Obama’s (un)American Auto Bailout (+video)

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By Michelle Malkin. Cue “Fanfare for the Common Man” and rev up the Government Motors engines. Wednesday is Great American Auto Bailout Day at the Democratic National Convention. Party propagandists have prepared a prime-time-ready film touting the “rescue’s” benefits for American workers. UAW President Bob King will sing the savior-in-chief’s praises.

But like all of the economic success stories manufactured by the White House, the $85 billion government handout is a big fat farce.

“I said I believe in American workers, I believe in this American industry, and now the American auto industry has come roaring back,” Obama bragged on the campaign trail. Here’s the inconvenient story they won’t tell you:

GM is once again flirting with bankruptcy despite massive government purchases propping up its sales figures. GM stock is rock-bottom. Losses continue to be revised in the wrong direction. According to The Detroit News, “The Treasury Department says in a new report the government expects to lose more than $25 billion on the $85 billion auto bailout. That’s 15 percent higher than its previous forecast.”

The claims that GM paid back its taxpayer-funded loans “in full” — a story peddled in campaign ads narrated by Hollywood actor Tom Hanks — were debunked by the Treasury Department’s TARP watchdog this summer. GM still owes nearly $30 billion of the $50 billion it received, and its lending arm still owes nearly $15 billion of the more than $17 billion it received. Bailout watchdog Mark Modica of the National Legal and Policy Center adds: “In addition to U.S. taxpayers anteing up, Canada put in over $10 billion, and GM was relieved of about $28 billion of bondholder obligations as UAW claims were protected. That’s an improvement of almost $90 billion to the balance sheet, and the company still lags the competition.” Read more from this story HERE.

The Romney Campaign has finally figured out that this false story about the GM bailout is just smoke and mirrors. See the campaign’s new ad, just released yesterday:

Israel’s Knesset Speaker: Democratic ‘Jerusalem Mistake’ No Accident

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Photo credit: drmikeevans

The absence of Jerusalem’s status as the capital of Israel in the Democratic Party platform was no oversight, and not the result of a “bureaucratic snafu,” as some Democrats tried to claim in the face of the embarrassing flip-flop on the matter at the party’s convention Wednesday night, Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin said Thursday. The Democrats intended to leave Jerusalem off the agenda, and only changed their minds due to the sharp criticism from Republicans and supporters of Israel in the U.S., he said.

“And I see no cause for optimism on their decision to change the platform to reflect Jerusalem’s status,” Rivlin said in a radio interview Thursday. “This was no mistake or slip of someone’s mind. I have no doubt that President Obama restored Jerusalem to the platform because of political and electoral pressure, and because of the sharp criticism in Israel and the U.S.,” he said.

The party most definitely suffered a black eye over the brouhaha, media reports in the U.S. said. After sharp criticism earlier in the week over the removal of a section in the platform saying that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, as well as removal of all references to G-d, party officials moved to reinstate both sections. The proposed change would include a line that said that “Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel,” and that “it should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.” G-d was also restored t the platform, with the sentence that Obama, on his second term, will conduct “an administration that will give every hard-working American the opportunity to realize his G-d given potential.”

However, when convention chairman Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles, called for a voice vote to approve the insertion of the Jerusalem sentence, he was met by a loud chorus of opposition – with witnesses saying that at least half, if not more, of delegates voicing opposition to inserting the clause about Jerusalem. Voice approvals require a [two thirds] majority, and after the first vote, Villaraigosa awkwardly called for a second vote, citing “interference” that prevented him from clearly hearing the results. Only after three votes was the resolution declared approved. In response, witnesses said, the crowd turned on Villaraigosa, jeering him as he left the stage.

Read more from this story HERE.

Bill Clinton: Please don’t judge Obama by the standards he set

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Campaigning in 2008, Barack Obama set the very highest goals for his presidency. He would not only bring about economic recovery, he would lay the foundation for a new economy, bring Americans together, reduce the rancor of political debate, and even slow the rise of the oceans. Now, as he runs for re-election, Obama is caught in a trap of his own making: Many Americans who voted for him, particularly independents, are judging him not so much by what he has done in office as by what he promised to do. If voters hold Obama to that standard on Election Day, he will lose.

What Obama desperately needs to do in the campaign’s last two months is to lower expectations, to bring the high hopes of 2008 in line with the reality of 2012. That might be an impossible job, but Team Obama realized there was just one Democrat capable of even giving it a shot: Bill Clinton. So the former president was given the spotlight at the Democratic convention in Charlotte Wednesday night, his assignment to convince voters that the standards Obama set for himself in ’08 were unrealistic.

