Political Digest for November 14, 2010

Visiting Maj. Gene Duncan, so borrowing his computer.

The boy brimming with pride, the fanatics burning with hate... two faces of Armistice Day
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1328703/Two-faces-Armistice-Day-Boy-brimming-pride-fanatics-burning-hate.html
Excerpt: These were the Muslim extremists who brought shame to the memory of the dead yesterday by breaking the traditional two-minute silence with chants of ‘British soldiers burn in hell’. Ironically, it was the freedom for which thousands fought that allowed them to stage their demonstration at the stroke of 11am – the exact moment the nation came to a halt at the Cenotaph, across the country, and after parallel services at British bases in Afghanistan.

The Decider returns to haunt Mr Nuance as George W. Bush eclipses Barack Obama
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/us-politics/8131268/The-Decider-returns-to-haunt-Mr-Nuance-as-George-W.-Bush-eclipses-Barack-Obama.html
Excerpt: The 43rd and 44th American presidents are a study in contrasts, but the link between them is symbiotic, argues Toby Harnden. There could have been no Obama without Bush, and only Obama's stumbles could have made Bush look good again so quickly.

Can Bam move right? ---... and will anyone believe it?
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/can_bam_move_right_uztqheyBjZvC2EFlkNsq8I
Excerpt: Discount the ideological nutcases who think Barack Obama lost big last week because he wasn't left-wing enough and you find an overwhelming consensus: The way for the president to save himself is to move to the center. And indeed, the move to the center may be happening before our very eyes. The president's team is signaling his willingness to extend the current tax rates "temporarily," meaning at least until after the election in 2012. Given how much he and his party hate the idea of "tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans," which is how they tend to refer to taxation levels that have been in place since 2003, this is an extraordinary concession.

Embarrassment in Seoul
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704462704575609770024501384.html?mod=djemITP_h
Excerpt: Has there ever been a major economic summit where a U.S. President and his Treasury Secretary were as thoroughly rebuffed as they were at this week's G-20 meeting in Seoul? We can't think of one. President Obama failed to achieve any of his main goals while getting pounded by other world leaders for failing U.S. policies and lagging growth. The root of this embarrassment is political and intellectual: Rather than leading the world from a position of strength, Mr. Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner came to Seoul blaming the rest of the world for U.S. economic weakness. America's problem, in their view, is the export and exchange rate policies of the Germans, Chinese or Brazilians. And the U.S. solution is to have the Fed print enough money to devalue the dollar so America can grow by stealing demand from the rest of the world.

DOJ Gave Millions to Illegal Immigrant 'Sanctuaries,' Report Finds
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/12/doj-gave-millions-sanctuary-communities-report-finds/
Excerpt: The Department of Justice has spent tens of millions of dollars this year to compensate more than two dozen states, counties and cities for their costs of jailing illegal immigrants -- even though those communities have adopted policies that obstruct immigration enforcement, according to a recently released report.

Justice Department Settles Allegations of Immigration-Related Employment Discrimination Against Hoover Inc.
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/November/10-crt-1283.html
Unbelievable. Could the US employees’ citizenship have expired? ~Bob. Excerpt: The Justice Department today announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with Hoover Inc., a leading manufacturer of vacuum and carpet cleaners with facilities in Ohio and Texas, to resolve allegations that Hoover engaged in a pattern or practice of employment discrimination by imposing unnecessary and discriminatory hurdles in the I-9 process upon lawful permanent residents. According to the department's findings, Hoover required all permanent residents who presented a permanent resident card (green card) for I-9 purposes to produce a new green card when theirs expired. In contrast, Hoover's U.S. citizen workers were not required to present new documents. Like U.S. citizens, permanent residents are always work authorized, regardless of the expiration of their documentation. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) prohibits employers from

Obama: Center of the Soros System?
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/29858
Excerpt: Is Barack Obama the center of the “Soros System?” Some, including Obama himself, think he is a messiah, and George Soros thinks of himself as a god. Sorry to disappoint: Obama is no messiah. He is just one of the many International Puppets that George Soros funds. And George Soros is no god, he is just one more dangerous narcissistic sociopath, or worse. Barack Obama and his Progressive Democrat Party organs are smaller potatoes than he thinks that they are.

Hizbullah: We are ready for another war with Israel
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=194994
Excerpt: Hizbullah is ready for another war with Israel, said the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah in a televised speech on Thursday evening. Referring to what he termed Israel's habit of becoming involved where it is not welcome, he emphasized that his Lebanese terrorist group is not at all afraid of future conflicts.

Chicago: Front line in war on terror
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-11-11/news/ct-met-terrorism-chicago-police-1114-20101111_1_david-coleman-headley-chicago-cops-mumbai
Regular citizens, of course, are not allowed to carry guns. Might be dangerous for the thugs and terrorists. ~Bob. Excerpt: On a summer day last year, David Coleman Headley, like many fathers, took his children to a Chicago park. There, Headley ran his children through military drills, including maneuvers such as rolling into a shooting position. The observations — by an officer who had received counterterrorism training — became part of the case that was built against Headley, who four months later was charged in the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai and with planning attacks in Denmark, according to law enforcement officials.

