Political Digest June 5, 2010

I 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. It also doesn’t mean that I don’t agree with them. I have to say all this to give some of my critics the benefit of the doubt, assuming they are thick, rather than deliberately taking things the wrong way.

On-Line poll: Should the American Flag be banned in America?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/05/06/american-flag-banned-america/
For the safety of students. The left twittered this and the flag was losing when I voted.

White House is feeling weight of controversies surrounding oil spill, elections
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304966.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Getting a taste of how Bush was treated. Regardless of who is elected, the division between the statists and the traditionalists is so deep, that vicious assaults on the president will be the norm, right through the collapse. But it is exacerbated by the statists having convinced the public that government is the solution to all problems. Excerpt: At virtually every turn lately, the White House cannot shake the appearance that it is hamstrung and a step behind. From a major crisis such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to smaller and seemingly avoidable controversies over internal Democratic Party politics, President Obama and his team are on the defensive. The question many Republicans and even some Democratic allies of the administration are asking is whether the collective weight of all these problems will diminish the president's ability to get his agenda through Congress, or further weaken his party before the November midterm elections. That all this has happened to a White House staffed by the team that so successfully navigated the 2008 presidential campaign is a source of surprise and consternation for Democrats. The missteps have also become easy ammunition for Republicans seeking to capitalize on what may be self-inflicted wounds.

U.S. 'secret war' expands globally as Special Operations forces take larger role
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304965.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Excerpt: Beneath its commitment to soft-spoken diplomacy and beyond the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration has significantly expanded a largely secret U.S. war against al-Qaeda and other radical groups, according to senior military and administration officials. Special Operations forces have grown both in number and budget, and are deployed in 75 countries, compared with about 60 at the beginning of last year. In addition to units that have spent years in the Philippines and Colombia, teams are operating in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. Commanders are developing plans for increasing the use of such forces in Somalia, where a Special Operations raid last year killed the alleged head of al-Qaeda in East Africa. Plans exist for preemptive or retaliatory strikes in numerous places around the world, meant to be put into action when a plot has been identified, or after an attack linked to a specific group.

More than 1,400 former lawmakers, Hill staffers are financial lobbyists
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060302740.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Excerpt: Even for Washington, the revolving door between government and Wall Street spins at a dizzying pace. More than 1,400 former members of Congress, Capitol Hill staffers or federal employees registered as lobbyists on behalf of the financial services sector since the start of 2009, according to an exhaustive new study issued Thursday. The analysis by two nonpartisan groups, Public Citizen and the Center for Responsive Politics, found that the "small army" of financial lobbyists included at least 73 former lawmakers and 148 ex-staffers connected to the House or Senate banking committees. More than 40 former Treasury Department employees also ply their trade as lobbyists for Wall Street firms, the study found.

Illegal Alien Legal Challenge
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/06/02/john-lott-illegal-aliens/
Excerpt: Little noticed, last Friday the Obama administration yet again tried to make it easier for illegal aliens to stay in the United States. In a brief filed with the Supreme Court, the administration asked the court to carve out a special exemption for businesses who break the law by hiring illegal aliens. In every state, individuals must have a business license to do a huge range of jobs, be it a restaurant, stores, salvage, selling cars, cleaning people's houses, pest control, or other businesses. But people must get a criminal background check to get a license. Different states vary in terms of what crimes can disqualify one from getting a license -- some including misdemeanors not covered in other states. Similarly, if you commit a crime, your business license is very likely to be revoked. The same is true for professional licenses for lawyers, doctors, or even barbers. The logic for these rules is pretty strong. If someone commits a crime, states have decided those people can't be trusted in dealing with consumers. Both state and federal crimes are included in these criminal background checks, and it has always been up to the states to determine what crimes will bar people from being licensed. This is what the Obama administration now wants to change. The Obama administration wants crimes involving immigration violations specifically excluded from their licensing decisions. When Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was Arizona's governor back in 2007, she signed a law that added hiring illegal aliens to the list of crimes for which a business license could be revoked. Napolitano didn't think that there were any legal problems with the law, and even defended it in court. Indeed, even the Ninth Circuit Federal Appeals Court -- known for its left wing views -- rejected challenges by illegal alien rights groups. But the Obama administration has tried to rationalize its challenge to the Arizona law.

