The day’s top political news:
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made a surprise announcement Friday that she is resigning from office at the end of the month without explaining why she plans to step down, raising speculation that she would focus on a run for the White House in the 2012 race.
The former Republican vice presidential candidate hastily called a news conference Friday morning at her home in suburban Wasilla, giving such short notice that only a few reporters actually made it to the announcement.
State troopers blocked late-arriving media outside her home, and her spokesman, Dave Murrow, finally emerged to confirm that Palin will step down July 26. He refused to give details about the governor's future plans.
Palin terrifies liberal Democrats and other political foes – the depths of that terror can be measured by the attacks from extremists – from the TV clown, David Letterman, to the “anonymous” McCain staffer quoted by a notorious left wing magazine. Give today’s corruption of journalism, we have no confidence the attack on Palin has any real source outside the editorial offices of the magazine. Nuff said, she scares them silly.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99776200&show_article=1
Obama Urges Groups to Stop Attacks
Advocates should turn its attention to promoting legislation, Obama says.
Obama, strategizing with congressional leaders about health-care reform, complained that liberal advocacy groups ought to drop their attacks on Democratic lawmakers and devote their energy to promoting passage of comprehensive legislation such as the new Cap and Trade tax and socialized medicine.
Specifically, Obama said he is hoping left-leaning organizations that worked on his behalf in the presidential campaign will now rally support for "advancing legislation" that fulfills his goal of expanding coverage, controlling rising costs and modernizing the health system.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/03/AR2009070302309_pf.html
Opinion:
Stand up for America
It’s the day on which we annually celebrate creation of our Declaration of Independence. This year, with our government suffering under the weight of oppressive liberal government – a government that not only often spurns our basic values, but which also sneers at many of them.
The President’s constitutional eligibility for office is among those questions, but since there is also no credible question about that issue, and because the fix is in and nothing will be done regarding it, we wont spend time in that discussion.
America is mad. Really mad. We are seeing the sorts of anger and fury that turned back the amnesty bill a few years back, despite all the Senate, White House and mainstream media could do.
We should always keep that grass root victory in mind.
Today, all across America, normal Americans are rallying in an attempt to take back their country from radical liberals who have ridden to power despite their embrace of ideas and concepts which, in saner times, would be laughable. Political correctness comes to mind. In fact that oxymoron is as good an illustration of just how absurd and stupid the left as exists. It’s trivial and silly. No intelligent people should take it seriously.
The we have the Gore scam and scheme regarding his myths of man made global warming. We have learned the “powers that be” dishonestly hid scientific evidence that Gore’s con game is dead wrong. They had to, they were using Gore’s shtick to push through a new tax – liberals love new taxes. Raping productive America is a major liberal pastime.
Liberals have serious feelings of inferiority. They are terrified by the thought of honest competition, and they want to be loved because they thing being loved will cover up their failings.
It won’t.
Liberals are stupid enough to take such international con games as the UN seriously. At its best, the UN is nothing but a diplomatic chat room. The UN accomplishes nothing unless the US actually does it. Why not eliminated that corrupt middle man and just go at the problem directly all by ourselves?
Normal America wants nothing to do with political liberals IF they understand the real question. Fortunately, they are beginning to get the message and understand. The Tea party protest movement is a good indication. Conservative, normal Americans are not given to street demonstrations, so you can take the numbers of protesters, and multiply them by a factor of one hundred or more, and get a clearer understanding of just how many Americans are fed up enough to take and demand action.
Of course multiply again to make up for the predictable under reporting of tea party crowds by a mainstream media corrupted by the left.
We have a chance today to shout our disdain and disgust through action. The Tea Party protest movement can be very good for America IF that sentiment and momentum are focused on really effective political action. :Lest there be any confusion, let me state clearly what the objective and end product of the movement:
We have got to defeat liberal Democrats and remove them from office. Every Democrat defeat is a victory for American freedom.
If that partisanship offends, so be it. It’s a fact of life. For better or for worse, we live in a two party system, and that wont change anytime soon. Liberal Democrats are forcing votes on bills they present then demand votes on those bills on a time frame that makes reading and analyzing such bills impossible.
No one who voted on Obama’s ridiculous “stimulus” bill had read it. Obama didn’t want it read. The same was true of the “Cap and Trade” scam last week that threatens a huge tax increase unless the Senate can turn it back. Sadly, the Senate is dominated by liberal Democrats. To get House passage, the liberals managed to sneak in over 300 secret pages only hours before the vote. Except for 8 turncoats, Republicans rejected the tax.
This is Independence Day and there have been few times in our history in which our Independence is so important to our future. We must stand up, stand together, and stand for America.
