Daily Dose – September 7, 2010
If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Obama's Epic FailuresBarack Obama returns from his August vacation with a growing pile of problems facing him on just about every front. The economy is in a nosedive, his party is on the brink of losing its majority and the country is losing faith in his ability to lead. To a large extent, it could be said that it wasn't just Obama who was on vacation, it was his presidency... The White House doesn't seem to have a clue about what to do about an economy that is veering into another dangerous downturn. Obama clings stubbornly to his failed $800 billion spending stimulus and plans to inflict the largest tax increase in American history on a struggling economy, despite pleas from government analysts that this is only going to inflict more harm on the private business sector.
"Under current law, both the waning of (Obama's) fiscal stimulus and the scheduled increases in taxes will temporarily subtract from (economic) growth, especially in 2011," CBO warned Congress and the White House. What we have here, of course, is a failure of leadership that is the result of breathtaking inexperience and an ideology that believes in enlarging the federal government at the expense of the business community, job-creating investment by the private sector, and the economy. He has no one with any business experience in his team of top White House advisers.
He returns to Washington at a time when Americans are deeply pessimistic about the country's future -- with his job approval polls at a low 43 percent (50 percent disapprove) -- and without any clear sign that he knows how to deal with the issues that he was elected to fix.
Donald Lambro, Nationally Syndicated Columnist
August 27, 2010
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-seven percent (47%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -23. That’s the highest level of Strong Disapproval and the lowest Approval Index daily rating yet recorded for this president...
Rasmussen Reports
September 5, 2010
In a campaign office on the first floor of a Sons of Italy lodge, Republican Mike Kelly spoke confidently to a crowd of locals about his race for the U.S. Congress... If you want a perfect picture of a potential wave election, Main Street here paints it for you...
U.S. Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, a freshman Democrat, beat seven-term Republican Phil English in 2008 – but her win was not pretty. Thanks to a herculean effort by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and English’s lack of political instinct, she squeaked by in a region that went for Republican John McCain over Democrat Barack Obama.
This district hugs the left corner of Northwestern Pennsylvania and the Rust Belt. It is equally rural and industrial, making it a classic battleground but not necessarily a bellwether of what is to come in the fall midterms. Dahlkemper has cash and voter-registration advantages. Yet Kelly is a larger-than-life car-dealership owner and former Notre Dame offensive tackle who can easily self-fund his campaign. That matters in a district which is a cheap-date for political campaigners: There’s no expensive media market to drive up costs.
Kelly, 62, says he never considered running for office until last year, when he learned he might lose his Cadillac franchise in the government’s takeover of General Motors. “I had over 100 people whose livelihoods depended on me,” he said. “That one phone call hit a nerve … my family has had our business since the 1950s, and we had always made and exceeded our numbers, so I started thinking out loud about what I could do.” He kept his Cadillac franchise – and the fire in his belly to run...
Patty House is the coffee barista with the warm smile behind an old-fashioned soda fountain in Cummings Candy & Coffee. She likes Kelly’s family and community values: “He and his family have run a successful business for over 50 years. I think Washington needs more people representing us who know how to run things.” House, 41, a Democrat, has never supported a Republican but is tired of Washington’s deafness to people in the country’s “flyover” regions.
Camden Wood stands on Cummings’ century-old checkerboard floor, contemplating whether to order a decaf and catch some sleep after an all-night shift or just “espresso it up” and enjoy the sunny summer day... Wood, 37, stands out with his tattoos, pierced ears and faux-hawk locks. He’s a Democrat who’s always worked in union jobs. “I have to admit part of why I like Kelly is that he is not ‘that guy’ out of Washington,” he says. “I bebop down his street on my bike, all inked up, and … he is always the first to smile, wave and have something interesting to say, long before he was running for Congress.”
In a wave election year, a race may pivot on something as simple yet meaningful to voters as that.
“In a sense you could say that the fate of Kathy Dahlkemper can serve as a kind of bellwether,” says Jay Cost, a political scientist who specializes in analyzing House races. “All those House Dems who won election in 2008 because of crossover voting, who then turned around and supported Obama’s policies, are going to be in trouble, much the same way she is.”
In the Democrats’ 2006 midterm sweep, Pennsylvania flipped four House seats held by Republicans. This year, the Democrats at risk are Reps. Dahlkemper, Patrick Murphy, Mark Critz and Paul Kanjorski, as well as the seat left open by Joe Sestak’s U.S. Senate run. The reasons why can be found on any Main Street in their districts – not among Republicans, but among independents and Democrats who supported them the last time.
