Mitt’s Mistake

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“The major issue of this campaign is the direct political, personal and moral responsibility of Democratic Party leadership–in the White House and in Congress — for this unprecedented calamity which has befallen us.” — Ronald Reagan accepting the Republican presidential nomination, July 1980

“He had just one strategy — attack, attack, attack, carry the fight to the enemy’s camp.” — Historian David McCullough on Harry Truman’s upset 1948 win over Thomas E. Dewey

Why is Barack Obama’s life just like Ronald Reagan’s when it comes to the presidency?

What if Barack Obama had spent 20 years with the black Thomas Sowell as his mentor — instead of the black Jeremiah Wright?

Who died and left liberals in charge of defining the rules of acceptability in the 2012 campaign?

Read More at The American Spectator. By Jeffrey Lord.

Photo Credit : Gage Skidmore (Creative Commons)

What if Zimmerman Walks Free?

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Three months ago, George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., shot and killed Trayvon Martin.

Handcuffed, taken in and interrogated, Zimmerman told police Trayvon had been acting suspiciously that dark and rainy night, that he had followed Trayvon, been knocked down and battered on the ground, and, fearing for his life, pulled a concealed handgun and shot him.

Sanford police and prosecutors concluded that Zimmerman acted in self-defense and had not committed a provable felony. They let him go.

A racial firestorm followed. “Blacks are under attack,” railed Jesse Jackson. “Killing us is big business.” Arriving in Sanford, the reverend dialed it up. Trayvon was “shot down in cold blood by a vigilante … murdered and martyred.”

Rep. Maxine Waters’ charge of “hate crime” was echoed by radio talker Joe Madison. Rep. Hank Johnson said Trayvon had been “executed.” The Grio compared his killing to the lynching of Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955.

Read More at takimag.com. By Patrick J. Buchanan.

The Church Goes To Court

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Congratulations are in order for the Catholic Church, whose archdioceses in America went to federal court today to challenge the Obama administration on the contraception mandates. Something like a dozen federal lawsuits were filed against the administration by something on the order of 43 plaintiffs, including the Archdiocese of New York, among others, and the crown jewel in Catholic education in America, Notre Dame.* It seems the liberal institutions within the Catholic world have come together with the conservative ones to stand up for the rights of religious Catholics — and by extension, the rest of us — to be free of government mandates in respect of their religion.

We liked the way the issue was framed in the brief for the Archdiocese of New York, which opened by noting what the lawsuit is not about as well as what it is about. It is, the brief said, “not about whether people have a right to abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. Those services are freely available in the United States, and nothing prevents the Government itself from making them more widely available.” It went on to complain that the government nonetheless “seeks to require Plaintiffs — all Catholic entities — to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs by providing, paying for, and/or facilitating access to those products and services.”

The church seeks shelter under both the Constitution, which prohibits Congress from making any law prohibiting the free exercise of religion, and a statute, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. RFRA was passed in 1993 — by an overwhelming voice vote in the House and a 97 to three vote in the Senate — with the aim of protecting free exercise. It requires strict scrutiny of laws, and prohibits the government from substantially burdening “a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability.” The law is one of the important civil rights measures of the modern era.

Read More at The New York Sun.

If Obama is ousted in November, thank Florida Governor Scott

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As the State of Florida continues to release evidence in the Trayvon Martin case, it becomes increasingly clear that prosecutors will have little chance of convincing an honest jury that George Zimmerman is guilty of 2nd degree murder.

On May 15th, a medical report submitted by Zimmerman’s family doctor revealed that, on the night of the shooting the accused murderer suffered “…a ‘closed fracture’ of [the] nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of [the] head and a minor back injury…”  Zimmerman was treated by police at the scene and sought medical attention the next morning. (1)

Yet none of this information was included in the Affidavit of Probable Cause submitted by State Attorney Angela Corey as grounds for her charge of 2nd degree murder. Neither was the fact that witnesses testified to State investigators that Martin had attacked Zimmerman, or that he knocked Zimmerman to the ground, jumped on top of him and drove his head into the sidewalk as Zimmerman cried for help. The remarkably one-sided Affidavit simply states, “Zimmerman confronted Martin and a struggle ensued.” (2)

Alan Dershowitz states Corey “…has a terrible reputation in Florida for always overcharging…”  In fact it’s Dershowitz’s contention that Corey was specifically chosen by Florida Governor Rick Scott to “…stop race riots.”  Norm Wolfinger, the original prosecutor in the Martin case, intended to present all the known facts of the shooting to a grand jury. Had the exculpatory evidence now known to support Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense persuaded that body to bring no charge, Florida blacks would have almost certainly responded with state wide rioting. No doubt, many other portions of the United States would have joined in. (3)

In replacing Wolfinger with the “hang-em-high” Angela Corey, Governor Scott was playing to professional race baiters and media sycophants around the nation. And the unsuspecting Corey played her role of avenging angel to the hilt, stating at a nationally televised press conference that she had promised “…those sweet parents [of Trayvon] we would get answers to all of their questions…” and “seek justice for Trayvon…” (4)

Read More at Western Journalism. By Doug Book.

 

GOP freshmen press for contempt vote on Holder

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House conservatives, fearing that Republican leaders may try to avoid an election-year confrontation with the Obama administration, are insisting that House Speaker John Boehner press ahead with contempt of Congress charges against Attorney General Eric Holder over the Fast and Furious gun-running operation.

Five House Republican freshmen wrote to Boehner, R-Ohio, demanding that he schedule a vote on the contempt charges, something Boehner has so far resisted.

“It’s time for the House to formally recognize the obvious: That Attorney General Holder has not and will not cooperate with the legitimate investigation launched by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and is therefore in contempt of Congress,” the freshmen said in the letter.

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., wants Holder to turn over additional information, including internal Justice Department emails related to Fast and Furious, an operation in which U.S. officials allowed American guns to flow to Mexico in hopes of following the guns to drug cartel leaders. One of those guns was used to murder U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010.

Boehner has not scheduled a vote on the contempt charges against Holder and is instead trying to keep the Republican-controlled House focused on election-year issues like the struggling economy, the national debt and unemployment.

Read More at washingtonexaminer.com. By Susan Ferrechio.

Photo Credit: USDAgov (Creative Commons)

After 16 Months of Letters, Reports and Subpoenas, Will We Ever Get Truth on Fast and Furious?

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House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy joined Rep. Darrell Issa last week to once again demand Attorney General Eric Holder come clean about his involvement in Operation Fast and Furious.

The Republican leadership signed a May 18 letter asking more questions of the US Attorney General who has refused to provide subpoenaed documents to congressional investigators. The back-and-forth correspondence over the past 16 months may in the end provide a useful record of an Obama administration program which led to hundreds of murders. But for now the letters are little more than posturing by befuddled Republicans.

While we recognize that the Department has provided some documents in response to some aspects of the October 11, 2011, subpoena from the Chairman of the Oversight & Government Reform Committee (“the Committee”), two key questions remain unanswered: first, who on your leadership team was informed of the reckless tactics used in Fast & Furious prior to Agent Terry’s murder; and, second, did your leadership team mislead or misinform Congress in response to a Congressional subpoena?

We firmly believe and hope that you agree that a mutually acceptable resolution to this matter may yet be achieved. The Terry family deserves to know the truth about the circumstances that led to Agent Terry’s murder. The whistle-blowers who brought these issues to light deserve to be protected, not intimidated, by their government.

I’m tempted to agree with a blog commenter who suggested we wad up all of the letters sent to date and “ping them off Holder’s forehead.” It might not get results but it sure would be cathartic.

Read More at American Thinker. By M. Catharine Evans.

Photo Credit: The Aspen Institute (Creative Commons)

Rich Liberals Attack Mitt Romney for Being Rich

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The Democrats are making an issue of Mitt Romney’s wealth. For example, David Letterman, who makes $50 million per year, went on the attack last week. Letterman is worth $400 million while Forbes estimates that Mitt Romney is worth $230 million.

Bashing Romney for his wealth has not stopped President Obama from going to the multi-millionaire well to bolster his campaign coffers. George Clooney, who hosted a fund raiser right after President Obama said he supported “Gay Marriage,” is worth $160 million.

“On the same day his campaign launched an attack on Mitt Romney‘s record in private equity, President Obama” attended “a big-dollar fundraiser at the Manhattan home of Hamilton ‘Tony’ James. . . . Many in attendance . . . have ties to the private equity sector.”

Tom Hanks, a big Obama supporter, is worth $350 million. He and his liberal wife live in a $26 million Pacific Palisades mansion.

Where were the rich-money critics when John Kerry was running for President? Kerry married Teresa Heinz, the widow of Pennsylvania Senator H. John Heinz III. As far back as 2004, the Los Angeles Times put Teresa Heinz’s wealth at between $900 million and $3.2 billion. Even without his wife’s inherited money, Kerry is wealthy in his own name, being the beneficiary of at least four trusts inherited from Forbes family members, including his mother, who died in 2002. Kerry, a Democrat, is one of the wealthiest U.S. Senators.

Read More at godfatherpolitics.com.By Gary DeMar.

House Showdown Looms Over Indefinite Detention

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A showdown looms in the House over whether to end the indefinite detention without trial of terrorist suspects, even U.S. citizens seized within the nation’s borders.

Democrats and tea party Republicans lobbied their colleagues furiously ahead of Friday’s vote, arguing that indefinite detention gives the executive branch extraordinary power that violates Americans’ constitutional rights. Opponents insisted that any change in the law would weaken national security and coddle terrorists.

The divisive issue was playing out as the House considered a $642 billion defense budget for next year. Final passage of the legislation was expected Friday afternoon.

The spending blueprint calls for money for aircraft, ships, weapons, the war in Afghanistan and a 1.7 percent pay raise for military personnel, billions of dollars more than President Barack Obama proposed. House Republicans abandoned last summer’s deficit-cutting plan that was worked out with Obama, embracing a budget that adds $8 billion for the military while slashing funds for some safety-net programs for the poor such as Medicaid and food stamps.

The White House has threatened to veto the bill, citing a long list of objections. The bill snubs the Pentagon’s budget that was based on a new military strategy that shifts the focus from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to future challenges in Asia, the Mideast and in cyberspace. The bill spares aircraft and ships slated for retirement, slows the reduction in the size of the Army and Marine Corps and calls for construction of a new missile defense site on the East Coast.

Read More at OfficialWire. By Donna Cassata.

Why Obama Just Might Even Lose Wisconsin

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In 2008, Barack Obama won Wisconsin by a landslide 56/42, but according to a new Marquette Law School (MLS) poll, that was then, this is now (and “now” isn’t looking very good for Obama.) Because the 2010 election of Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker represented a major defeat for unions in general and the state’s unions in particular, there has been an almost endless series of recalls of Republicans and some Democrats.

All of these recalls provide a uniquely accurate picture of the sentiment of Wisconsin’s voters – by a reliable margin, they don’t favor Democrats or unions.

The next recall election forces both Walker and his Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch to stand for election again.  The Democrats are running Tom Barrett, the Mayor of Milwaukee, setting up a rematch of 2010’s election. In that one, Walker won by 5 points, and after all of the nonstop attacks against him and tens of millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of hours of work against him, Walker is now ahead by 6 points. The Democratic National Committee and the Democrat Governors Association have fled for their lives, leaving local Democrats fuming and pointing fingers of blame.

Read More at Western Journalism. By Kevin “Coach” Collins.

 

 

Unnecessary Energy Hikes

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Barack Obama and his Democratic minions all claim to be lookng out for the middle and working classes, providing protection from the heartless Republicans and their evil followers, the rich. The question I have is, “why then is Obama allowing the enviro-facists to create such new hardships for those people that they profess to love”? What am I talking about, you might ask? Why is Obama and his EPA in Washington D.C. working so hard to send our utility bills skyhigh, destroy an entire industry, and put so many of these working class people out of work? Obama and the “greenies” have no cheap alternatives to coal, which provides us with most of our electrical supply, and yet they wanted the coal industry gone yesterday?

What is about to happen is that people on fixed incomes, the disabled, the poor, and just about anybody who is not rich,will see their utility bills become a major economic headache! We have more coal than OPEC has oil reserves; yet because of Obama and his “greenies” anti-fossil fuel agenda, American are about to find out what real hardships are all about.

This one particular case is just one of many that spotlights Obama’s obsession with getting his way, no matter who he hurts. It’s like Obama pushing the Chevy Volt. Who among you has $42,000 to spend on a car that only gets 40 miles per charge? Solar is out of reach for the average family in this country, as is wind power. By the way, if wind power is good, then why are the Dutch abandoning it? Now if we could surround Washington D.C. with windmills…..all the hot air would produce an abundace of energy. Forgive me ……I digress!

Obama can dream about alternative enrgy all he wants, but until it becomes practical, abundant, and cheap, the only thing that Obama and his “greenies” are going to accomplish is the destruction of the middle class. He will bring unnecessary suffering to those already on the line economically and despair to those who are barely holding on. By the way, the environmentalists are even fighting major wind and solar projects in California and New Mexico because of critter habitat or some such thing.

 Read More at Western Journalism. By Michael Nellett.

Photo credit: terrellaftermath