Clinton argued that the economic crisis Obama inherited was so serious that “No president — not me, not any of my predecessors, no one could have fully repaired all the damage that he found in just four years.” Obama will need eight years to finish the job, and even if people don’t see things getting better now, they will if they’ll just vote for Obama. “He has laid the foundation for a new, modern, successful economy of shared prosperity” Clinton said, “and if you will renew the president’s contract, you will feel it.”

“I believe that with all my heart,” Clinton added. He said it with such apparent conviction that it’s likely some longtime Clinton watchers immediately assumed it was not true. And it’s probably not. But with Clinton, who knows? Everyone knows he and Obama have had a difficult relationship. Everyone knows what happened in the 2008 Democratic primaries. But Clinton remains a Democrat, and he said what he needed to say.

Sincerity aside, there’s no doubt Clinton can make the case for Barack Obama’s re-election far better than Obama himself. At age 66 and nearly a dozen years removed from the White House, Clinton remains the best simplifier, the best explainer, in American politics. Obama can’t touch him.

Read more from this story HERE.

The Real Tragedy Of ObamaCare Has Yet To Be Felt By The Poor

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One of the most tragic failings of ObamaCare is that it will make it harder for many of the most vulnerable citizens – patients with no option but Medicaid – to get care.

Medicaid is cumbersome, complex, and wasteful – already the worst health care program in the country. But rather than making changes to improve or modernize this program designed to finance care for the poor, the Obama administration is trying to convince states to add at least 16 million more people to Medicaid, including families making more than $30,000 a year.

That means the poorest and most vulnerable patients enrolled today will be competing with millions of new Medicaid patients for appointments to see a limited number of physicians. Those who have the greatest need and nowhere else to go are likely to have the hardest time getting care.

In its ruling in June, the Supreme Court made it optional for states to expand Medicaid to cover new enrollees. Even with generous federal funding, several states have said flatly they cannot afford the expansion, which would cost states at least $118 billion through 2023.

They are resisting not only because of budget concerns but also because this large Medicaid expansion could have catastrophic effects on those who provide society’s health care safety net.

Read more from this story HERE.

Insanity: Federal Judge Orders Sex-Change Surgery for Convicted Murderer

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A federal judge on Tuesday ordered state prison officials to provide a taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery to a transgender inmate serving life in prison for murder.

U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled in the case of Michelle Kosilek, who was born as a man but has received hormone treatments and lives as a woman in an all-male prison. Robert Kosilek was convicted of murder in the killing of his wife in 1990.

Judge Wolf is believed to be the first federal judge to order prison officials to provide the surgery for a transgender inmate.

Kosilek first sued the MassachusettsDepartment of Correction 12 years ago. Two years later, Judge Wolf ruled that Kosilek was entitled to treatment for gender-identity disorder but stopped short of ordering surgery. Kosilek sued again in 2005, arguing that the surgery is a medical necessity.

In his ruling Tuesday, Judge Wolf found that surgery is the “only adequate treatment” for Kosilek’s “serious medical need.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Democrats Drop “God” From Party Platform

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Photo credit: kevin dooley

Guess what? God’s name has been removed from the Democratic National Committee platform.

This is the paragraph that was in the 2008 platform: “We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values, and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.”

Now the words “God-given” have been removed. The paragraph has been restructured to say this: “We gather to reclaim the basic bargain that built the largest middle class and the most prosperous nation on Earth – the simple principle that in America, hard work should pay off, responsibility should be rewarded, and each one of us should be able to go as far as our talent and drive take us.”

The Brody File has calls into DNC to explain why God’s name has been dropped from the platform. Some critics will suggest that when you have planks in your platform that support abortion rights and gay marriage then it’s no wonder that God’s name would be dropped as well.

Delegates will vote on the platform on Tuesday.

Read more from this story HERE.

Restoring Liberty Milestone Reached: Site Surpasses Web Traffic of Most Alaskan Media Outlets

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Photo credit: The National Guard

I want to take this opportunity to thank the loyal readership of the Restoring Liberty website. Since July 4th of this year, when we launched our new website, the traffic to JoeMiller.us has skyrocketed.* Our readership now surpasses almost every Alaskan news outlet, save two Alaskan papers. And we’re closing in on them as well.