Palestinian held for Facebook criticism of Islam
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101112/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians_facebook_atheist
Excerpt: Residents of Qalqiliya say they had no idea that Walid Husayin — the 26-year-old son of a Muslim scholar — was leading a double life. Known as a quiet man who prayed with his family each Friday and spent his evenings working in his father's barbershop, Husayin was secretly posting anti-religion rants on the Internet during his free time. Now, he faces a potential life prison sentence on heresy charges for "insulting the divine essence." Many in this conservative Muslim town say he should be killed for renouncing Islam, and even family members say he should remain behind bars for life.

It's "OTB" Time: One-Term Barackhttp://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_larry_j_sabato/it_s_otb_time_one_term_barack
Sabato is a pro, but this seems a tad early. ~Bob. Excerpt: The wreckage of the Democratic Party is strewn just about everywhere. President Obama’s carefully constructed 2008 Electoral College breakthrough is now just broken, a long-ago memory of what might have been a lasting shift in partisan alignment. We have just entered the 2012 presidential election cycle, and the news is grim for the incumbent. While at least one recent poll gives Obama the lead against Sarah Palin, he is trailing in hypothetical match-ups against former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Even worse, only 38% in another recent poll said they believed Obama “deserves re-election.”

HHS falls short of pre-existing coverage prediction by … 97.8%
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/11/12/hhs-falls-short-of-pre-existing-coverage-prediction-by-97-8/
Excerpt: 255 million: The number of Americans with existing health insurance coverage. 20 million: The number of Americans without any health coverage at all due to economic circumstances. 375,000: The number of Americans with pre-existing conditions HHS said would apply for coverage in the first year of ObamaCare, one of the main political arguments for its implementation. 8,011: The number that actually did.

Cool It: The Anti-Scarefest Documentary of the Year
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/cool-it-the-anti-scarefest-documentary-of-the-year/?singlepage=true
Excerpt: You can’t say An Inconvenient Truth wasn’t a monumental film. It did exactly what it was supposed to do — it terrified vast numbers of people into favoring irrational behavior. It is correct to compare the Al Gore eco-alarmism film with the most notorious propaganda movies ever made. But … somewhere along the line, as Al Gore stood chuckling offstage like the Joker, expecting to profit hugely through his greentech venture-capital investments as panic ruled public life, some kind of rationality inexplicably prevailed. As in The Dark Knight ferry scene, neither side blew up the other. By the time West Virginia’s new Senator-elect Joe Manchin made the formidable case that the only way to deal with cap-and-trade regulation was to shoot it (and this was a Democrat talking), calm had already carried the day.

The Top Ten Most Gerrymandered Congressional Districts in the United States
http://pajamasmedia.com/zombie/2010/11/11/the-top-ten-most-gerrymandered-congressional-districts-in-the-united-states/?singlepage=true

The Obamacare Burden To Your State Budget
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/11/12/morning-bell-the-obamacare-burden-to-your-state-budget/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
Excerpt: Facing a $25 billion deficit for their next two-year budget cycle, Texas lawmakers are considering closing the gap by dropping out of Medicaid. “This system is bankrupting our state,” State Representative Warren Chisum told The New York Times. “We need to get out of it. And with the budget shortfall we’re anticipating, we may have to act this year,” he said. And Texas is not alone. American Legislative Exchange Council director of the health and human services Christie Herrera tells NYT: “States feel like their backs are against the wall, so this is the nuclear option for them. I’m hearing below-the-radar chatter from legislators around the country from states considering this option.”

Map narrows for Obama reelection
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45012.html
Every election is different. In 2012, there will be new issues, new candidates and different voters. Nothing is certain. ~Bob. Excerpt: Two years after his dramatic expansion of the electoral map paved the way to a landslide win, President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign appears likely to resemble the political trench warfare that marked the 2000 and 2004 presidential races. Last week’s midterm elections saw the trio of conservative-leaning states Obama captured in 2008 — Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana — return to their Republican tendencies while more traditional swing states also broke sharply toward the GOP.

New study on Arizona
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/11/ap/latinamerica/main7046584.shtml
Excerpt: A new study suggests there may be 100,000 fewer Hispanics in Arizona than there were before the debate over the state's tough new immigration law earlier this year.

Back when Democrats were patriots
The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission. - John F. Kennedy

Obama's commission misdiagnoses Medicare cost crisis
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Obama_s-commission-misdiagnoses-Medicare-cost-crisis-1527974-107302178.html
Excerpt: The commission wants to fund the cuts by "asking doctors and other health care providers, lawyers, and individuals to take responsibility for slowing health care costs," in other words, by paying doctors less…..The problem is that if Medicare pays doctors less, they are likely to perform extra tests, or to withdraw from Medicare, as more physicians have done in recent years…..To create the appearance, if not the reality, of fiscal discipline in the new health care law, Congress assumed $455 billion of Medicare and Medicaid cuts -- 73 percent of them in Medicare -- over 10 years, and thereafter 10 percent to 15 percent of annual cuts……What is needed is a radically new model for Medicare, one that lowers costs through competition and market forces, just as prices for cosmetic surgery and Lasik have declined over the past decade.