Federal debt tops $13 trillion mark
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/2/federal-debt-tops-13-trillion-mark/
Excerpt: The federal government is now $13 trillion in the red, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday, marking the first time the government has sunk that far into debt and putting a sharp point on the spending debate on Capitol Hill. Calculated down to the exact penny, the debt totaled $13,050,826,460,886.97 as of Tuesday, leaping nearly $60 billion since Friday, the previous day for which figures were released. At $13 trillion, that figure has risen by $2.4 trillion in about 500 days since President Obama took office, or an average of $4.9 billion a day. That's almost three times the daily average of $1.7 billion under the previous administration, and led Republicans on Wednesday to place blame squarely at the feet of Mr. Obama and his fellow Democrats.

Quote
"Why do so many Bill Clinton stories end with the words 'nothing improper happened'?" -- Ann Coulter

Missouri: Mother Uses Gun to Stop Rape of Her Daughter
http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/missouri-mother-uses-gun-to-stop-rape-of-her-daughter/
Lucky she didn’t live in Chicago. Excerpt: The man who Cape Girardeau police say attempted to rape a teenager was forced out of her Minnesota Avenue home at gunpoint by the victim’s mother, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed in the case.

Most on N.J. judicial panel quit over Christie move
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20100603_Most_on_N_J__judicial_panel_quit_over_Christie_move.html#ixzz0pts6ThaH
Excerpt: All seven members of an advisory panel charged with reviewing nominations to New Jersey's Superior Court resigned Wednesday, with six saying they objected to Gov. Christie's decision not to renominate Justice John Wallace Jr. to the state Supreme Court. The members, all appointed by former Gov. Jon S. Corzine, had letters hand-delivered to Christie's office.

Nerves at Newsweek over prospect of purchase by conservative media company Newsmax
http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/04/nerves-at-newsweek-over-prospect-of-purchase-by-conservative-media-company-newsmax/#ixzz0ptnMXzyo
Excerpt: Newsweek reporters are nervous, an employee told The Daily Caller, about being owned by the conservative Newsmax media company, which announced Wednesday that it had placed a bid to purchase the money-losing magazine. Newsweek’s owner, the Washington Post Company, put up the weekly for sale in May, about a year after a major redesign that included targeting an affluent audience with left-leaning thought pieces. Newsmax Media spokesman Scott Rosenblum confirmed the bid to The Daily Caller, saying in a statement that if the bid is successful, “Newsweek would continue in its mission to objectively report the news and provide analysis from a wide spectrum of perspectives.” But a cursory search of past Newsmax headlines show the conservative site hasn’t always thought of Newsweek positively — or as an objective outlet(.)

Obama under fire for election tactics with Sestak, Romanoff
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-06-03-white-house-tactics_N.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno
Excerpt: The White House on Thursday dismissed charges that President Obama's top aides have breached his pledge to run the most ethical and open administration in history by trying to entice Democrats in Pennsylvania and Colorado to skip races against favored incumbents. Some Republicans, including House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, are demanding an independent investigation of what they call inappropriately heavy-handed politics. Press secretary Robert Gibbs countered that the White House has every right to try to avert expensive and divisive intraparty primaries between Democrats, something it did by encouraging potential candidates to consider other options, including government jobs or appointments.

Obama's Youth Brigade Burns Out
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-03/obama-white-house-exodus-20-something-true-believers-burning-out/?cid=hp:mainpromo3
Fantasy meets real life. Excerpt: The 18-month itch hits every administration. But this presidency is different. The young people working in the White House are supposed to be the truest of true believers. Countless postmortems attribute the Democratic Party’s 2008 success to a unique surge in “Barack the Vote” enthusiasm among 18- to 34-year olds. Many of these folks followed their political hero from the fields of Iowa into the White House—hoping to translate their dreams into policy, and build satisfying careers in the process. A recent New York Times Magazine article focused on White House “twentysomethings” like Lesser, Levine, Jon Favreau, Reggie Love, and Samantha Tubman—and what they’re learning on the job. But as the campaign juggernaut settles into the grind of governing, many junior staff across the administration are heading for the exits, burned out and tired of life in the Obama bubble.... Yet virtually all of the young White House and administration staffers I spoke to (most were unwilling to be named because of the sensitivity of their positions) have grown somewhat disillusioned—and say the glamour factor noted in the Times article is overblown. “It’s cool to my family, or the girl that I meet at the bar, but in terms of day-to-day work—am I really doing the change we can believe in?” asked one Iowa veteran. “Probably not. And it is very much of a shock.”

Dennis Prager Q & A at University of Denver
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNUc8nuo7HI
The greatest challenge facing America.