Yesterday, Alexa.com, the global leader in web analytics, rated Restoring Liberty at 15,578 out of the 100 million-plus websites in the United States.** In some Alaskan communities, our performance is far better with the website ahead of the national rankings of mainstays like Fox News and Amazon.com.

More importantly, our Restoring Liberty site’s Alexa.com ranking of 15,578 exceeds that of the Alaska Dispatch (18,270), the Juneau Empire (27,505), the Mat-Su Frontiersman (106,486), KTUU (19,772), and KTVA (89,468). As noted above, we’re rapidly closing in on the Fairbanks Daily News Miner and Anchorage Daily News, also.

Many Outside readers (an Alaskan term for those of you residing in the lower-48) may not be aware of the history of animosity between conservative-liberty oriented candidates and the Alaskan press. From the beginning of my race against Lisa Murkowski in 2010, my campaign was attacked relentlessly by each of the outlets described above. Repeated, libelous stories were publicized statewide. Despite demands for retractions, the Alaskan press rejected journalistic integrity in favor of the corrupt bidding of their corporate masters.

Reportedly, subscriptions to and viewership of these traditional “news” sources has declined significantly since our 2010 race. Why? Alaskans, and the country in general, are looking for honest reporting, unbiased by the corruption that is destroying our nation.

As the publishers of JoeMiller.us, Kathleen’s and my commitment to you is that we will continue to post liberty-oriented stories, even the unpopular, without regard to the expectations of the Establishment. We fired a shot across their bow with the start of our 2010 campaign on Lexington-Concord Day. The near-upset of their consummate insider, Lisa Murkowski, gave them a real scare. Little did they know that together, with you, our fight to unshackle our nation would continue.

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*If you wish to advertise with Restoring Liberty, please click HERE or the “advertise” button at the very top of this page. Our rates are reasonable and competitive.

**The Alexa.com ranking fluctuates almost daily and reports both global and national rankings. Of course, only the national statistics are of value here. Curiously, some sites, like the online-only Alaska Dispatch, have a significant following (over 30%) in foreign countries and therefore have a much higher international ranking vis-a-vis Restoring Liberty. Significant foreign followings of unique, Alaska-oriented sites may indicate something other than normal traffic. For instance, employing foreign users to increase website traffic statistics is not unheard of. And given the Dispatch’s multi-million dollar budget, it has many tools available to it to artificially increase the appearance of readership.

Video: DNC Convention Ad – We All Belong to the Government

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A promotional video for the DNC convention in North Carolina declares that “Government is the only thing we all belong to.” Watch the short video here:

Why did the RNC “Kick the Hornet’s Nest” With Respect to the Tampa Rules Change?

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Photo credit: CW2 Harting

Why did the RNC “kick the hornet’s nest” with respect to the Tampa rules change? Richard Falknor of the Blue Ridge Forum suggests that it was

because the Romney Team has already prepared plans to govern from the ‘center‘ – ‘compromising’ with the Democrats in one ‘grand bargain’ after another (as they once expected president Barack Obama to have compromised with speaker John Boehner) — and making big government ‘more efficient,’ marginally less costly, and more ‘suburban housewife friendly.’

Ineptly compromising is the way speaker Boehner now leads the House — major bills passed often have bi-partisan but not necessarily full conservative support. And Marylander Daniel Horowitz (Madison Project) here (video) further illuminates the problem in his “Boehner Calls Opponents of TARP ‘Knuckledraggers’”

Reining in the administrative state has not, moreover, been part of the GOP Establishment’s agenda. And, in our experience, they do not see ‘conviction’ conservative politicians as serious players.

Conservatives must assume that the Romney Team doesn’t go about kicking hornets’ nests for pleasure and profit. Ben Ginsberg seems to be a capable and savvy advocate, whether we agree with his clients’ objectives or not.

Our best guess is that the Romney Team anticipates conservative pushback during Mr. Romney’s first term as president. This is because the Romney Team has likely planned some initiatives that will be distasteful to conservatives. Conservatives in turn need to identify those schemes before they are launched, and effectively advance plausible alternatives.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: New Anti-Obama Campaign Launched Regarding His Assault on Delphi’s Non-Union Pension Plan

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In a news release yesterday, Let Freedom Ring announced a multi-million dollar campaign to reveal what Obama did to the non-union Delphi auto parts employees’ pensions while simultaneously bailing out union pensions.

Here’s the campaign’s damning “Top Priority” ad: