue wrecking of Timbuktu
Excerpt: Al Qaeda-linked Islamists in Timbuktu broke down the door to a 15th century mosque on Monday that locals believed had to stay shut until the end of the world, defying international calls to halt the destruction of holy sites in the UNESCO-listed city. In a third day of attacks on historic and religious landmarks that UNESCO has called "wanton destruction", the Islamists targeted the ancient Sidi Yahya mosque as they tried to erase traces of what they regard as un-Islamic idolatry. (You’d think that Leftists would pause in celebrating Multiculturalism and Islam to notice how the Islamists treat other cultures and their historical objects of veneration. You’d think…. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: Of course the stock market dropped about 130 points. Twenty new or higher taxes across-the-board are bad for economic growth, bad for job hiring, bad for investors, and bad for families. A tax is a tax is a tax, according to Judge Roberts. But he forgot to say that if you tax something more, you get less of it.

No Danger in a Nuclear Iran? Seriously? By Jeff Jacoby
Excerpt: Are you concerned about Tehran's drive for nuclear weapons? Political scientist Kenneth Waltz isn't. A senior research scholar at Columbia University and former president of American Political Science Association, Waltz writes in the new issue of Foreign Affairs that it's time we learned to stop worrying and love the Iranian bomb. (Well, Waltz is at Columbia in NYC, so there’s a fair chance he and his family will be incinerated when Iran gives the bomb to terrorists. Of course, we who survive will have to face the collapse of our society as the economy tanks. So it’s hard to know why the lucky ones will be. ~Bob.)

Pharma Giant GSK to Pay $3B in Largest Ever Healthcare Fraud Case
Excerpt: Heathcare giant GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to an unprecedented $3 billion settlement with the U.S. government over allegations that the company advertised drugs for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration and then used lavish gifts to convince doctors to prescribe the drugs. (Around 1991, I interviewed with GSK for a state government relations job. It’s among those jobs I’ve been very glad in retrospect that I wasn’t offered. ~Bob.)

Kagan’s participation in ObamaCare decision may have violated judicial ethics and federal statute. By Ben Johnson
Excerpt: Elena Kagan’s decision to vote on Thursday’s health care ruling may have violated judicial ethics and federal statute, legal experts say. As Solicitor General, Kagan appointed the head of the legal team that formulated the president’s legal defense of the health care reform bill, signaling a possible conflict of interest. Her participation, according to liberals and conservative scholars alike, casts a pall over the outcome. (when an administration is breaking the law, and the media is willing to expose it, as with Nixon, something can be done. When the media is covering for them, you—and the rule of law—are screwed. ~Bob.)

UK Conference of Science Journalists: ‘institutions unlikely to fairly investigate allegations of fraud made against their own’
Excerpt: I noted that in the UK, during the past half century, there does not seem to have been a single case where a non-medical researcher has been officially found to have committed fraud. That is clearly unreasonable. Consider much smaller groups of respected people: e.g. members of parliament, Catholic priests, police detectives—in each instance, we know that during half a century, at least a few of them will have committed serious crimes. (One third of the speakers on this issue valued “solidarity” more than “integrity;” if that doesn’t worry you about the accuracy and validity of science all our lives depend on, reread it. Ron P.)

Obama Pleads With Donors : ‘I’ve Got Gray Hair.’ By Ben Shapiro
Excerpt: In a conference call on Friday, conducted from Air Force One, a reportedly tired and weary President Obama pled with donors to send cash now. “The majority on this call maxed out to my campaign last time. I really need you to do the same this time,” Obama said. He continued: ‘In 2008 everything was new and exciting about our campaign. And now I’m the incumbent president. I’ve got gray hair. ‘…”

Follower of “Blind Sheik” Terrorist Invited To US For Meetings With Obama Administration. By H. Scott English
Excerpt: The State Department claims that he received a visa because, “We have no information suggesting that he or anyone else in the delegation is a member of the Egyptian Islamic Group.” But a simple visit to Eldin’s Facebook page has him openly speaking about his membership in the group. While he was in the U.S. he raised the issue of having Rahman transferred to an Egyptian prison. (Surprise, surprise. Now we know why…Barb.)

New ad by American Future Fund on Fast and Furious

Michelle Obama: There is ‘No Place Better’ Than Church to Talk About Political Issues
Excerpt: There is no better place than church to talk about political issues because they are ultimately moral issues, First Lady Michelle Obama told a church gathering on Thursday. “To anyone who says that church is no place to talk about these issues, you tell them there is no place better – no place better,” Obama told a church gathering on Thursday. “To anyone who says that church is no place to talk about these issues, you tell them there is no place better – no place better,” Obama told the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s 49th general conference, held in Nashville, Tenn. (Telling them they should openly support Barack Obama and his agenda. –Barb)

US manufacturing shrinks, 1st time in nearly 3 yrs. By Leah Schnurr
Excerpt: The U.S. manufacturing sector shrank unexpectedly in June for the first time in nearly three years as new orders tumbled, one of the starkest signs to date of the extent of the slowdown in the economy. The Institute for Supply Management's index of national factory activity fell to 49.7 from 53.5 the month before, missing expectations of 52.0, according to a Reuters poll of economists, and below even the lowest forecast. (Notice how bad economic news for Obama is always “unexpected” in the media? ~Bob.)