Salena Zito, TownHall
September 5, 2010
--97 percent of Republicans and 33 percent of Democrats say Democrats "will raise my taxes".
--94 percent of Republicans and 18 percent of Democrats say Democrats want to "bring the U.S. closer to socialism."
--88 percent of Republicans and 14 percent of Democrats say Democrats will make the nation less safe from terrorism.
--88 percent of Democrats and 15 percent of Republicans say Republicans want to "take us back to failed Bush policies."
--86 percent of Democrats and 13 percent of Republicans say Republicans are too much under the influence of "extreme conservatives like the tea party."
Source: A Zogby Interactive Poll of 1,980 likely voters conducted Aug. 24 to 26.
Jennifer Harper, Inside the Beltway
September 2, 2010
...(T)he Obama government is one that is upholding the needs and interests of illegal aliens over and above those of citizens, and the needs and interests of animals over and above those of human beings. This ideologically driven Administration may seem to be a dream come true for some liberals, but a majority of Americans are seeing it as more of a nightmare. Nightmarish Presidents are destined to become “Mr. Unpopular.” But it requires some moral reasoning capabilities to understand how horrifying our nightmarish President has become. Don’t expect Washington – or the liberal media – to understand.
Austin HIll, TownHall
September 5, 2010
In April, while campaigning in Pennsylvania, Vice President Joe Biden promised the American people: “I’m here to tell you, some time in the next couple of months, we’re going to be creating between 250,000 jobs a month and 500,000 jobs a month. … We caught a lot of bad breaks on the way down. We’re going to catch a few good breaks because of good planning on the way up.” And for a while it looked like Biden was a genius. In May, the Labor Department reported that nonfarm payroll employment rose by 290,000 the previous month and in June they reported that the U.S. economy added another 431,000 jobs. President Barack Obama’s “good planning” was working! But then the next report showed the U.S. economy lost 125,000 jobs in June and then the August report found another 131,000 jobs were lost in July. Today the Labor Department released the September jobs report, showing nonfarm payrolls decreased again by 54,000 and that the nation’s unemployment rate rose to 9.6%.
By every objective measure, President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package has been a complete failure. When President Obama was selling his stimulus plan to the American people, he promised it would save or create 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010. At the time, employment stood at about 134.3 million, according to the Labor Department’s most commonly used measure. That established an Obama jobs target for December 2010 at 137.8 million. According to the latest jobs report, total U.S. employment stood at 130.3 million in August, which means the cumulative Obama jobs deficit stands at 7.5 million. Continue reading...
Conn Carroll, The Heritage Foundation
September 3, 2010
The longer President Obama refuses to acknowledge the direction of our nation's economy the greater the impact will be when the looming depression that awaits is named in his honor. For a leader who has had the advantages of an Ivy League education, he seems to be an excessively poor student of history. But in 120 days no one will be able to dispute that the economic mess the United States finds herself in belongs to anyone except President Barack Hussein Obama. The basis of this reality is rooted in two truths that became quite pronounced this week. The first is that President Obama is ignoring the very real direction the nation is headed. The second is that he is purposefully ignoring the impact his looming historic tax increases will have. Both are contributing to the pessimism that overarches the morale and tone of the entrepreneurial framework of the future...
The president's team pretends that these realities do not exist. The president himself is willing to perpetuate the false notion that the stimulus package set up a "recovery summer" that in truth ended up in greater pain than it began with... In 1929 Irving Fisher observed that a number of trends led to the worst depression of our nation's history. How many of these fit in today's scenario:
--Debt liquidation and distress selling
--Contraction of the money supply as bank loans are paid off
--A fall in the level of asset prices
--A still greater fall in the net worths of business, precipitating bankruptcies
--A fall in profits
--A reduction in output, in trade and in employment.
--Pessimism and loss of confidence
--Hoarding of money
--A fall in nominal interest rates and a rise in deflation adjusted interest rates.
President Obama is ignoring and misrepresenting the rate of growth (or lack thereof) in the job numbers, and his economic team has laid the groundwork for the harshest attack on small businesses and every family in America that pays taxes effective January 1, 2011. By every indicator this pundit can see, we are poised for tragedy... and I didn't get an Ivy League education!
Kevin McCullough, TownHall
September 5, 2010
How can the government grow the nation’s welfare roles and undermine efforts to support marriage, in a single effort? It must simply follow the plan outlined in President Obama’s budget: pay states to grow their welfare roles and eliminate programs that encourage healthy marriage in low-income communities. Despite the fact that low work hours and single motherhood are two of the greatest contributors to poverty in the United States, the newly released budget undoes welfare provisions that encourage work and discourage out-of-wedlock childbearing. Prior to the reforms of 1996, the federal government’s welfare policy was to dish out more money to states as the states increased their welfare roles. Not surprisingly, this provided no incentive to transition welfare recipients into the workforce. Welfare reform did away with this negative incentive and created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, leading to dramatic caseload declines and a decrease in the child poverty rate. Continue reading...
