Political Digest November 28, 2009

PoliI post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree with every—or any—opinion in the posted article.

Taxes going up? Voters: yup
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Taxes-going-up-Voters-yup-74863202.html
Excerpt: Just as my column appeared, pollster Scott Rasmussen reported that 48% of likely voters expect their taxes to go up and only 9% expect them to go down. That’s a vivid contrast with the responses back in January, when only 29% expected their taxes to go up and 21% expected them to go down. About half of American voters, it seems, have caught on to the Democrats’ stuff-the-beast strategy: raise spending to previously unheard of levels and then raise taxes to reduce the deficit. Moral of the story: never underestimate the perceptiveness of the American voter.

Obama Shatters Spending Record for First-Year Presidents
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=6770
Anyone who didn’t expect this on November 4, 2008 just wasn’t paying attention.

Obama meets Hu, says Tibet part of China
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/Obama-meets-Hu-says-Tibet-part-of-China/articleshow/5238752.cms
Well, so much for those “Free Tibet” bumper stickers—the One has spoken. Excerpt: "We did note that while we recognise that Tibet is part of the People's Republic of China, the United States supports the early resumption of dialogue" between the Dalai Lama's representatives and Beijing," Obama said after his meeting with Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao. Chinese President Hu Jintao hailed US President Barack Obama's recognition of sovereignty issues dear to China. "China approves of President Obama's repeated reiteration of the one-China principle," Hu told reporters.

Comment from a Marine buddy: Tibet has had a totally different language and culture from China for thousands of years, and has never been identified as part of China. It was taken over by brute force decades ago, many thousands killed then and still since, the culture subordinated to Chinese, the children forced to learn Chinese, Chinese immigrants as appointed "managers" (read rulers), no civil liberties, freedom of the press, freedom to dissent, etc. For an American President today to recognize Tibet as part of China would be like FDR recognizing Silesia and the Sudetenland as parts of Germany after the Wehrmacht marched into those places. I am totally appalled at this, there is no excuse for making such a statement, it is a gross betrayal of the basic American commitment to human rights. It is more than puzzling for Obama to do this. And he got nothing whatsoever for this, the Chinese will not really join in on reduction of hothouse gases (they're building coal fired plants faster and faster), they won't revalue their money to realistic adjustment to the dollar, and they lecture us on being more responsible. Essentially it was a social visit, an exchange of niceties, but zip in the way of any accomodation to Obama's programs. So why throw the Tibetans under the bus, and thereby tell every other small country that they cannot depend on the US to even talk about their rights when the bigger, well armed neighbor nation decides to pound them or take them over? Very, very, very sad. So much for moral leadership among nations. –Del

PC-ed to death
http://www.wtoc.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=4285612&h1=Editorial%20-%2011/09/09&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=186467&LaunchPageAdTag=News
Nice to have a TV editor tell it like it is. Gotta love this guy.

Timely Medicine – Not
http://www.galganov.com/editorials.asp?id=1181
Excerpt: As America rushes headfirst into Government Run Healthcare, here are a few realities Americans should not ignore. As a Canadian, I was raised since the mid 1960’s on a diet of Government Paid Healthcare. In a single statement: IT WAS TERRIFIC. But, I have to emphasize the word WAS.

Why Obama Isn't Changing Washington http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704779704574555471947300090.html
Excerpt: Why has the president's publicly expressed vision of a kinder, gentler Washington failed to materialize? I think Mr. Obama—while hardly the only person at fault—is chiefly responsible. He might have spawned a different Washington, a less divided town with Democrats firmly in charge but Republicans actively involved. The bonus for Mr. Obama and Democrats would be higher popularity and better prospects in 2010 midterm elections. Instead, the president made three strategic mistakes—or, really, misreadings of the political landscape—and they've come back to haunt him and his party. First, Mr. Obama misread the meaning of the 2008 election. It wasn't a mandate for a liberal revolution. His victory was a personal one, not an ideological triumph of liberalism. Yet Mr. Obama, his aides and Democratic leaders in Congress have treated it as a mandate to radically change policy directions in this country. They are pushing forward one liberal initiative after another. As a result, Mr. Obama's approval rating has dropped along with the popularity of his agenda. Mr. Obama should have known better. The evidence that America remains a center-right country was right there in the national exit poll on Election Day. When asked about their political beliefs, 34% identified themselves as conservative, 22% as liberal, and a whopping 44% as moderate.

Kill the Bills. Do Health Reform Right http://townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2009/11/27/kill_the_bills_do_health_reform_right
Excerpt: The United States has the best health care in the world -- but because of its inefficiencies, also the most expensive. The fundamental problem with the 2,074-page Senate health-care bill (as with its 2,014-page House counterpart) is that it wildly compounds the complexity by adding hundreds of new provisions, regulations, mandates, committees and other arbitrary bureaucratic inventions. Worse, they are packed into a monstrous package without any regard to each other. The only thing linking these changes -- such as the 118 new boards, commissions and programs -- is political expediency. Each must be able to garner just enough votes to pass. There is not even a pretense of a unifying vision or conceptual harmony. The result is an overregulated, overbureaucratized system of surpassing arbitrariness and inefficiency.

Bomber may have been heading for Eilat
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1259243014035&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Didn’t get the Religion-of-Peace memo. Excerpt: An IDF bomb squad detonated a 15-kilogram explosive seized during a search conducted along the Egyptian border on Thursday. Late Wednesday night, IDF troops on a routine patrol of the border area spotted a suspicious figure carrying a bag containing what was later discovered to be a 15-kilogram bomb. The soldiers ordered him to stop and fired several shots in the air. However, the man fled the scene back into Egypt, dropping the bag in his haste.

Iranian pilgrims stage hajj protest http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iam54ei_bV1lRaMhZ81HgJjTR4kg
Didn’t get the memo. Excerpt: “Death to America, death to Israel," thousands of Iranians chanted inside a huge tent on the Arafat plain.

Be thankful that you are breathing
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/11/dum-spiro-spero.html
Excerpt: Jihad attacks and attempted attacks inside the U.S. have sharply increased. In response, the entire government and media establishment hastens to assure the world that the root cause is not the root cause. And the President of the United States rushes to make more concessions to the jihadis and their sponsors and allies. Eight years after 9/11, and fewer people than ever know or care about what we are really up against. But...you are alive. You are breathing. You can read this. You are not beaten.

Find a gun, turn it in, go to jail
http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-paul_clarke_and_british_zero_tolerance.html
Zero tolerance in the UK

How to answer the census
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XtuPvwBa2U
Very funny.