Saturday, June 30, 2012

Political Digest for June 30, 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.

I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article. Help your friends and relatives stay informed by passing the digest on. In some cases I post things sent to me by readers I might not have posted on my own, to get ideas circulating.

Always worth reading: A Political Glossary Part IV, By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Nowhere is political rhetoric more shameless -- or more dangerous -- than in the pious names that politicians give to the legislation they pass. Perhaps the most egregious example is the so-called "Indian Child Welfare Act," which callously sacrifices the welfare of Indian children. Time and again, children with some American Indian ancestry, who have been adopted by families that are not of that ancestry, have been suddenly taken by law from the only parents they have ever known and transferred to some distant Indian reservation, to live among strangers in a world they know nothing about.

Obama boosted, but not by a lot
Excerpt: President Obama won a big victory with the Supreme Court’s healthcare ruling. But it won’t make winning a second term much easier. The 5-4 ruling validated Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment, reaffirming the president’s decision to use his political capital to push the law through Congress. (The great irony, of course, is that Obama voted against confirming Roberts to the court. If Roberts had been a
Chicago Way
politician like Obama, it would have been payback time. ~Bob.)

High court gives GOP new weapon on taxes
Excerpt: Republicans have seized on the Supreme Court's decision that the health insurance mandate is a tax, believing it will help them argue a second term for President Obama would be devastating for the economy. Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney employed the line of attack shortly after the ruling came down, asserting “Obamacare raises taxes on the American people by approximately $500 billion.” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a top contender to be Romney’s running mate, drove home the point, arguing Obama has been freed to unleash an army of tax collectors on the public.

Health-care ruling motivates Romney supporters
Excerpt: If conservatives needed any more motivation to unseat President Obama, they got it Thursday from the Supreme Court, which provided fresh political opportunities for Mitt Romney even as it handed the president a legal victory.

Roberts’s health-care decision stuns many but is in line with his outlook
Excerpt: Roberts may have sided with liberals to save the signature domestic achievement of Obama’s presidency, but he also gave conservatives important legal beachheads that could pay off down the road.

Three Cheers for Chief Justice Roberts. By Howard Galganov
Excerpt: The Supreme Court Judgment in favor of Obamacare is as Machiavellian Brilliant as it comes. … What Chief Justice Roberts did was hand Obama a 100% SUICIDE PILL.

A Medicaid Dilemma: Will the Supreme Court’s ruling force the feds to fix a tottering program? By Nicole Gelinas And Paul Howard
Excerpt: President Obama scored a huge victory today. Chief Justice John Roberts led a Supreme Court majority in upholding most of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, including the critical mandate that most people either purchase health insurance or pay a financial penalty. Yet in that victory was a significant loss—and a potential gain for federalism. The court took away one of Washington’s favorite ways of making sure that the almost-poor don’t go without insurance: forcing the states to take care of it. And the ruling just might lead to a much-needed reform of Medicaid.

A victory for Obama in June, but what about November?
Excerpt: Republicans were clearly anticipating a different outcome. All their rhetoric, all their body language and many of their preparations were based on the assumption that the justices would deal a significant setback to the president, at a minimum by striking down the individual mandate. After all, it was Republican leaders — strategists — who were warning their colleagues this week not to gloat once the ruling was announced.

Day One, Job One: Full Repeal of Obamacare
Romney ad.

Obama Campaign Health Care Tee Shirt For Sale
Classy. ~Bob

Five Possible Silver Linings in the Obamacare Decision. By Timothy Dalrymple
I have not been as overwhelmed with grief at the Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act as some of my fellow conservatives. I was wondering whether I was just being naive, but since I just listened in person to a talk from Paul Clement, who actually argued the case on behalf of the states before the Supreme Court, and his feelings seemed to resonate with my own, I feel a little more confident now to share what might be some of the silver linings in this decision:

15 Reasons Why The Obamacare Decision Is A Mind Blowing Disaster For America
Excerpt: You can almost always count on the Supreme Court to do the wrong thing. In fact, just about every major decision by the U.S. Supreme Court over the last 40 years has been bad for America. Many were hoping that the Supreme Court would strike down Obamacare, but the truth is that we all should have known better than to expect them to get something right.

Why John Roberts upheld Obamacare. By Charles Krauthammer
Excerpt: It's the judiciary's Nixon-to-China: Chief Justice John Roberts joins the liberal wing of the Supreme Court and upholds the constitutionality of Obamacare. How? By pulling off one of the great constitutional finesses of all time. (Oh, I get it. Roberts appeared to be a hater of the Constitution to avoid appearing political. So aside from specializing in appearances, what is he REALLY? And what about the Constitution? --Don Hank)

The One Percent Triumph in Obamacare. By Gina Loudon
Excerpt: As Americans of all stripes shake off their shock over Obamacare being upheld, a chilling realization will soon set in. The good news in the short term, is that the only answer for people who want to escape the federal government takeover of health care is to elect politicians of either party who solemnly commit to the rule of law and swear allegiance to the Constitution. The bad news is that the 1% just completed their utter takeover of the nation and Lord help us now.

Why The Supreme Court Decision on Obamacare May Dramatically Increase the Deficit. By Avik Roy
Excerpt: An unappreciated point about today’s Supreme Court ruling is that it will have significant consequences for the federal deficit. It all comes out of the Court’s opinion that states have the ability to opt out of Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid. Paradoxically, this decision by the Court could lead to dramatically higher government health-care spending.

Romney raises $4.6M after health ruling
Excerpt: Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has raised $4.6 million since the Supreme Court ruled that President Obama's healthcare law is constitutional.

ObamaCare Ruling: Pure Fraud and No Due Process. By Andrew C. McCarthy
Excerpt: Indeed, the Court not only upheld a fraud perpetrated on the public — it became a willing participant. The assessment charged for failure to comply with ObamaCare’s “individual mandate,” which requires Americans to purchase health insurance, was presented to the country by the administration and the Democratic Congress as a penalty assessed for lawlessness — i.e., for refusing to honor this new legal requirement. It was strenuously denied by proponents that they were raising taxes.

Excerpt: The justices sent a message loud and clear in their decision upholding Obamacare and the requirement that everybody has to buy a health insurance policy, or else. That’s a tax, the court held, and the power to tax is the holiest of holies for any government.

The Constitutional Importance of the ObamaCare Ruling. By Joseph Klein
Excerpt: On the other hand, Obama can no longer duck the reality that Obamacare is built on the foundation of huge tax increases that affect virtually all Americans. Furthermore, the left’s incessant attacks against the court and the right as of late — that the conservative Supreme Court has become corrupted by “politicalization” and “activism” — have suddenly become obsolete and exposed as hypocritical.

A giant hole in the safety net? By Lyle Denniston
The modern welfare state, one in which a socially sensitive Congress has been eager to soothe the pangs of poverty, hunger, disease and aging, has created a huge safety net, but people keep falling through it. It definitely has not been as sturdy as Congress or the advocates for society’s neglected, outcast or under-served had wanted. The question, in the wake of Thursday’s compromise decision by the Supreme Court, salvaging a part of Congress’s massive expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor, is whether a gaping new hole has been opened in that net. If there is a hole, huge or less so, it has a name: the “coercion” theory. Seven Justices of the Supreme Court, rescuing that theory from the back of history’s closet where it has remained totally unused, embraced at least of version of the idea that Congress can make life so tough for its state partners in a joint social welfare program that it violates the Constitution. In the form outlined in the opinion by Chief Justice R. Roberts, Jr., it can be thought of properly as a new doctrine of states’ rights, or of federalism.

Stock trades may show Obamacare leak from Supreme Court. By Neil Munro
Excerpt: The Supreme Court’s stunning rejuvenation of the Obamacare mandate into a new tax didn’t leak to Washington D.C. insiders — but it appears that it may have leaked to yet-unknown Wall Street investors. In a brief 10-minute period starting at 9:32 a.m., the stock value of the nation’s largest hospital chain, HCA Holdings Inc., jumped from $26.81 per share to $27.53 as bidders bought several hundred thousand shares before the court made its announcement just after 10 a.m

House votes to hold Attorney General Holder in contempt of Congress
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/28/house-holds-holder-contempt/#ixzz1z8fKfpCx
Excerpt: The GOP-led House voted Thursday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for failing to provide key information pertaining to Operation Fast and Furious, making Holder the first sitting Cabinet member to be held in contempt.
The vote was 255-67 , with 17 Democrats breaking ranks to side with Republicans in favor of contempt.

Complete List of Democrats Voting to Hold Holder in Contempt of Congress
Excerpt: While the House Democratic leadership and their allies have attempted to paint this as nothing more then pure petty politics, the roll call from today's vote reveals something interesting... 17 Democrats voted to hold Holder in contempt - destroying the media's partisan narrative, and possibly giving more Democrats wiggle room to also oppose the embattled Attorney General.

Black Lawmakers Plot 'Walkout Strategy' During Holder Contempt Vote. By Shane Goldmacher
Excerpt: The Congressional Black Caucus has called a members-only "emergency" meeting on Thursday to plot a "walkout strategy" ahead of the scheduled contempt vote of Attorney General Eric Holder later in the day. (Celebrating Eric Withholder’s dereliction of duty by being derelict in their own. ~Bob.)

Supreme Court Strikes Down Law That Makes It Illegal to Lie About Receiving Military Awards
Excerpt: The case involved Xavier Alvarez who was an elected member of the Three Valleys Municipal Water District Board in Pomona, California. In 2007 Alvarez said at a public water district board meeting that he was a retired Marine, had been “wounded many times,” and had been “awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor” in 1987. In fact, he had never served in the United States armed forces. (Okay, but his "sentence" is that every person of honor will shun him for the rest of his life. That may do. ~Bob.)

Another one bites the dust. Abound Solar, $400 million Energy Dept. Loan Guarantee, Goes Bankrupt
Excerpt: Another one bites the dust. Colorado-based thin solar panel manufacturing company Abound Solar on Thursday announced that it will be filing for bankruptcy next week. The company was awarded a $400 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy in 2010, but as both the company and the Energy Department have made clear today, it only claimed about $70 million of the total before the guarantee was frozen by the government after Abound failed to hit financial targets.

CBO Releases Report on Federal Efforts to Reduce the Cost of Capturing and Storing Carbon Dioxide
Excerpt: No CCS-equipped coal-fired power plants have been built on a commercial scale because any electricity generated by such plants would be much more expensive than electricity produced by conventional coal-burning plants: ... Such an investment seems unlikely in the foreseeable future and it might not occur even if the technology became more competitive economically.

TTP release video of beheaded Pakistani soldiers
Guess they didn't get the "Islam is a Religion of Peace" memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Warning: The content of this video is extremely graphic. The video shows the aftermath of the beheadings of 17 Pakistani soldiers. The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has released video showing the remains of 17 Pakistani soldiers who were beheaded after being captured in the northwestern district of Dir three days ago.

Russia and China vow to protect Syria from becoming another Libya. By Farooq Yousaf
Excerpt: It is now widely known that the Obama administration, with the help of its allies, is planning to launch an offensive against the Assad regime in Syria. The attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, with the help Israel, also seems to be on the cards. In such a situation, where Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have proven to be clear fiascos, the dwindling world economic scene can least afford another major conflict. (Interesting, but consider the source. ~Bob. What was all that talk about how Obama and Putin were plotting something? --Don Hank.)

Lone Star Tick causing meat allergies in central Virginia
The PETA tick, unleashed. ~Bob

Air Force Expands Sex Probe
Excerpt: The Air Force is investigating its training units following the disclosure that 31 women recruits have leveled sexual-misconduct charges against instructors at Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio. Air Force Gen. Edward Rice, commander of the Air Education and Training Command, said Thursday that a dozen instructors, nine of them from a single training squadron, are being investigated in a series of incidents stretching over 2½ years, ending in mid-2011. (This is what you get when you promote the "If it Feels good-Do It" philosophy. Again too, what you get when you promote the idea of "If you don't like a law, just ignore it" –DH.)

Rating the Best—and Worst—States to Do Business
How business friendly is the place you've set up shop? A new report rates the business climate of states and counties across the U.S., based on a survey of business owners. … For instance, Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma and Utah all earned A+ scores in rankings for states most friendly to small businesses. On the bottom end of the report card are California, Hawaii, Vermont and Rhode Island.

NPR Hosannas: Obama's Voice 'Clears Up The Weather.' By Warner Todd Huston
Excerpt: At around 130 days until Election Day, National Public Radio thought it would be nice to give the President a little boost by going back to its 2008 practice of assigning to Obama the god-like powers of The One, The Light Bringer, The Obammessiah. This time tax dollar supported NPR thought it would be nice to air the claim that the mere sound of Obama's voice can part the clouds, stop that depressing ol' rain, and bring out the sun. No, really.

California small business owner: Health care ruling means outsourcing jobs, layoffs. By Rose Corona
Excerpt: “How will this affect not only my business, but businesses as a whole, now and in the future?” First of all, in my business, the first step will be to start cutting costs … means cutting jobs…If at all possible, I will be outsourcing those jobs that we presently do in house, such as accounting and payroll and anything else…

YWCA Mobilizing Young Women to Vote in November for Their ‘Reproductive Rights.’ By Kendra Alleyne
Excerpt: Reinforcing its feminist mission, the YWCA is launching a get-out-the-vote drive, urging young women to participate in an election it describes as “critical to the well-being of women, girls and people of color.”

Excerpt: Losses on JPMorgan Chase’s bungled trade could total as much as $9 billion, far exceeding …When Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chief executive, announced in May that the bank had lost $2 billion in a bet on credit derivatives…

JP Morgan and Obama in Cahoots!
Excerpt: Remember back in the good ol' days when Nancy Pelosi said "Food Stamps Create Jobs", and then Tom Vilsak said "Food Stamps Create Jobs", and then Obama Pushed to Expand Food Stamp Eligibility, and then you had Jesse Jackson saying "It was an honor to be the Food Stamp President. Remember that ?Then you had Newt Gingrich saying "Obama is the Food Stamp President", and then Everybody Chastised Gingrich for saying those words. Remember that ?

JPMorgan Chase & Co Affiliates and Other Wall Street giving to Obama and Democrats in 2008 Elections. (Only affiliates that have given money are included in this list)

Excerpt: Did you know that President Obama has been incommunicado with Colorado's governor for more than two weeks as the nation's worst wildfires rage across the state? Maybe he thought we were all "doing fine." After an embarrassing Beltway press briefing revelation about our out-of-touch White House, the administration finally decided to divert the campaigner in chief from his nationwide fundraising frenzy for a quick look-see at our devastated city on Friday. It's "leadership from behind" you can count on.

'These kids don't expect to lead a full life': Fears for Chicago teens as fatal shootings in city outnumber US troops killed in Afghanistan
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2161690/Chicago-crime-More-people-shot-dead-Chicago-killed-duty-Afghanistan.html
Excerpt: The worrying revelation by Spencer Leak, Sr. came as it emerged that more people have been shot dead on the streets of Chicago this year than U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan. … Over the course of the war since 2001, around 2,000 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan compared to the 5,000 gunfire victims in the Illinois city. (So, will Obama get us out of Chicago? ~Bob.)

26/11 Mumbai terror attacks suspect 'confirms Pakistan role'
Excerpt: "The argument that non-state actors were behind the massacre is no longer valid. He has confirmed that he was in the control room (and) this has confirmed our suspicion that there was some organised effort," Chidambaram said. (Can we get our billions in aid money back? Can we at least stop giving them more? –Robert Spencer, http://www.jihadwatch.com/)

State Department Removes Christian Persecution From Human Rights Report
Excerpt: In a major blow to persecuted Christians living in oppressive nations, the U.S. State Department for the first time removed the section on religious persecution from the Country Reports on Human Rights that it released at the end of May 2012. The report, which this year highlighted the success of the “Arab Spring” – the assisted “revolutions” for a democratic society in several Middle Eastern nations such as Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, purged the sections which discuss the rampant abuse, persecution and loss of freedom for the Christians who live in these countries under their new “democratic regimes” in these predominately Muslim countries. (The neocons insist we must stay involved militarily in the Middle East, where our military and political adventures have led to the almost total elimination of the Christian population. Despite his engagement in a bloody civil war, Assad is the head of the only pro-Christian nation in the region, but the West wants him dead. Of our allies, ONLY China and Russia (powers that we can't afford to mess with) are willing to defend these Christians. The world is topsy-turvy. The only thing that makes sense is to stay out of this. --Don Hank)

Elected Officials Should Have to Pass a Test on the Constitution before Running for Office
Excerpt: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) says that support for nationalized healthcare is constitutional under the ‘Good and Welfare Clause.’ Huh? CNSNews.com asked Rep. Conyers, “What part of the Constitution do you think gives Congress the authority to mandate individuals to purchase health insurance?”

Big banks craft "living wills" in case they fail
Excerpt: Five of the biggest banks in the United States are putting finishing touches on plans for going out of business as part of government-mandated contingency planning that could push them to untangle their complex operations. The plans, known as living wills, are due to regulators no later than July 1 under provisions of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law designed to end too-big-to-fail bailouts by the government.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Political Digest for June 29, 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.

US now firmly on the road to Greece: Supreme Court upholds entire health care law
Even though there's disagreement on the issue, the majority ruling is essentially saying it is up to the branches to work out the differences. "When a court confronts an unconstitutional statue its endeavor must be to conserve, not destroy the legislation," Roberts wrote. (Well, if there is any silver lining, since a solid majority of the public has loathed Obamacare since day one, this may energize Romney voters as nothing else could. Reports on Twitter that Romney raised $1M in first three hours after the decision. The Supreme Court has had its say. Your say is coming. Our last hope to stave off fiscal collapse, slim as it is, is on November 6, 2012. After that, it’s Katy, bar the door! ~Bob. I'm trying to figure out what to do now. Once this thing goes into effect, do I just drop the insurance I have now? How about all the money that was stolen from me via the mandatory Medicare tax over the decades? If Romney doesn't win in November, I am now certain that there is no hope for this country. None. –Larry Woolverton.)

Excerpt: Having gone through the opinion, I am not going to beat up on John Roberts. I am disappointed, but I want to make a few points. John Roberts is playing at a different game than the rest of us. We’re on poker. He’s on chess.

Called it: In the end. By Tom Goldstein
Excerpt: In the end, you have to make a prediction and take responsibility for it. I believe the mandate will not be invalidated tomorrow. Far less important, I expect the principal opinion will be written by the Chief Justice; a majority of the Court will find it has jurisdiction; and the challenge to the Medicaid expansion will be rejected.

Tweet From @RBPundit
It's official now. Small businesses won't hire past 49 people to avoid ObamaCareTax. Thanks Obama!

Tweet from Kevin Eder @keder
This is ObamaCare --> $500 billion in tax increases. $500 billion in Medicare cuts. Employers drop coverage. Government gets bigger.

I just became Mitt Romney's most rabid supporter. Virtually every day until Nov. 6th is dedicated to his election as far as I'm concerned.

Tweet from Jimmie @jimmiebjr
Hey @GOP. I'm sure you noticed already, but those Obamacare exemptions? They're now tax breaks for rich donors and corporations.

Clarence Thomas voted against Obamacare...to me he is that field nigga that will never be a house nigga but he keeps trying anyway. (Ah, the sensitive left, always tolerant of diversity of thought in Obama’s post-racial America. ~Bob.)

What Did SCOTUS Just Do? By Jay Cost
Excerpt: If you were above all interested in the bill being struck down, it was mostly a loss. On the other hand, if you were more concerned about the qualitative expansion in the power of the government that the bill represented, it was definitely a win.

Excerpt: Republicans on Thursday called the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold most of President Obama’s healthcare law a stinging disappointment and a “rallying cry” to win an electoral mandate to repeal it. “It’s a sad day for liberty in America,” Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), a conservative member of the Republican “doctor’s caucus” said as he walked into a meeting of House Republicans in the basement of the Capitol minutes after the ruling came down.

House will vote on repeal on July 11
Excerpt: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Thursday that the Republican-led House will vote on repealing the health care law soon after the July 4 recess.
Cantor, who sets the floor schedule in the House, said in a statement that the House will vote on the repeal the week of July 9 – which Cantor said will clear the path for “patient-centered reforms that lower costs and increase choice.”

Excerpt: Obama In 2008: Health Care Should “Never Be Purchased With Tax Increases On middle Class Families”

Part III, Also Worth Reading: A Political Glossary: Part III. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: If there were a Hall of Fame for political rhetoric, the phrase "social justice" would deserve a prominent place there. It has the prime virtue of political catchwords: It means many different things to many different people. (When the Progressives say, “Social Justice,” I hear, “Stand and Deliver!” ~Bob.)

Supreme Court strikes down Stolen Valor law
Excerpt: The Supreme Court has struck down a federal law making it a crime to lie about having received the Medal of Honor and other prized military awards. The court voted 6-3 Thursday in favor of Xavier Alvarez, a former local elected official in California who falsely claimed he was a decorated war veteran. (I understand, but disagree. Freedom of Speech doesn’t give you the right to benefit from fraud, and these frauds benefit from gathering un-deserved esteem, fame, recognition and often jobs or special consideration that belong to the honorable. If I claim, fraudulently on my resume that I have an MBA from Harvard, and my employer finds out and fires me, has he violated my free speech rights? On the plus side, I can still tell the story of how I “won” the National Defense Medal. [Vets will get the joke.] ~Bob.)

Too funny: Very best wishes for a speedy, full recovery (for Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.). By John Kass
Excerpt: The news of Jackson's exhaustion comes after his political benefactor, Raghuveer Nayak, was charged last week with bribing doctors to send patients to his medical clinics. Remember that it was Nayak who, years ago, allegedly offered as much as $6 million in campaign cash for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich if Blago would only appoint Bud Light to the U.S. Senate.

Pentagon's Best-Kept Secret: F-35 Fighter Is Progressing Nicely. By Loren Thompson
Excerpt: If you pay any attention to media coverage of the F-35 fighter program, then you know the Pentagon’s biggest weapons program is “troubled” (to use the favored adjective of reporters). Flight tests are lagging, costs are skyrocketing, and overseas partners are beginning to get cold feet. So the Joint Strike Fighter, as it used to be called, is looking like another black eye for the Pentagon’s fouled up acquisition system, right? Wrong.

Judge denies request to stop voter purge
Excerpt: U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle on Wednesday denied a request by the U.S. Department of Justice to stop Florida from removing non-U.S. citizens from the voter rolls. The Justice Department asked for a restraining order, claiming the removal of noncitizens violates a federal law prohibiting the systemic removal of noncitizens less than 90 days before a federal election.

Guide Horses? Obama’s Department of ‘Islamic’ Justice bows down to Muslims’ irrational hatred of dogs
Excerpt: Miniature horses are viable alternatives to dogs for individuals with allergies, or for those whose religious beliefs preclude the use of dogs,” the rules state. A recent Justice Department ruling that allows miniature horses to be used instead of dogs as service animals for the blind and handicapped, also mandates that shops, restaurants, hotels and even airlines be forced to allow service horses into their establishments or face lawsuits if they refuse to accommodate horses. (Didn't they think of goats? ~Bob.)

Website Michelle Campaign E-Mail: Barack's Your Husband, Too
Excerpt: The Obama campaign has sunk to a new low. Today, Michelle Obama sent an email to the entire campaign list, titled “Being married to Barack.” ... desperate calling card of a sad and frightened campaign.

Excerpt: The dinner table “promotion [is] open only to U.S. citizens, or lawful permanent U.S. residents who are legal residents of 50 United States, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico and 18 or older,” said the legalese in a June 26 solicitation.

The President That Time Forgot. By Daniel Henninger
Excerpt: Leaked national security secrets may be a dime a dozen now, but the Supreme Court still sits as the last major American institution that doesn't conduct its business out the back door. Which is to say none of the Supreme Court's nine justices called me to reveal their ObamaCare decision before its Thursday annunciation.

Hamas announces senior member is assassinated in Damascus
Excerpt: Palestinian terror group declares it does not know who killed Kamal Ranaja in the Syrian capital but says it is investigating, vows that his blood will "not be wasted."

WaPo Fact Checker Defends ‘Four Pinocchios’ For Outsourcing Ad Against Romney
Excerpt: In a case of awkward timing, The Washington Post’s report on Thursday evening on Mitt Romney’s investments in companies that specialized in outsourcing came only hours after the Washington Post’s ‘Fact Checker’ blog gave one of its harshest ratings to an Obama campaign ad accusing Romney of shipping jobs overseas.

As A Black Conservative, Here’s why I think Barack Obama doesn’t deserve a 2nd term. By Wayne Dupree
Excerpt: Not only has Obama broken many of his promises that got him elected, he has also taken the golden shovel and entrenched this country into a deeper crap hole that many other Presidents started. 

Elizabeth Warren's Birthday Gift From GOP: An Ancestry.com Account. By Elizabeth Hartfield
Excerpt: Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren turns 63 today, and among her birthday gifts is one she probably won't appreciate very much. ... The state's Republican party announced this morning that it is gifting Warren, a Harvard Law professor, with a complimentary account at ancestry.com.

Excerpt: Saudi Arabia is a “destination country” for men and women being trafficked for labor and “to a lesser extent, forced prostitution,” said the United States Department of State in its annual report on human trafficking published June 19. (Sura 23:5-6: Those who restrain their carnal desires except with your wives, your slave girls and the captives your right hand possesses. ~Bob.)

Doctors: We could go out of business
Excerpt: As the nation awaits the Supreme Court's ruling on health care reform, America's doctors are debating a serious issue of their own -- the possibility of going out of business. Doctors, especially those operating private practices, said their financial hardship is increasing, making it "harder for them to earn a decent living," according to a new survey of 673 physicians across 29 specialties by MDLinx, a medical reference website for physicians.

Excerpt: [The writer is a retired brigadier who has served in senior intelligence postings in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.] The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) media cell of South Waziristan has released a video showing the planning and execution of the attack on the Bannu Jail. In the video, Hakeemullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman revealed the TTP manifesto, which they claimed is to be implemented through armed jihad. The salient message of the speeches is that democracy is a system that was brought about by non-believers and that the TTP wants to change this — through use of force.

Germany offers vision of federalism for the European Union
Excerpt: But especially in recent weeks, Merkel and her top ministers have been spelling out a far grander, German alternative to convince markets the euro is here to stay. What they envision would mark a radical step forward in European integration through a “political union” in which countries in the region would act more like American states, sharing an elected president and even a pan-European army. (Maybe call it the “Greater Reich”? Federalism works fine until someone with a vision of an all-powerful central government gets elected to “fundamentally transform” the government. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: What the US needs is bipartisan health care reforms, not the partisan ram-down that we’ve experienced with Obamacare. (Bruce is a friend of mine, but that has nothing to do with my opinion of his ideas. I think he makes a lot of sense. Trying those 10 ideas in health care would not create a monster federal bureaucracy, and if the needed improvements didn't come through, then a federal answer could be considered. –Del)

Tax cheats given $1.4 billion in stimulus loans
Excerpt: Tax cheats were given $1.4 billion in government-backed mortgage loans under President Obama’s economic stimulus, and the government doled out at least an additional $27 million in tax credits to delinquents who took the first-time-homebuyer tax break, according to a government audit released Wednesday.

Excerpt: President Obama once said he couldn't "just change the laws unilaterally." He doesn't act like it. He has sidestepped Congress repeatedly, most notably with his edict to selectively enforce federal immigration laws.
Multiple stumbles on the Democrats's road to Charlotte, N.C. convention
Excerpt: Organizers of the Democratic National Convention have faced a series of setbacks in what was supposed to be a seamless celebration of President Obama’s renomination. Officials are dealing with financial problems thanks to a ban on corporate donations, and several Democrats in tough races have decided to skip the September gathering in Charlotte, N.C., altogether. (In 1972, after the incumbent senator blew up in a TV debate and started screaming at me [“You’re a snide, slimy young man,” was the exact wording.], thus putting me on the path to election, a prominent local attorney said to the senator’s campaign manager, “I thought you guys were supposed to be the pros?” It applies here. ~Bob.)

Uncertainty crippling the struggling economy
Excerpt: Uncertainties are crippling the U.S. economy, and there’s a good chance Thursday’s Supreme Court decision will add to the problem. U.S. businesses are stacking up profits on their balance sheets, but they’re not investing in new workers and plants. The No. 1 reason is that executives just don’t see the demand, but this is compounded by policymakers in Washington and Brussels dithering over taxes and government spending, according to Wall Street analysts. (Yup. ~Bob.)

Worth Reading: Jumpstart the Economy! By John B. Taylor
(George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Economics; Chair, Working Group on Economic Policy; and member of the Task Force on Energy Policy)
Excerpt: The best way to understand the problems confronting the American economy is to go back to the first principles of economic freedom upon which the country was founded. As these principles developed over the years, we can see periods when careful attention was paid to them and alternating periods when they were neglected. And we can draw clear conclusions from this history: When policymakers stuck to the principles, economic performance was good. When they ignored or compromised on the principles, economic performance deteriorated. (Yup. ~Bob.)

The Private Cost of Public Queues
Excerpt: In December 2011, the Fraser Institute released its 21st annual measurement of waiting times for medically necessary treatments in Canada. This most recent measurement shows that the national median waiting time from specialist appointment to treatment increased from 9.3 weeks in 2010 to 9.5 weeks in 2011. Nadeem Esmail of the Fraser Institute has since provided an informed measure of the economic disruption caused by this lost time. Pulling on data from the health sector and national wage data, he concludes that aggregate losses are valued in the billions of dollars.

Banking on green energy: Bailed-out BOA returns favor to Uncle Sam’s renewables. By Matt Patterson
Excerpt: As if that weren’t bad enough, earlier this year, mortgage giant Fannie Mae, that paragon of fiscal prudence, announced it was cutting off Bank of America from selling loans because the bank was failing to honor repurchase requests in a “timely” fashion. When an institution that contributed to the 2008 financial meltdown with its profligate lending calls you out, you know you’ve got problems. So it seems a little more than strange that BOA is proudly claiming it will spend upward of $50 billion over the next 10 years to help fight “climate change.”

Geezer Manifesto
Excerpt: Yes, we are old and slow these days but rest assured, we have at least one good fight left in us. We have loved this country, fought for it, and died for it, and now we are going to save it. It is our country and nobody is going to take it away from us.
We took oaths to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that is an oath we plan to keep.