Rachel Sheffield, The Heritage Foundation
September 3, 2010
'Big Oil' In The United States - Deep Fried It is hard to think of anything more reviled than the oil industry. While the President, his staff, and Congressional majority leaders are inadvertently giving Big Oil a run for its money, they won't have enough time to do enough damage to catch up. (It took the oil industry decades of attacks against its integrity to achieve it's despised state.) Why haven't Americans seen through this political ploy yet? This ruse is no more logical than is the Democrats' long standing sway over Jewish, African American, and Hispanic voters.
It is important to note that oil and gas produced in the United States is not controlled by the monoliths associated with Big Oil. ( I don't know about you, but whenever I hear "Big Oil", I involuntarily picture five guys in suits with their hands up taking the oath before Congress.) In fact, more than two thirds of our daily oil and gas production comes from independent oil and gas companies. These companies are run by entrepreneurs; the kind of people who make this country what it is.
We Americans consume one out of every four barrels of oil produced on the planet. Even with our economy in the doldrums, we have a voracious appetite for all things made or fueled by hydrocarbons. None of us are against renewable sources of energy. The problem is that most self proclaimed progressives refuse to acknowledge that we are decades away from developing economically viable ways and means of generating material amounts of those carbon friendly alternatives. We are already billions of dollars into the renewable game, and yet less than one per cent of our daily energy demand powered by them. The simple fact of the matter is that we need oil and gas. And we will continue to need oil and gas for decades.
The Gulf of Mexico blowout in April was a tragedy. Eleven lives were lost and the region took an environmental and economic hit. That much you have heard countless times. But what you haven't heard is that the fishermen are out again, and life in that wonderfully unique ecosystem is rapidly returning to normal. Man, oil, and nature have lived together for decades on the Gulf Coast. Regardless of how the Democrat leadership is trying to upset that carefully woven tapestry, the Gulf Coast will once again find a way to restore the delicate balance. The oil plume (if it ever existed) can no longer be found. The vast majority of the oil (which is, incidentally, of, by, and arguably for the earth) is gone. The Gulf of Mexico has moved on. The real tragedy is that Capitol Hill has not followed suit. To the extent there is still an economic hangover, those in the know will argue that the administration's ongoing moratorium on drilling is the main culprit. Tens of thousands of hard working oil field hands are presently out of work. The administration's response is to delay and prevaricate.
Congress just cannot let a tragedy go by without making sure they make it worse! On July 30, the House passed HB 3534; the so called "CLEAR" bill that is as much a knee jerk reaction to the blowout in the Gulf as the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 was to the Exxon Valdez incident in Alaska. The Senate has yet to pass a bill (thankfully) and with mid-term elections looming, we can put our hands together and pray Harry Reid will focus on other matters. The fear is that Democrat leadership thinks punishing the oil industry is a winner for the midterm elections. And that gets me back to my question; how on earth did we get to this strange place?
The oil business is about risk taking. The CEO of a large independent oil and gas company recently said "Every time we punch a hole in the ground, we are putting the entire company on the line. That's what we do; day in, and day out." What other businesses walk such an operational high wire? The deep water drilling and production in the Gulf of Mexico is the stuff of pioneers. Companies spend up to $200,000,000 to drill a dry hole. That's real money. And yet the American people never hear about the risk. All they hear about the oil business is greed.
This past week there was a fire on board a production platform in the Gulf. There was no explosion. There were no injuries. There was no pollution. In fact, the source of the fire may have been the deep fryer in the galley. Yet CNN and other networks dedicated hours to a "breaking news" moment. "Explosion in the Gulf!" consumed the airwaves. It was reported that Congressman Waxman indicated that he wanted to launch an investigation into the cause of the reported explosion. As my kids would say "OMG"!
There are many voices speaking in Washington; the draconian economic consequences of the forthcoming legislative process may well force companies to reconsider whether they can afford to continue drilling and producing in the Gulf of Mexico. The last thing the United States needs is less oil and gas production. The environmentalists and most of those on the left are working hard to cripple our existing industry and ensure that no new areas are ever opened to new exploration. These people are wrong. Their actions will damage our economy and threaten our national security by making us even more dependent on oil emanating from unstable sources.