Buddy
The day’s top blogs
1.
http://townhall.com/columnists/OliverNorth/2009/07/04/wrong_again
Wrong Again
Oliver North
WASHINGTON -- It took the Obama administration eight days to figure out whether Iranians being gunned down for protesting a fraudulent election and demanding basic civil liberties deserved to be acknowledged by the president of the United States. It took the O-Team less than eight hours to side with Cuba's Fidel Castro, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega over the ouster of Manuel Zelaya in Honduras.
As we now have come to expect, Mr. Obama got it wrong again, but this time, nobody noticed. The U.S. news media, preoccupied with the sudden demise of Michael Jackson, ignored the event in Central America. For those who care about things more important than the passing of a "pop music legend," here's the rest of the story:
Manuel Zelaya, a wealthy rancher and agribusiness executive and a self-described "poor farmer," won a four-year term as Honduran president in November 2005, with 49.8 percent of the vote. Article 374 of the Honduran Constitution bars the nation's chief executive from serving consecutive terms.
Apparently, one term wasn't enough for Zelaya, a protege of Venezuela's strongman, Hugo Chavez, and Nicaragua's phobic anti-American leader, Daniel Ortega.
Late last year, as the Honduran economy tanked and unemployment grew to nearly 28 percent, Zelaya forced Elvin Santos, the country's elected vice president, to resign and began holding conversations with Chavez and Ortega on how to hold on to power. In lengthy Chavez-like populist speeches, he denounced the U.S. and wealthy landowners and linked himself with leftists in the Honduran labor movement. On March 23, he issued an executive decree directing a national referendum on a Venezuela-style constituent assembly to rewrite the country's constitution in time for presidential and legislative elections in November. The Obama-Clinton State Department was mute about all of this.
Unfortunately for Zelaya's aspirations, the Honduran Constitution requires that amendments be passed by a two-thirds vote of the country's unicameral Congress during two consecutive sessions. By late May, the Honduran Congress, the Honduran Supreme Court, the commissioner for human rights, and the Honduran electoral tribunal all had overwhelmingly declared the referendum unconstitutional. Zelaya ignored the people's representatives, had ballots printed in Venezuela, and announced that the vote would take place June 28. Again, the O-Team was silent.
In keeping with the rule of law, Honduran Attorney General Luis Alberto Rubi took the case to court. The Honduran Supreme Court ruled the referendum to be illegal and ordered the ballots to be confiscated. Late on June 23, Zelaya countermanded the court order and directed the army to distribute the ballots. Gen. Romeo Vasquez, the chief of staff of the Honduran military, sought legal opinions and decided not to distribute them. The following day, Zelaya accepted the resignation of the minister of defense, Edmundo Orellana, and fired Vasquez.
The Honduran Supreme Court unanimously ruled the Vasquez firing illegal and reinstated him June 25. That prompted Zelaya and a group of supporters to seize the ballots and issue another executive decree, which directed government officials to set up 15,000 polling stations at schools and community buildings across the country. In response to a request from Attorney General Rubi, the Honduran Congress -- controlled by Zelaya's own Liberal Party -- opened an investigation into the president's mental stability and fitness to govern. Zelaya replied with a two-hour broadcast harangue, in which he claimed: "Congress cannot investigate me, much less remove me or stage a technical coup against me, because I am honest. I'm a free president, and nobody scares me."
On Sunday, just hours before the referendum was to begin, the Honduran army, acting on a warrant issued by the Honduran Supreme Court, arrested Zelaya and sent him, in his pajamas, into exile in Costa Rica. The Honduran Congress affirmed Zelaya's departure and, in accord with the constitution, named Roberto Micheletti, who had been president of the Congress, as interim president of the country.
(NOTE: There has been an on-going story of struggles to turn back the inherent evil of left wing dictatorships in Central America. My wife and I, along with a good friend who often contributes material to this web site, worked with local leaders to turn back socialism in Belize many years ago – the little nation prospered as a result. The corruption of “Liberation Theology” has led Churches and their clergy to often side with the Communists. The same Communists who slaughter their own people and persecute others. Cuba stands as exhibit “A”. Obama’s dismaying desertion of the forces of freedom to support the cause of Chavez, Castro, et al is outrageous. It tells us more about the deep seated feelings of Obama than we really wanted to know.)
It has been downhill from there. Chavez, Ortega, Castro and Bolivia's Evo Morales immediately condemned the "coup" and demanded that Zelaya be restored to power. Chavez went so far as to threaten military action. When asked about these events Sunday, the O-Team punted the issue to the Organization of American States, calling for "all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter." Now there's a powerful statement of support for a constitutional process and the institutions of democracy. Meanwhile, the Clinton State Department is said to be looking at cutting off aid to the impoverished country.
The O-Team doesn't seem to grasp that simply holding an election does not guarantee a democracy. Adolf Hitler was elected. Hugo Chavez was elected. The Castro brothers were "elected." When potentates decide that the rule of law does not matter, that constitutional restrictions on power can be overcome by executive fiat, the people inevitably suffer. It's a point to remember as we celebrate our own nation's 233rd Independence Day.
2.
http://townhall.com/columnists/DavidHarsanyi/2009/07/04/welcome_to_the_hope_economy
Welcome to the 'Hope' Economy
David Harsanyi
After being asked when the public should begin judging the success of the nearly $800 billion stimulus plan, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs answered, "I think we should begin to judge it now."
Let's take his advice.
The administration warned that if we failed to support a stimulus package, unemployment would hit a dire 9 percent by 2010. With the stimulus, unemployment, it claimed, would stay in the 8 percent range.
This week, the Labor Department announced that the jobless rate jumped to 9.5 percent, higher than it's been anytime since August 1983.
(NOTE: Count on unemployment to shortly pass the 10% mark. Obama’s “stimulus” bill has always been a scam. He rushed it through to prevent those voting on it from being able to read it, and we can expect a plethora of horror stories to be hidden in its depths.)
It's not as if the administration was close. As The New York Times notes: "The difference between the situation that the Obama advisers predicted and the one that has come to pass is about 2.5 million jobs. It's as if every worker in the city of Los Angeles received an unexpected layoff notice."
Don't get too dejected, though. We still have an economic plan with a heaping dose of hope. Surely, you'll feel better when the president begins doling out his two-pronged faith-based explanation -- and if we're lucky, he'll do it at a "town hall" meeting with approximately 100 of his closest friends.
First, you always should assume things could have been worse.
This leap of faith involves buying the "save-and-created-jobs" myth the president likes to peddle. And if you're lucky enough to be working on some state-run boondoggle awash in freshly printed money, smile. As for the rest of America, we once again learn that government spending rarely spurs wider economic prosperity.
But let's, for argument's sake, make believe that the stimulus plan has saved or created 150,000 jobs.
By the end of June, $53 billion in stimulus funding had been spent on weatherizing projects, bridges for rodents and checks for 10,000 formerly living Americans. (This administration doesn't only create jobs; it creates life.) That puts the cost of each job saved at about $354,000, or exactly the sort of efficiency you expect from D.C.
The "things-could-have-been-worse" argument is nothing new, and neither is the second line of defense: Blame capitalism.
So let's also pretend, for the moment, that an era of widespread deregulation spurred a global recession. What exactly has Obama done to mitigate it?
Instead of exerting his extraordinary political capital to bolster American business, the president was busy targeting the investor class; instead of easing the burden on the middle class, Obama radically increased spending and debt; instead of encouraging market innovation, Washington has bolstered the status quo by bailing out antiquated, poorly run industries and crowding out small businesses.
Obama now urges Americans to be patient on the stimulus package. Yet at the same time, the president exhibits a decisive lack of patience as he sprints forward with generational tax increases, in both cap and trade policy and a trillion-dollar-plus health care "reform."
Not surprisingly, many polls illustrate an increasing skepticism regarding the stimulus package and a growing distrust of Washington's unparalleled meddling in the economy. According to a June Rasmussen poll, a plurality of Americans now want government stimulus spending to be canceled.
This rising unease did not stop White House counselor David Axelrod from recently declaring that a second stimulus might be needed.
Needed to do what, one wonders? "Save and create" another 150,000 imaginary jobs?
One day, we will emerge from recession; we always do. And on that day, Obama almost certainly will take credit.
But one wonders: When will the glorious "new era of responsibility" ever actually kick in?
After all, as of right now, judging solely from the administration's very own promises and timeline, we are left with nothing to show for an irresponsible spending binge.
3.
http://www.coyoteblog.com/
Don’t Forget the Minimum Wage
The entire Pacific coast is vying to become the next rust belt. Only the nice climate and beautiful scenery will keep anyone there.
The Labor Department reported yesterday that Oregon’s unemployment rate soared to 12.4% in May, the nation’s second highest after Michigan’s 14.1%. What to do? If you’re the geniuses in the state legislature in Salem, you naturally raise taxes.
Last week the legislature approved a $2 billion tax hike on personal income and small businesses that haven’t already left the state. The highest tax rate on income above $500,000 would climb to 11% — up from an already high 9%. Oregon will soon boast the second highest income tax rate in the nation, moving ahead of California (10.55%), and only slightly behind New York City (12.6%). Corporations will pay a 7.9% tax on gross receipts, up from 6.6%.
(NOTE: “Raising taxes” or creating new ones is a mania among liberals. Congressman Charles Rangel – who has no problem avoiding paying his own taxes – is a real fanatic about supporting in tax bill that comes along.)
To be fair, Oregon does not really have a sales tax, so it is hard to compare apples and oranges on taxes.
But missing from the article is another factor in their unemployment, and the reason our company ultimately had to leave the state: Oregon has the second highest minimum wage in the country (just behind Washington State and just ahead of California), and it is getting higher every year as it is automatically indexed to something or other that seems to be rising faster than inflation.
4.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/07/capandtrade_means_regulate_and.html
Cap-and-Trade Means Regulate and Subsidize
Brian Sussman
Last week, prior to voting for the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, House Republican Leader John Boehner spent the better part of an hour reading from the 1201-page bill and the associated 300-page addendum, which had been dumped on Congress' door at 3:09AM. He did so, he told The Hill, because he believed "people need to know what's in this pile of s-it."
Congressman Boehner was correct. There may be no better description of what's in this phony legislation, designed to supposedly halt global warming.
(NOTE: we must begin with the fact that man made global warming is a scam, a myth, a scheme. Scientists have proven this to be the case, and Congressional supporters of this new tax is a case in point. Unless the Demcrat-laden Senate stops this bill, a “green police” force will knock on your door to inspect your house and force you to make changes to suit Al Gore’s manic obsession.)
First, a couple quick facts:
Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, it's a fertilizer. It accounts for a feeble .038 percent of the atmosphere. According to the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, a research wing of the Department of Energy, only 3.2 percent of that thin atmospheric component is created by anthropogenic emissions.
The earth's temperature has only risen 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past 150 years, and most of that occurred prior to the 1940s. The Thirties was the hottest decade on record, with 22 of the current 50 states having established their all-time high temperatures during that sizzling ten years. There has been no warming of the earth's climate since 1998, and in the past 18-24 months there has been a slight cooling.
Anthropogenic global warming is a myth, and therefore there is no need for the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. Climate change is simply an excuse for another massive government attempt at control and giveaways.
For example, buried on pages 1014-1016 of the bill is the "Monthly Energy Refund." According to this plan, for those with a gross income that "does not exceed 150 percent of the poverty line...a direct deposit," of an undisclosed amount of money, will be sent "into the eligible household's designated bank account..."
On pages 502-503 we find the "Low Income Community Energy Efficiency Program," whereby grants will be issued "to increase the flow of capital and benefits to low income communities, minority-owned and woman-owned businesses and entrepreneurs..."
Further proving this is actually a welfare scheme, on page 973 we discover that for workers who lose their manufacturing jobs because the caps on their companies are too repressive, and their employer either has to shut down, or move operations to the Third World to avoid regulation, the "adversely affected worker" shall receive 70 percent of their prior weekly wage, "payable for a period not longer than 156 weeks." In addition, on pages 986-987 we read the unemployed worker can submit up to $1,500 in job search reimbursements, and get another $1,500 to cover his moving expenses.
And then there are the new federally mandated building codes, which will supercede local rules and regulations. The new codes will be enforced by a green goon squad. On pages 319-324 we read the Secretary of Energy "shall enhance compliance by conducting training and education of builders and other professionals in the jurisdiction concerning the national energy efficiency building code." These EPA badge-wearing G-Men will be funded both through global warming revenues procured through the cap and trade scheme, as well as by $25 million designated annually from the Department of Energy "to provide necessary enforcement of a national energy efficiency building code..."
Oh, but there's more of the stinky stuff Mr. Boehner was referring to. A new office will be created at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the government's primary weather body. If this bill becomes law, NOAA will have a "Climate Service Office," as described on pages 1083-1087 of the document. This new office will "ensure a continuous level of high-quality data collected through a national observation and monitoring infrastructure..."
Question: shouldn't NOAA already be doing this? If not, perhaps the idiotic forecasts of gloom and doom from the government's chief global warming forecaster James Hansen, who supposedly relies on NOAA products for his scare tactics, have been incorrect after all, due to corrupt data?
Anyone can see through this charade -- the Climate Service Office will ensure that skeptics and deniers are silenced, and that all research will be controlled and monitored to ensure that global warming is the lie of the land.
In a further effort to perpetrate this fraud, on page 1102 we discover the "Summer Institutes Program and the Regional Climate Center." According to the bill: "The purpose of the program is to provide training and professional enrichment by providing opportunities for interaction between participants and climate scientists in a research and operational setting to-enable middle school and high school teachers to integrate weather and climate sciences into their curricula: and encourage undergraduate students to pursue further study and careers in weather and climate sciences."
This is nothing but government sponsored brainwashing, folks.
Thank you Mr. Boehner, for saying it like it is. You, sir, are a great American. Now let's place pressure on the Senate to keep this sucker bill from passing its stinky gas.
Brian Sussman is a former television meteorologist, turned conservative radio talk host. He is heard nightly on KSFO-560AM in San Francisco (streaming live at KSFO.com) between 6 and 8PM Pacific. His upcoming book, "Global Whining: confidence to confront the biggest scam in history" will be published by WND Books.
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