When It Rains in Chicago, It Pours
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/06/when_it_rains_in_chicago_it_po.html
Excerpt: As President Obama discovered when he tried to deliver his Memorial Day speech near Chicago last weekend, "when it rains, it pours." The mile-deep gusher now polluting Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico is a metaphor for the Pandora's Box of miseries that seem to be raining on the nation and the world: European financial instability, third-world nukes, South American narco-states, the re-emergence of piracy, America's unprotected borders, our persistent 10% unemployment rate, exploding government debt, runaway entitlements and public pensions, aging infrastructure, a health care system headed for bureaucratic sclerosis, and on and on....Standing between this onslaught and us is the leader of the free world, Barack Hussein Obama, who, it is becoming increasingly obvious, is in way over his head. If you were Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would you feel comfortable knowing this White House has got Israel's back? If you were Governor Jan Brewer, would you be confident in the president's ability, even willingness, to halt the hordes of illegals pouring across the Arizona border? If you were Governor Bobby Jindal, would you sleep easy knowing this administration might eventually, someday, perhaps support your request to build protective sand barriers between the advancing oil slick and valuable Louisiana fishing and wildlife waters? Not on your life. You don't have to be a governor or a foreign leader to feel nervous. A lot of people are starting to worry.

Reckless, Feckless, Relentless Incompetence
http://www.redstate.com/haystack/2010/06/03/reckless-feckless-relentless-incompetence/
Excerpt: Via the Washington Times we learn the National Debt has now surpassed the 13 trillion dollar mark. Yeah, I know…yawn…so what. The problem here is that we just watched Congress barely pass a Bill raising the National Debt ceiling to 12.394 TRILLION dollars. Obama, master of everyone else’s checkbook, signed it into law on December 28, 2009 yet here we are hardly 5 months later with it 600 BILLION dollars beyond even that figure…sans even a modicum of tomfoolery and political cover normally enjoyed via Congressional action. This Administration can’t manage the Auto Industry, it can’t manage Wall Street, it can’t manage the Health industry or the Insurance industry, and it can’t manage the economy. It can’t manage Foreign diplomacy, it can’t manage fighting wars, and it can’t stop dictators from getting nuclear weapons or sinking its neighbor’s ships. But failure, sadly, doesn’t seem to slow Obama’s lust for spending more money hoping to find that thing he can finally “get right.”

Arizona governor, Obama face off
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/3/arizona-governor-obama-face-off/
The next GOP VP? Excerpt: Inside the Oval Office on Thursday, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer went head-to-head with President Obama as she demanded he take more steps to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, and they failed to make headway on the state's tough new immigration law. Several hundred yards away, outside the White House gates, dozens of immigration rights protesters denounced Arizona's new immigration law and chanted, "Jan Brewer, shame on you." In signing her state's law cracking down on illegal immigrants in April, Mrs. Brewer instantly brightened her political fortunes in Arizona, angered Hispanic voters nationwide and became the focal point for the resurgent bitter immigration debate.

DC's Turkish denial
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/dc_turkish_denial_j3JmVrSXVlSdMsgy9nhbTN
Excerpt: As the Irish-flagged "aid" ship Rachel Corrie heads for Gaza and Act Two of this made-in-Turkey crisis looms, Washington still can't bring itself to accept that the entire script was written in Ankara. Fourteen months ago, President Obama made his first stop abroad in Turkey, where he told his hosts that "Turkey and the United States can build a model partnership." Now our "partner" has stage-managed a cynical -- but brilliant -- public-relations debacle for Israel. And Washington's hiding in the wings, unwilling to face an unruly global audience. To his credit, Vice President Joe "Look, Ma, no hands!" Biden did come out to defend Israel's right to block the flow of arms to Gaza's terrorists. But our president only called for an Israeli investigation of Israel's guilt. Nobody's asked for a study of Turkish involvement. But if the National Security Council won't do it, I will. In underwriting a terrorist-linked Turkish NGO's mission to Gaza, the Turks had a strategic goal and a domestic goal -- both of which they accomplished. In the foreign-policy sphere, where the Islamists in charge in Ankara have delusions of grandeur, the mission was to position Turkey as the new champion of the Palestinians.

Flotilla Choir presents: We Con the World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOGG_osOoVg&annotation_id=annotation_665723&feature=iv
Funny if not so true.

New aid ship heads to Gaza, Israel vows to stop it
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100604/ap_on_re_eu/eu_turkey_israel
Excerpt: An aid ship trying to break the blockade of Gaza could reach Israel's 20-mile (32-kilometer) exclusion zone late Friday, an activist said, but Israel's prime minister has vowed the ship will not reach land. The dueling comments suggest a potential new clash over Israel's three-year-old blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip — and come only four days after an Israeli commando raid on a larger aid flotilla left nine activists dead. Greta Berlin, a spokesman for the Free Gaza group, said in Nicosia the 1,200-ton Rachel Corrie is heading directly to Gaza and will not stop in any port on the way. It is trying to deliver hundreds of tons of aid, including wheelchairs, medical supplies and concrete. (And once Israel allows ships un-inspected into Gaza, they will bring in rockets to murder Jewish children.)

Disappointing jobs report sends stocks tumbling
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100604/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street
No sweat—BO will spend us to prosperity. Excerpt: Stocks fell sharply Friday after the Labor Department said hiring remains weak and Hungary became the latest European country to report its economy is in crisis. Interest rates dropped as investors moved their money into the safety of Treasury bonds and notes. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped nearly 250 points and briefly fell below 10,000. All the major indexes were down more than 2 percent. Retailers were among the hardest hit stocks as investors bet that a weak job market would discourage consumers from spending. Financial stocks also fell sharply on concerns that borrowers would continue having problems paying their bills. Banks were further hurt by worries about their vulnerability to Europe's increasing troubles.

Catholic bishop stabbed to death in Turkey
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/06/catholic-bishop-stabbed-to-death-in-turkey.html
Excerpt: He said the man, identified only as Murat A., was Padovese's driver for the last four and a half years and was mentally unstable. "The initial investigation shows that the incident is not politically motivated," Lekesiz said. "We have learned that the suspect had psychological problems and was receiving treatment." … The killing is the latest in a string of attacks in recent years on Christians in Turkey, where Christians make up less than 1 percent of the 70 million population. (Wonder if the Psychological Problem was forgetting that “Islam is a religion of peace.” What is now Turkey was, of course, a Christian country until Constantinople fell to the Turks and was pillaged in 1453. They don’t mention Muslim conquests when whining about the Crusades.)

Soda Bottle Bombs
http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/bottlebomb.asp
Something else to worry about. Good thing I didn’t know about this when I was a teen….

Warming Goring
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Warming%20Goring
New term I coined for the Urban Dictionary.

Krauthammer: Those troublesome Jews
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304287.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline
If the world forces Israel to give up the blockade, they should also give us sending food to Gaza—let the “peace activists” on the ships bring it. Excerpt: The world is outraged at Israel's blockade of Gaza. Turkey denounces its illegality, inhumanity, barbarity, etc. The usual U.N. suspects, Third World and European, join in. The Obama administration dithers. But as Leslie Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes, the blockade is not just perfectly rational, it is perfectly legal. Gaza under Hamas is a self-declared enemy of Israel -- a declaration backed up by more than 4,000 rockets fired at Israeli civilian territory. Yet having pledged itself to unceasing belligerency, Hamas claims victimhood when Israel imposes a blockade to prevent Hamas from arming itself with still more rockets. In World War II, with full international legality, the United States blockaded Germany and Japan. And during the October 1962 missile crisis, we blockaded ("quarantined") Cuba. Arms-bearing Russian ships headed to Cuba turned back because the Soviets knew that the U.S. Navy would either board them or sink them. Yet Israel is accused of international criminality for doing precisely what John Kennedy did: impose a naval blockade to prevent a hostile state from acquiring lethal weaponry. Oh, but weren't the Gaza-bound ships on a mission of humanitarian relief? No. Otherwise they would have accepted Israel's offer to bring their supplies to an Israeli port, be inspected for military materiel and have the rest trucked by Israel into Gaza -- as every week 10,000 tons of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies are sent by Israel to Gaza.

Michele Bachmann is cool to mainstream media, and an increasingly hot property http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060304789.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline
Excerpt: No other House member in recent memory has risen so swiftly on the basis of speaking up. Although only in her second term, the Republican Bachmann is already better known than many senators in her party, widely popular with conservatives and "tea party" supporters. She has labeled the Obama administration a "gangster government" and expressed concerns that the president might harbor "un-American" views. At once revered and reviled, she is a talk-show producer's dream, a fundraising juggernaut. Along with a few firebrand conservatives including Florida Republican senatorial hopeful Marco Rubio, she has built a large army of small donors.