I don’t watch much of the Daily Show, but the following short clips are hilarious. The first makes fun of Obama’s and Romney’s recent verbal sparring, followed by VP sweepstakes role-playing on The Colbert Report:
Also, click here for Jon Stewart’s “Mitt Romney killed that guy’s wife!!!” video.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have “almost finally” decided on an Israeli strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities this fall, and a final decision will be taken “soon,” Israel’s main TV news broadcast reported on Friday evening.
Channel 2 News, the country’s leading news program, devoted much of its Friday night broadcast to the issue, detailing the pros and cons that, it said, have taken Netanyahu and Barak to the brink of approving an Israeli military attack despite opposition from the Obama administration and from many Israeli security chiefs.
Critically, the station’s diplomatic correspondent Udi Segal said, Israel does not believe that the US will take military action as Iran closes in on the bomb.
The US, the TV report said, has not provided Israel with details of an attack plan. President Obama has not promised to attack Iran if all else fails. Conditions cited by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta for an American attack do not calm Israeli concerns. And Obama has a record of seeking UN and Arab League approval before action. All these factors, in Jerusalem’s mind, underline the growing conviction of Netanyahu and Barak that Israel will have to tackle Iran alone, the TV report said.
Israel’s leaders have also noted that president George W. Bush vowed repeatedly that North Korea would not be allowed to attain a nuclear weapons capability — a vow that proved empty.
Read more from this story HERE.
Here’s another short clip from Jon Stewart’s show where he highlights the idiocy of an Obama PAC ad that blames Romney for a woman’s death followed by a short clip on the “Redneck Olympics.”
And here’s the offensive ad itself (watch at your own risk):
Finally, click here for a hilarious clip where Jon Stewart rips both Obama and Romney.
Photo credit: Karen Horton
Is political self-interest truly nobler than economic self-interest? That’s the question famous Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman put to liberal television talk show host Phil Donahue in 1980 at another economically perilous time for the United States. If we, as a nation, have learned nothing else these last four years, hopefully we have learned the answer is an unequivocal “no.” A trip to George Orwell’s Animal Farm will make the point.
As you may recall (Is Animal Farm still required high school reading?), the story begins on Manor Farm, which is owned and operated by a man named Mr. Jones. Like all businessmen, Jones’ goal is to maximize profits. Life goes along fairly well until Jones loses a lot of money in a lawsuit. He becomes disheartened, taking to drink, and fails to care for his farm as he once did. The animals grow increasingly discontent with Jones’ management of the farm.
The prize boar Old Major (a Frank Marshall Davis-like thinker) seizes upon the opportunity to call all the animals together and voice his long-standing dream of the animals taking over the farm from Jones. Major expounds that they would run it as one for the benefit of all, not to make profit for Jones or any other man. His eloquence sets his audience on fire with the possibility of fundamentally transforming farm life.
Major dies before his vision can be realized. However, younger boars take up the mantle and begin to teach and to organize others on the farm so when the opportunity comes, they will be ready. Finally, after a particularly bad day when Jones becomes so drunk he fails to feed the animals, they rebel and force the farmer from his land.
At first, there is exhilaration in the air. The animals adopt commandments based on Major’s vision, which first and foremost guarantees that all animals should receive equal amounts of resources. However, slowly, almost imperceptibly, things begin to change. One boar, Napoleon, consolidates power on to himself. He institutes rules based on his political self-interest. He ends up living high on the hog, so to speak, with a much more privileged life than Jones ever had.
One of Napoleon’s ill-conceived, pork-spending initiatives, supported by increased taxes and deficit spending, is building a windmill (green energy). The windmill is supposedly intended to help better the lives of everyone. But when it’s finally completed, it’s used to line the pockets of those who support the regime (i.e., Solyndra-style crony capitalism).
A ruling class, which lives off the fruits of others’ labor, arises to support Napoleon’s reign. The overall wealth of the farm declines as taxes rise and worker productivity decreases. However, whenever anyone questions the wisdom of the decisions being made, Squealer, Napoleon’s spin-doctor, is always ready to cite some statistic “proving” how things are much better than they were under the greedy Jones. “You don’t want to go back to those days, do you?” he asks.
Milton Friedman could have easily predicted this outcome: He had witnessed it first-hand when he worked as an economist for President Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Friedman watched the federal government expand greatly in order to use political power to control the economy and spread the wealth around. FDR increased taxes on the “rich” to a top marginal rate of 79% and on corporations (even their supposed “undistributed profits”) to try to pay for all the new agencies. He also instituted our largest entitlement program, Social Security. His actions were guided by the belief that political self-interest is nobler than economic self-interest.
The results were disappointing.
Read more from this story HERE.
Debra Krause-McDonell appeared on Fox News this week to complain that the Obama campaign had tricked her manager into allowing her Deli to be shown in a campaign ad.
I am President Obama’s classmate at Columbia University, Class of ’83. I am also one of the most accurate Las Vegas oddsmakers and prognosticators. Accurate enough that I was awarded my own star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars. And I smell something rotten in Denmark. Obama has a big skeleton in his closet. It’s his college records. Call it “gut instinct” but my gut is almost always right. Obama has a secret hidden at Columbia- and it’s a bad one that threatens to bring down his presidency. Gut instinct is how I’ve made my living for 29 years since graduating Columbia.
Obama and his infamous strategist David Axelrod understand how to play political hardball, the best it’s ever been played. Team Obama has decided to distract America’s voters by condemning Mitt Romney for not releasing enough years of his tax returns. It’s the perfect cover. Obama knows the best defense is a bold offense. Just keep attacking Mitt and blaming him for secrecy and evasion, while accusing him of having a scandal that doesn’t exist. Then ask followers like Senator Harry Reid to chase the lead. The U.S. Senate Majority Leader appears to now be making up stories out of thin air, about tax returns he knows nothing about. It’s a cynical, brilliant, and vicious strategy. Make Romney defend, so he can’t attack the real Obama scandal.
This is classic Axelrod. Obama has won several elections in his career by slandering his opponents and leaking sealed documents. Not only do these insinuations and leaks ruin the credibility and reputation of Obama’s opponents, they keep them on the defensive and off Obama’s trail of sealed documents.
By attacking Romney’s tax records, Obama’s socialist cabal creates a problem that doesn’t exist. Is the U.S. Senate Majority Leader making up stories out of thin air? You decide. But the reason for this baseless attack is clear- make Romney defend, so not only is he “off message” but it helps the media ignore the real Obama scandal.
My answer for Romney? Call Obama’s bluff. Romney should call a press conference and issue a challenge in front of the nation. He should agree to release more of his tax returns, only if Obama unseals his college records. Simple and straight-forward. Mitt should ask “What could possibly be so embarrassing in your college records from 29 years ago that you are afraid to let America’s voters see? If it’s THAT bad, maybe it’s something the voters ought to see.” Suddenly the tables are turned. Now Obama is on the defensive.
Read more from this story HERE.
An outrageous ad from an Obama Super PAC states that Romney was the cause of a woman’s death from cancer. Surprisingly, CNN cries foul, labeling the ad “not true.” See it all here.
Photo credit: Cain & Todd Benson
Photo credit: Kevin Coles
President Obama’s new immigration plan will provide safe harbor to criminal illegal immigrants and will lead to a “capitulation to lawlessness” that could threaten public safety, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said.
Fox News has obtained an internal document detailing how the Department of Homeland Security plans to implement what critics say amounts to an amnesty policy for what could be more than one million illegal immigrants.
According to the documents, illegal immigrants convicted of felonies or misdemeanors under “state immigration laws” may be granted deferred action. Those who have repeatedly entered the United States illegally will also be eligible. And traffic violations would not be considered a misdemeanor.
“It is a direct threat to the rule of law and to the demonstrated desire of the American people for a lawful system of immigration,” Sessions said. “I believe this administration has utilized this policy to basically undermine and negate the ability of the law officers to do what they have been hired and paid to do.”
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo credit: shredded77
President Barack Obama on Monday told gathering of wealthy donors – many from Hollywood — “you guys are the tie-breaker” in the upcoming presidential election. “You and the American people,” he added.
Obama made the comment at a fundraiser in upscale Westport, Conn., just hours after he accused Romney of being “Robin Hood in reverse” at another fundraiser in Stamford, Conn. Dubbing the former Massachusetts governor “Romney Hood,” Obama said Romney wants to take from the middle class and give to the rich.
The Westport fund-raiser was held in the home of movie producer Harvey Weinstein. Actress Anne Hathaway was seated closest to Obama at his table. Screenwriter and producer Aaron Sorkin, whose NBC show “West Wing” was about a Democratic president, was also in attendance as well as talk show host Jerry Springer and actress Joanne Woodward, according to the White House press pool reporter.
Obama paid tribute to the stars in the audience.
“I want to thank Anne Hathaway for taking the time to host us. She’s spectacular,” Obama said, according to the official White House transcript. “And I did get a chance to see Batman and she was the best thing in it. That’s just my personal opinion. Aaron Sorkin — who writes the way every Democrat in Washington wished they spoke. Aaron, thank you.”
Read more from this story HERE.
The White House has left open the possibility of enacting its Internet agenda via executive order after the failed effort to bring the Democrat-supported cybersecurity bill to a full vote in the Senate last week.
In response to a question from The Hill, a Washington, D.C. political newspaper, about whether President Obama was considering advancing his party’s cyber-plan through an executive order, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney didn’t rule out the possibility.
“In the wake of Congressional inaction and Republican stall tactics, unfortunately, we will continue to be hamstrung by outdated and inadequate statutory authorities that the legislation would have fixed,” he said via email.
“Moving forward, the President is determined to do absolutely everything we can to better protect our nation against today’s cyber threats and we will do that,” added Carney.
The failed cyber security bill, which could be revived by Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid when the Senate comes back from recess in September, would have given federal agencies in charge of regulating critical infrastructure industries like power companies and utilities the ability to mandate cybersecurity recommendations.
Read more from this story HERE.