The oil business in the United States is in the deep fryer. We need to remove it from that grease, and give it a breath of fresh air. Perhaps after the November election we can put some of the newly jobless in the vacated fryer. Now that would be poetic justice.
Jim Pierce, American Thinker
September 5, 2010
It's deja vu all over again in Washington as the midterm elections rapidly approach and all signs point to an electoral route of the party in power. Four years ago, the Beltway was abuzz with news of a GOP bloodletting – the result of an increasingly unpopular President, an unpopular war, a spate of corruption scandals, and the general feeling that it was time for a change in Washington. The same pundits who correctly forecast defeat in 2006 see the same weather on the horizon in 2010, only this time it's the Democrats who find themselves in the path of the storm, beset by an unpopular president, a dismal economic picture, a host of domestic and foreign policy landmines, and a growing Tea Party movement.
Not surprisingly, this current state of affairs has Republicans feeling pretty optimistic about the future. Newt Gingrich has even suggested that the nation could witness a repeat of the Republican Revolution of 1994. And he just might be right...
Ken Connor, TownHall
September 5, 2010
Hot on the heels of both Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters being charged with ethics violations by the House Ethics Committee, the Dallas Morning News reports that Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) has been routinely handing out scholarships from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to friends and family members:
"Johnson awarded nine to eleven scholarships a year from 2005 to 2008, the most recent years for which information was available. Each of those years, three or four winners were related to her or her district director, Rod Givens..... Scholarships have gone to two of the Congresswoman's grandsons, Kirk and David Johnson; to two of her great-nephews, Gregory and Preston Moore: and to Givens' son and daughter. Givens did not respond to requests for comment, and none of the scholarship recipients could be reached....Of 43 scholarships awarded between 2005 and 2008, 15 went to relatives of Johnson or Givens..."
To compound matters, the recipients of Johnson's nepotism weren't eligible for the funds, as they were not even living in her district. Updated information provided for the year 2009 indicates that 8 more scholarships were awarded to the family members of Representative Johnson and her aides, bringing the total to 23. The availability of the scholarships, which are funded by charitable donations to the CBC, are supposed to be advertised to promote their dissemination to the most needy and deserving students, but: "Johnson's website makes no mention of the scholarships."
It appears that Johnson and Givens instead considered this money a slush fund available for their personal use. She seems rather nonplussed by the discovery of her apparent malfeasance, as though she feels she might be immune from scrutiny. When asked about the apparent nepotism, Johnson responded: "I recognized the names when I saw them. And I knew that they had a need just like any other kid that would apply for one. Had there been more worthy applicants in my district... then I probably wouldn't have given it (to the relatives.)"
Charity and ethics experts consulted by the Dallas Morning News suggest that the apparent nepotism involved exposes the CBC Foundation, Representative Johnson and the scholarship recipients to a raftag of possible tax and fraud charges. In light of the reports exposing her apparent malfeasance, Johnson now reports that she will reimburse the foundation for the scholarships by week's end.
Ralph Alter, American Thinker
August 31, 2010
“The supreme function of statesmanship is to provide against preventable evils” —Enoch Powell
A chilling, recently released undercover video shows a scene that ought put fear of potential cataclysmic revolution upon all Westerners. Pictured was a typical street in Paris, France. Both ends of the avenue were blocked by private security. Meanwhile, what appeared literally thousands of Muslims knelt in the prayer position as theadhan call to prayer rang out. No residents of the street could enter or leave their abodes as all perambulations on the street ceased. The voice-over explained while the act was illegal, authorities decided not to intervene.
This scene calls to mind one of the most noted political speeches of the 20th century, Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood.” The speech was delivered in Birmingham, England on April 20, 1968. The subject was England’s immigration policy and dire predicted results. Powell was both scorned for divisive comments and labeled a political prophet for his visionary predictions. But none need biblical mandate to understand what happens if non-integrating aliens continue to infiltrate Western democracies and assert their will against law, culture, and freedom, as observed in France today. Further, Obama has openly supported the Ground Zero mosque and nominates those who demand Shari’ah Muslim law in the US...
The stakes could not be greater. The question is: What can be done about Islam in America to protect all citizens from the excesses of religious fanaticism? The answer must fit into our traditional respect for religion, and respect for civil rights. But if our city centers are slowly taken over by mosques and our streets blocked by devotees praying in broad daylight, as occurs in Paris today—won’t it already be too late to even act? And, because of our failure to defend ourselves due to Political Correctness, could an American jihad still cause rivers of blood to flow in our streets, decades after the Sept 11th holocaust?
Kelly O'Connell, Canada Free Press
September 5, 2010