IER Statement on Obama 5-year OCS Leasing Plan Oil Posted
Excerpt: “President Obama’s offshore charade continues today with the formal announcement of the 2012-2017 leasing plan for the outer continental shelf. With this plan, the administration reinstates the 27 year moratorium that was lifted in 2008, and turns its back on potentially enormous energy resources that could provide jobs and energy security for America. For more than three years, the Obama administration has consistently reversed bipartisan efforts to open America’s vast offshore resources for energy development.”

Obama Enables America’s Enemies. By Robert Spencer
Excerpt: No sooner was Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi elected president of Egypt than he announced his determination to work for the freedom of an enemy of the United States: blind sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who is serving a life term for his role in planning the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Not since Jimmy Carter helped usher in the Iranian Revolution has an American president done so much to aid those who are determined to destroy the United States. (This explains Hani Noor Eldi’s visa to US to White House that “couldn’t be explained.” Purportedly, working on getting blind sheik released. O also releasing Taliban held at Guantanamo…Barb.)

3 British Soldiers Killed by Afghan Police Colleague
Excerpt: A member of a highly regarded Afghan police force opened fire on British soldiers during an argument, killing three of them as they left a meeting with local elders in southern Afghanistan, Western and Afghan officials said Monday.

Aid workers kidnapped from Kenya camp released
Excerpt: Four aid workers seized from a refugee camp near Kenya's Somali border have been released and are safe after an operation by Kenyan and Somali forces. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said it was "relieved" its staff were free. It also paid tribute to a Kenyan driver killed in last week's ambush.

Exclusive: President Obama Asks Campaign Donors to Send Him More Money. By Lloyd Grove
Excerpt: President Obama sounded weary and maybe a tad worried late Friday during a rambling conference call with campaign donors whom he repeatedly begged to send money—and send it now. … The president’s 18-minute pleading—a recording of which was provided to The Daily Beast by an Obama contributor—hardly sounded like a man doing a victory lap after Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling upholding Obamacare, as the Affordable Care Act has come to be known. (Not sure what’s “Exclusive” about a story about Obama asking for more money. Isn’t that his major daily activity, over even golf? ~Bob.)

The Deconstruction of the Democrat Lie. By Morgan Brittany
Excerpt: Lying doesn’t seem to mean the same thing that it did when I was growing up. As a kid, I was taught to always tell the truth or there would be hell to pay. All of the kids I grew up with were told the story of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree and his famous words, “I cannot tell a lie.”

Excerpt: How disheartening to watch U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder maneuver, spin, duck, dodge and dissemble. Perhaps Holder still clings to the notion that he is serving the country and protecting the President, but his actions have pushed him well beyond that high ground. Even Democrat leaders in congress, long-time Holder allies who long ago stopped thinking for themselves and who now resemble crazed wildebeests lost in their blind stampede against Republicans, are having doubts.

ObamaCare politics now. By Michael Barone
Excerpt: The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision upholding the Obama health-care law was a victory for the president, his administration and his party. Their most ambitious legislative achievement has not been nullified, and they’re not left in obvious disarray. But it is only a partial victory and in some ways not a victory at all, both in the short run electorally and in the long run in terms of the constitutional order.

(CA) State high court assessing pension case
Excerpt: The California Supreme Court has shown an interest in examining the effort to invalidate San Diego’s voter-approved pension reform initiative, and if the court takes up the case it could cut out weeks — if not years — of legal battles. Proponents of the measure unsuccessfully pushed for the 4th District Court of Appeals to consolidate cases against it as well as skip board hearings by a state board and asked the Supreme Court to look at the legal issues surrounding the initiative.

Excerpt: When the House voted last Thursday to find Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal contempt of Congress, members of the Congressional Black Caucus walked out.
Why is the Black Caucus trying to make this about race? It’s about Holder’s refusal to turn over Justice Department documents requested by the House Oversight and Government Committee in its investigation of the “Fast and Furious” operation.

Worth Reading: A lie makes Obamacare legal. By Mark Steyn http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/health-361378-court-tax.html
Excerpt: Thus, the Supreme Court's Obamacare decision. No one could seriously argue that the Framers' vision of the Constitution intended to provide philosophical license for a national government ("federal" hardly seems le mot juste) whose treasury could fine you for declining to make provision for a chest infection that meets the approval of the Commissar of Ailments. Yet on Thursday, Chief Justice John Roberts did just that. And conservatives are supposed to be encouraged that he did so by appeal to the Constitution's taxing authority rather than by a massive expansion of the Commerce Clause.

Al Qaeda 'plot to blow up passenger jet' in run-up to Olympics uncovered by Security Forces.
Excerpt: A terrorist plot to blow up a U.S. passenger jet timed to coincide with the Olympics has been uncovered by security agencies, according to intelligence sources. Al Qaeda intended to use a radicalised Norwegian Islamic convert to attack U.S. planes in the build-up to the London Games - which start in 26 days on July 27 - it is understood.

Shock: British NHS Euthanizes 130,000 Elderly Patients Annually
Excerpt: Shocking news from England today has top NHS officials indicating doctors acting in the UK government-run health program annually kill as many as 130,000 patients prematurely because of overcrowding at hospitals, medical clinics and nursing homes. (Well it reduces both the deficit and their carbon footprints, so why not? ~Bob.)

UK: Discrimination against Armed Forces could become illegal. Nick Hopkins, Guardian UK
Excerpt: Discrimination against armed forces veterans could become against the law after the government agreed to cross-party talks aimed at giving new rights to protect former members of the military. Labour said today the defence secretary Philip Hammond has agreed to discussions with his shadow, Jim Murphy, about "how we can ensure that everything we do in parliament emphasises our ... support for the armed forces and the people who serve in them".

View the video trailer for Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor:

Quote
The finest inheritance you can give to a child is to allow it to make its own way, completely on its own feet. –Isadora Duncan

Should Biden Drop Obama From The Ticket? By Burt Prelutsky
Excerpt: As a rule, the guy running for president chooses a running mate he thinks will help him win a specific swing state, which explains Kennedy picking Johnson. Sometimes he picks someone whom, he hopes, will energize the electorate, which explains McCain picking Palin. But, nearly always, he selects a person nobody really wants to see wind up as president. After all, when some guy is just a heartbeat from the Oval Office, you don’t want to have millions of people hoping you have a heart attack.

U.S. Court Saves Mississippi's last abortion clinic. But it's the pro-lifers who enjoy political momentum. By Tim Stanley.
Excerpt: In many parts of America, all that now keeps the abortion industry afloat is the intervention of the courts. Last year, I wrote about how conservatives had evolved from fighting abortion at a national level to engaging in sub-radar skirmishes. By diversifying their tactics and playing smart, the strategy is starting to pay off.

Obamacare: The Final Battle - Republicans have to explain why it's bad -- and explain it soon. By Avik Roy
Excerpt: Mitt Romney said it best on Thursday. “If we want to get rid of Obamacare, we’re going to have to replace President Obama.” Those who have been sitting on the sidelines, out of complacency or loyalty to someone else from the primaries, must get out of their chairs and get to work. But while that work must end with Mitt Romney in the White House, it must begin with a Republican majority in the Senate.

Culinary School Cooks a Graduate: Massive Debt
Excerpt: Here is a man who, at age 28, dropped out of college and enrolled in a school for chefs. His father refused to co-sign. His father was wise.

Secret Service shuts down 'fire Eric Holder' protest. By Joel Goerke
Excerpt: U.S. Secret Service officers shut down a student-led protest calling for President Obama to fire Attorney General Eric Holder this morning, according to a report from in front of the White House. After discovering a “suspicious package,” the Secret Service ended the protest. “Several agents seemed hostile to our march and seemed anxious for us to leave the area,” Maurice Lewis, a University of California student, told Campus Reform. (The “Suspicious package” probably contained Romney flyers. ~Bob.)

Doing Double Duty at Justice: Political Donors among current U.S. Attorneys: Democrats 46, Republicans 0. By Jim Geraghty.
Excerpt: Forty-seven of these [93] attorneys have not donated any money to any candidates for office in the past six years, according to records available from the Center for Responsive Politics. Collectively, the remaining 46 have donated $235,651 to President Obama, the DNC, and Democratic candidates since January 1, 2007. Not one has donated to any Republican candidate.

APNewsBreak: Evidence of 'God particle' found. Washington Examiner.
Excerpt: Scientists believe the "God particle" that might explain the underpinnings of the universe is real, and they are about to present their evidence to the world. (Yea! - Kate.) Physicists at the world's biggest atom smasher plan to announce Wednesday that they have nearly confirmed the primary plank of a theory that could shape the scientific understanding of all matter. The idea is much like gravity and Isaac Newton's discovery: It was there all the time before Newton explained it. (Well, yah...Kate.)

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