Exclusive: Muslim Brotherhood Preaching Israel Destruction After Election
Excerpt: "Every Muslim will be asked about the Zionists' usurpation of al-Aqsa Mosque. Why did he not seek to recover it, and wage Jihad in His way? Did he not care about the fatwa of the ulema [scholars] of the Muslims, 'Jihad of self and money to recover al Aqsa is a duty on every Muslim?'" asked Mohamed Badie, General Guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, in a June 14th speech translated exclusively by the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

Court Gives A Green Light To The Imperial EPA
Excerpt: : Should one unelected agency dictate energy choices that could profoundly affect America's economy and our future? A court says yes, at least when it comes to climate change. For those who have tracked the efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency to clamp down on carbon dioxide emissions, this week's news from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will come as no surprise. (In 2007, with the whole Global Warming alarm ringing loudly all over, the Supreme Court made a major error in accepting the major premise that CO2 from human beings is the direct cause of supposedly tremendous warming. Five years later we know that what warming there is, is slow, that there's a very strong other side to the debate, that the science is not "settled" by a long shot, and that some of those pushing the AGW hypothesis departed dramatically from actual scientific practice. We also know the computer models predicting all this all hinge on a mechanism whereby a tiny change in CO2 causes a major change in atmospheric humidity, a mechanism that is 100% theoretical with zero data to support it. Meanwhile the EPA is going crazy hamstringing industries all over, which is pretty much exactly what we do not need for our society. Time to rein them in, sharply, before they do more serious damage to the economy. --Del)

Texas researchers hack into a government drone. By Matt Pitchford
Excerpt: A team of researchers at the University of Texas successfully hijacked a government drone by “spoofing” its GPS signal, with parts costing only $1,000, RT News reported. In a test with the Department of Homeland Security, Professor Todd Humphreys and his team from the Austin Radionavigation Laboratory mimicked the GPS signals directing the drone and wrested control from the intended operators sending their signals by satellite. A hijacked drone is not only useless, it is potentially dangerous. Humphreys reportedly told Fox News “In five or ten years you have 30,000 drones in the airspace. Each one of these could be a potential missile used against us.”

USDA suggests food stamp parties, games to increase participation. By Caroline May
Excerpt: While spending on the food stamp program has increased 100 percent under President Barack Obama, the government continues to push more Americans to enroll in the welfare program. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has embraced entire promotional campaigns designed to encourage eligible Americans to participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps. A pamphlet currently posted at the USDA website encourages local SNAP offices to throw parties as one way to get potentially eligible seniors to enroll in the program. The ads have been running since March and are scheduled to continue through the end of June — at a cost of $2.5 million — $3 million, CNN Money reported Monday.

Security lapses found at CDC bioterror lab in Atlanta. By Alison Young
Excerpt: A federal bioterror laboratory already under investigation by Congress for safety issues has had repeated incidents of security doors left unlocked to an area where experiments occur with dangerous germs, according to internal agency e-mails obtained by USA TODAY. In one incident, an unauthorized employee was discovered inside a restricted area. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman says the unsecured door incidents in 2010 and 2009 inside its Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory in Atlanta were "not an acceptable practice of the agency."

Is Obama Planning to Reinstate Obamacare via Executive Order? By Avik Roy
Excerpt: “We will be prepared,” said Obama aide Valerie Jarrett this week when asked about White House contingency plans in the event that Obamacare is struck down by the Supreme Court. But on Twitter, Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic said something interesting: that the White House has executive orders ready to go if Obamacare is struck down. “Their content and timing I don’t know,” Marc says. “But they’ve got contingency plans a-plenty.”


Obama's Perverse Plan for Permanent Recession. By Peter Ferrara
Excerpt: Indeed, if Obama's perverse policies are not reversed, his soaring tax rate increases next year on top of his skyrocketing regulatory burdens and runaway federal spending, deficits, and debt will just throw America back into recession, before there was even any real recovery from the last recession. Then unemployment will soar back into double digits, the deficit will soar to new records over $2 trillion, and President Obama will have added more to the national debt than all prior U.S. Presidents combined, from George Washington to George Bush. The entire period will then look just like a historical reenactment of the 1930s.

The Stupid Party Expands Government Again. By Erick Erickson
Excerpt: House and Senate Republican leaders, collectively the Stupid Party, are yet again set to expand government, government spending, and engage in Keynesian economic policies they’ve criticized Barack Obama for. Republicans and Democrats have agreed to a massive increase in federal gluttony with a highway bill. The Republicans decided to drop demands for approving the Keystone XL pipeline and demands that the EPA stop its ridiculous regulations on coal plants that will harm our energy future. In exchange, Democrats will not fund bike paths and highway landscaping.

Tweet from David Freddoso @freddoso
A lot has happened since Obama last called Colorado's governor about the fires. 18 Obama fundraisers, for example.

Why All My Ex's Live In Texas, By Wayne Allyn Root
Excerpt: Not only do my ex’s live in Texas, but your ex’s, and pretty much everyone else’s ex’s as well. All of America is moving to Texas. Especially the ex-residents of high tax states like California and New York. And, I'll bet many of the ex-residents of Big Brother tax and spend Massachusetts, Illinois and Michigan are there too.

Excerpt: The charge that the Obama administration coordinated with the health-care industry in 2009 during the Obamacare fight to send a good chunk of business to the consulting firm founded by presidential adviser David Axelrod has resurfaced in the news media. (When it was clear in September of 2008 that Obama was going to be elected president, I pretty much expected the combination of “Chicago Way” corruption tied to anti-freedom, anti-free-market, pro-big government policies we have gotten. But I must say I’m over-whelmed with the daily catalog of their efforts to fundamentally change America into Greece, on all fronts. ~Bob.)

Legal Illegal Immigration. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Ostensibly that blanket amnesty applies to those who arrived before the age of 16 and are younger than 30; who are in, or graduated from, high school or have served in the military; and who have not been convicted of a felony or multiple misdemeanors. And while most Americans sympathize with helping those who were brought into the United States as toddlers, raised as de facto Americans and followed the rules, the policy of exempting hundreds of thousands en masse in the long run may create far more problems than it solves. First was the cynical timing.

Not California’s last bankrupt city By Ben Boychuk
Excerpt: Stockton, Calif., is bankrupt, but its troubles are no fluke. In fact, California’s 13th-largest city — a former Gold Rush boomtown, and home to one of the largest inland ports in the world — has been broke for quite some time. The City Council just made it official this week.

Interesting: Bankrupt Stockton, CA and The Domino Theory.
Excerpt: Yesterday the powers that be in Stockton, California met to discuss their route to municipal bankruptcy. This central California city of 250,000 people today followed Vallejo, California into the realm of distinction of governmental bankruptcy. Currently in arrears of payments due in the tens of millions of dollars, the city has debt of nearly three quarters of a billion dollars.

Southland cities struggle to avoid joining Stockton in bankruptcy
Excerpt: City managers in Southern California on Wednesday were casting a wary eye on Stockton, the latest city to head to bankruptcy court, but said they were working hard to avoid what one public policy analyst predicted would be a string of municipal failures. (NO mention that California (State Counties Local) pay out $21 BILLION/year in benefits to Illegal Aliens. –DH)

Obama Administration’s Breathtaking Arrogance on Questions about Inviting a Terrorist to Washington. By Andrew C. McCarthy
Excerpt The terrorist organization in question, the Islamic Group (Gama’at al Islamia), is the group led by Omar Abdel Rahman, the notorious “Blind Sheikh” currently serving a life sentence in U.S. federal prison for his foundational role in forming the jihadist cell that carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and was later thwarted while attempting simultaneously to bomb several other New York City landmarks. …The Obama administration is now doing essentially the same thing Stewart was doing but calling it “foreign policy.” The administration is actively aiding and abetting members of a terrorist organization with a hellacious record of violence and threats of violence against the United States.

If you are Muslim you can opt out of the Obamacare health care reform laws with no penalties. By Gil Guignat
Old, but interesting, if true. Snopes.com rates it as “false,” but then says they don’t know how it will come down. http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/exemptions.asp ~Bob. Excerpt: If you are of the Muslim religion, you don't have to give all the new Obamacare healthcare reform regulations and penalties another thought. Because the concept of being compelled to participate in such a healthcare program offends Islamic sensibilities, Muslims are specifically exempt. As a matter of fact if you are Amish, American Indian or a Chistian Scientist you do not need to participate or pay the taxes associated with healthcare reform.

US General: American Military Spies 'Across Africa.' By Lee Ferran
 Excerpt: June 26, 2012 America's top commander in Africa revealed that the U.S. military has conducted spy operations all over the continent as part of the fight against international adversaries from al Qaeda-allied terror groups that target the homeland to suspected war criminals like Joseph Kony. "Do we collect information across Africa? Yes, we do," U.S. Gen. Carter Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command, said in a leadership conference at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies Monday. (Real secret now…Barb.)

Florida Judge Smacks Down Holder Over Non-Citizens Voting. By Tony Lee
Excerpt: The Department of Justice tried to prevent Florida and its Governor, Rick Scott, from removing non-citizens from its voter rolls, asking for a restraining order and arguing that removing non-citizens would be a violation of the National Voter Registration Act. Today, a U.S. District Judge appointed by former President Bill Clinton denied the Department of Justice's request, according to the Miami Herald. Florida will now be able to rightfully remove non-citizens from its voter rolls.

6 Muslims found guilty on terrorism charges
Excerpt: BRUSSELS: Six Muslims have been found guilty on charges of terrorism. The leaders of the gang received 11 and 8 years' imprisonment, others were given penalties up to 5 years. The suspects spread messages of hatred and were talking about possible bomb attacks in Belgium, judges argued. (Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob.)

Breaking: LightsquarEd Founder, Obama Ally Falcone Sued By Sec For Fraud
Excerpt: US regulators sued hedge fund billionaire Philip Falcone for fraud Wednesday, accusing him of taking $113 million from a fund to pay his taxes. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Falcone, who raked in billions betting against packaged mortgage securities ahead of the US real-estate crash, took clients' money from funds run by his Harbinger Capital Partners to pay his personal taxes.

Conservative group parodies Dos Equis commercial in new ad against President Obama. 

Claire McCaskill, convention-dodging and why it won’t work
Excerpt: Let’s start with what McCaskill cited as her reason for skipping. “In years when Claire is on the ballot, she has historically not gone to the convention,” an aide told Talking Points Memo, “because she believes it’s important to stay in Missouri to talk to voters.” Um, right. Unless you were born yesterday — and there are some kids out there to whom this actually applies — you know that the reason McCaskill is staying away from the national convention is to avoid handing Republicans a ready-made opportunity to tie her to President Obama who is, well, not so popular in the Show Me State at the moment.

Important: Future of an Aging Court Raises Stakes of Presidential Vote
Excerpt: Justice Ginsburg is the eldest member of a court that includes four justices in their 70s, making it among the oldest courts since the New Deal era. Its decisions during this historic “flood season,” as Justice Ginsburg described the end-of-term rush, are likely to make the panel — and the tenure of some of the justices — a significant issue in the presidential campaign. (Anyone not doing everything in his or her power to elect Romney is guaranteeing an Obama Court doing destruction for decades. ~Bob.)

Muslim Heritage in America

And for some class entertainment: