Average Americans

clipped from hotair.com WEEKLY ADDRESS: President Obama Vows to Continue Standing Up to the Special Interests on Behalf of the American People And here’s his vow: A hundred years ago, one of the great Republican Presidents, Teddy Roosevelt, fought to limit special interest spending and influence over American political campaigns and warned of the impact of unbridled, corporate spending. General Electric once again spent more money on lobbying than any other company — $8.3 million last quarter Of course, General Electric’s lobbying interests don’t include the advocacy work of the news and opinion departments of both NBC and MS-NBC, who remain steadfast allies of the administration. The top three trade lobbies — lobbying groups that represent single industries — are all health-sector lobbies that vocally and repeatedly supported Obama’s health care overhaul. It’s possible that the President considers these incredibly wealthy, very influential corporations just another bunch of “average Americans”

Wrong Way Obama

clipped from www.nytimes.com Even as the new coalition government said it would make enormous cuts in the public sector, it initially promised to leave health care alone. But in one of its most surprising moves so far, it has done the opposite, proposing what would be the most radical reorganization of the National Health Service, as the system is called, since its inception in 1948. In a document, or white paper, outlining the plan, the government admitted that the changes would “cause significant disruption and loss of jobs.” But it said: “The current architecture of the health system has developed piecemeal, involves duplication and is unwieldy. Liberating the N.H.S., and putting power in the hands of patients and clinicians, means we will be able to effect a radical simplification, and remove layers of management.”

Welcome To The Police State

clipped from emergingcorruption.com Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid is quietly trying to nationalize rules governing every police, fire and first responder union in the nation. Imagine the loss of control that local governments will face when first responder unions no longer have to deal with local rules and laws but can force a federal one-size-fits-all style rule on all local governments. Local governments will no longer be able to determine pay scales and benefits and will lose control of their own ability to budget. Reid’s plan will also completely remove the ability of voters to have any say in local matters as a top down control from Washington will rule the day where it concerns local police, fire and other first responders. If H.R.413 passes no local government will be able to fire a cop or fireman without appealing to the federal government, a source far, far removed from the local area and a source completely unfamiliar with the needs and interests of that local area.

A Tale O Corruption

clipped from hotair.com The expose on Journolist, a now defunct, listserv that included hundreds of liberal journalists, detailed: the Journolisters’ attempt, during the 2008 presidential campaign to kill and bury stories about Obama’s relationship with “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright; their push to deliberately smear innocent conservative journalists and politicos as “racists” and “bigots” their twisted passion to see Rush Limbaugh killed off and dead; their intolerant desire to have the government censor and shut down Fox News; and their baldly partisan effort to coordinate liberal talking points that would discredit Sarah Palin and John McCain, while helping to elect Barack Obama president. Considering that Journolist included journalists from Washington Post, the New York Times, National Public Radio, New Republic, and Time, one has to wonder if the biggest story covered up in 2008 was the illegal coordination between ACORN and the Obama campaign.

The Real Divide

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com The current state of American politics can be summed up in this poll data, published today by Rasmussen Reports: 75% of Likely Voters prefer free markets over a government managed economy. Just 14% think a government managed economy is better while 11% are not sure. Well, one would hope so. But here is the kicker: America's Political Class is far less enamored with the virtues of a free market. In fact, Political Class voters narrowly prefer a government managed economy over free markets by a 44% to 37% margin. That strikes me as a rather stunning finding.

journOlist

clipped from townhall.com Oh, and -- surprise! -- it turns out that the "O" in Journolist stands for "Obama." In 2008, participants shared talking points about how to shape coverage to help Obama. They tried to paint any negative coverage of Obama's racist and hateful pastor, Jeremiah Wright, as out of bounds. Journalists at such "objective" news organizations as Newsweek, Bloomberg, Time and The Economist joined conversations with open partisans about the best way to criticize Sarah Palin. In other words, Journolist is a symptom, not the disease. And the disease is not a secret conspiracy but something more like the "Open Conspiracy" H.G. Wells fantasized about, where the smartest, best people at every institution make their progressive vision for the world their top priority. "This isn't about ideology. ... We just call them like we see them. ... We don't have an agenda." The open conspiracy that perpetuates that lie is far more pernicious than any chat room.

The Full Bucky

clipped from www.popsci.com The space discoveries are piling up this week. Next up: Astronomers working with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered buckyballs in space for the very first time, putting an end to a decades-long search for the largest molecules now known to exist in space.

tOast

clipped from pajamasmedia.com JONAH GOLDBERG: “Shirley Sherrod, who didn’t know who Andrew Breitbart was 72 hours ago, now knows him well enough to say that he wants to put all blacks back into slavery. If I were David Axelrod, I’d be calling this woman and beg her to stop talking. And, yes, she does owe Andrew an apology.” UPDATE: Reader Bill Ernoehazy writes: “Glenn: At this point I think it’s worth asking: Did someone on Vilsack’s staff push for a panicky ejection because Sherrod had a _reputation_ for race-baiting? In less than three days she’s castigated the President, and now Breitbart, on nakedly racial grounds. What did Vilsack’s staff know, and when will WE know it?” ANOTHER UPDATE: More thoughts from Dave Price. “And remember — the Obama admin now owns Shirley Sherrod. There’s no way for them to look good on this anymore. the already oil-drenched competence myth is now taking a slash to the jugular.” Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 7:55 pm

Cracked And Crackling

clipped from pajamasmedia.com CNN HOST CALLS FOR crackdown on bloggers. Of course. UPDATE: Reader Eugene Heim writes: I think you got to this point much sooner than I, but my reaction to that story is: Who do these people think they are that they seek to determine what I should be able to read or hear? I am better educated, have seen and done things that they can only pontificate about (military, private sector, federal employee), and -going out a limb here- am more intelligent than these people who wish to regulate what I can know and think. I hope I speak for many when I say, I might be late to the game, but I am awake and taking the field. I think a lot of people feel this way. Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:24 pm

The Man For The Healing Job

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No Cattle

clipped from www.moonbattery.com

The Know Nothing

clipped from www.moonbattery.com "I know nothing! I don't even know my own opinions. In fact, I don't even know if the federal government can use the Commerce Clause to dictate what you eat for lunch. I… know… nothing!"

Torched

clipped from www.moonbattery.com

The Non-Firing Line

clipped from biggovernment.com Sherrod’s racist tale is received by the NAACP audience with nodding approval and murmurs of recognition and agreement. Hardly the behavior of the group now holding itself up as the supreme judge of another groups’ racial tolerance. It’s unfortunate that the NAACP’s recent resolution and false accusations have forced us to show you video 1 when video 2 is the bigger problem. That’s not to say video 1 is not a problem, but this country can ill afford, in this time of economic peril, to waste our time poking and prodding at the racial hornet’s nest that was supposed to have been removed with this post-racial presidency. But now President Obama and the modern-day Democrat party reveal they are anything but post-racial. once again, the American main stream media has asserted itself as the number one enemy of the truth, when the facts don’t fit the left-wing narrative.

RTWT.

Man O Man

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Before the advent of the modern environmental movement, Bill Buckley used to assert with a glint in his eye that a liberal is someone who wants to reach into your shower and adjust the temperature of the water. Man, oh, man, was he right. The liberals' environmental agenda has brought Buckley's satirical thrust uncomfortably close to reality. See, for example, the Wall Street Journal article "A water fight over luxury showers.

The Shock This Time

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com You will recall that we were instructed on a daily basis during the second term of President Bush's administration that the politicization of justice is a very bad thing. Indeed, it was a scandal of epic proportions. The occasion for the instruction was President Bush's replacement of eight United States Attorneys in 2006. It should have been tough to make a scandal of the replacement of United States Attorneys. They serve at the pleasure of the president. If the president is dissatisfied with their performance, he can and should sack them. You may be relieved to know that the long investigation of the supposed scandal has now come to a conclusion. The AP has learned that the Justice Department will file no charges.

Gamers And Hackers

clipped from www.technologyreview.com A new study shows that spending more than two hours a day engaged gaming or using computers for other purposes is only associated with less exercise in gamers and TV-watchers who live in countries in which kids already engage in relatively high levels of physical activity. The results show that in North America and Nordic countries, which (perhaps surprisingly) are home to relatively active youth, gaming or watching television for more than two hours a day is associated with a half day reduction in the number of days per week spent engaged in the recommended amount of exercise. Less-strong correlations were found in the British Isles, Central Europe and the Baltic countries. Impressively, using computers for something other than gaming correlated with more physical activity in kids

Hijacked

clipped from blog.american.com For anyone who has been in a cave, JournoList was an invitation-only email discussion group among “progressive” journalists and academics on which they exchanged candid views on the state of the nation and discussed the themes that should be pushed or suppressed as dictated by the needs of the movement. The conservative Daily Caller is now publishing emails exchanged on JournoList, with a focus on the more sensational of the collection. The real problem with JournoList is that much of it consisted of exchanges among people who worked for institutions about how to best hijack their employers for the cause of Progressivism. Thus, the J-List discussion revealed yesterday in the Daily Caller was about how the group could get their media organizations to play down the Reverend Wright affair and help elect Barack Obama. Were I an editor of one of these institutions, I would instantly fire any employee who participated in this gross violation of his/her duty.

Perfect

clipped from pajamasmedia.com HEH: What I Learned From the Shirley Sherrod Case. One bit: “Why Can’t Media Matters Read? Well, its not just Media Matters but almost every liberal pundit and member of the mainstream media. Who knew that Big Government was like Playboy Magazine. Everyone was so quick to watch the original video posted on Big Government that no one took the time to read the article that Andrew Breitbart wrote. While the article was critical of Ms Sherrod, that was not the focus of the article.” Plus this: “Damn, those lefty ‘reporters’ really hate Andrew Breitbart. They couldn’t wait to pounce on him for this story despite the fact that they couldn’t have read his post that well. Do they hate him for his politics or because he does their job much better than they do? I pick both.” Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 8:49 am

What Liberal Media?

clipped from pajamasmedia.com MORE FROM JOURNOLIST: Obama wins! And Journolisters rejoice. They seem to be planning for “epistemic closure.” Spencer Ackerman: “Let’s just throw Ledeen against a wall. Or, pace Dr. Alterman, throw him through a plate glass window. I’ll bet a little spot of violence would shut him right the fuck up, as with most bullies.” And Eric Alterman adds his own incisive analysis: “Fucking Nascar retards…” Didn’t the “best and the brightest” used to be, I dunno, better and brighter? UPDATE: Reader Elliott Davis emails: “The best part about Eric Alterman’s participation in Journolist is his authorship of What Liberal Media?: The Truth About Bias and the News.” Heh. Indeed. You gotta love this. Thanks again, Ezra! Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 6:39 pm

The Osmonds

clipped from pajamasmedia.com POLITICO So much for that ‘conversation’ on race. Meanwhile, a reader notes this pic of the White House press corps, and calls it “as diverse as an Osmond Family reunion.” But that’s unfair, since the Osmonds represent a religious minority that probably isn’t welcome in the White House press corps.

Racists (Part 78,951)

clipped from pajamasmedia.com OVERPAID PUBLIC SERVANTS: California Official’s $800,000 Salary in City of 38,000 Triggers Protests. Hundreds of residents of one of the poorest municipalities in Los Angeles County shouted in protest last night as tensions rose over a report that the city’s manager earns an annual salary of almost $800,000. An overflow crowd packed a City Council meeting in Bell, a mostly Hispanic city of 38,000 about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, to call for the resignation of Mayor Oscar Hernandez and other city officials. Residents left standing outside the chamber banged on the doors and shouted “fuera,” or “get out” in Spanish. This is part of America’s growing class war between the private-sector have-nots and the public-sector fatcats. The have-not taxpayers seem unhappy, and we’re likely to see more of this sort of thing. Quick — call someone a racist to distract them! Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 6:36 pm

Sea Star Wars

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk The weapon, mounted on a warship’s missile, shot down four unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in secret testing carried out off the California coast, The Daily Telegraph has learnt. In a joint enterprise between US Navy and Raytheon Missile Systems the technology has now got to the stage where lasers will be deployed on warships as part of their short-range defence. For the first time a ‘solid state’ 32 mega watt laser beam of directed energy has been fired from a warship to a distance of more than two miles burning into a drone travelling at about 300mph.

Forked

clipped from www.moonbattery.com When describing B. Hussein Obama's preposterous Affirmative Action presidency, it isn't too soon to use the word FAIL: Repossession of homes proceeds at a record pace. The Federal Reserve projects only weaker growth and higher unemployment. The sheepish Europeans cool their schoolgirl crush on Barack Obama. Ditto the Muslims, who had expected Mr. Obama to lead wholesale conversions to Islam, with conversion of St. Patrick's and National cathedrals to mosques soon to follow. The Pentagon warns that it can't pay its bills. The war in Afghanistan, no longer on George W.'s watch, looks headed toward Kaput City. Everybody is as angry as ever about the health care reform, the wasteful and ineffective stimulus (and Son of Stimulus) and Al Gore's scheme to require that naughty old sun to change its spots. Bill Clinton is called back to the White House and told to arrive with a big bottle of his magic "feeling your pain" pills.

Decree

clipped from www.americanthinker.com Shortly after he claimed the right to fire the head of a private company, Obama realized he could claim the power to set wages in companies receiving bailout funds.  When these actions were successful, Obama realized he could then claim the power to set wages all across the economy, even venturing as far as attempting government mandates for company perks like private jets or club memberships.  Similarly, when it was clear Congress would not object to Obama claiming the power to declare martial law, in direct violation of historic statute, Obama then contended that, in the event Congress would not cooperate, he would merely rule by decree. All of Obama's actions have highly fascist overtones.  The fusion of government and the private sector can be observed most clearly in the recent Chicago-style shakedown of BP, wherein Obama forced a private sector company to set up a $20 billion slush fund to be controlled by his team of czars, criminally exceeding his constitutional authority.

Wrong

clipped from esr.ibiblio.org The practice of kafkatrapping corrupts causes in many ways, some obvious and some more subtle. The most obvious way is that abusive and manipulative ways of controlling people tend to hollow out the causes for which they are employed, smothering whatever worthy goals they may have begun with and reducing them to vehicles for the attainment of power and privilege over others. A subtler form of corruption is that those who use kafkatraps in order to manipulate others are prone to fall into them themselves. Becoming unable to see out of the traps, their ability to communicate with and engage anyone who has not fallen in becomes progressively more damaged. These are both good reasons for change activists to consider kafkatraps a dangerous pathology that they should root out of their own causes. But the best reason remains that kafkatrapping is wrong. Especially, damningly wrong for anyone who claims to be operating in the cause of freedom.

Zombies

clipped from www.thomasewoods.com

Che Guavara Resurrected

clipped from www.moonbattery.com With the hot summer weather, it's nice to have some music to chug Kool-Aid by:

Bill Whittle For President

clipped from pajamasmedia.com BILL WHITTLE: Afterburner: One Small Misstep for a Man, One Giant Leap for Private Enterprise. As always with Whittle, it’s must-see PJTV. UPDATE: Reader George Fillmore writes: “Bill Whittle for President.”

Stooges

clipped from biggovernment.com You would have thought that the three separate entries I dedicated to exposing the lies yesterday in this article and video by the progressive propagandists at Think Progress, I would have said all there is to say. But there is more… and it is shocking. Remember “Activist 2,” the Saint Louis Team Party infiltrator, that claimed “I’m a proud racist, I’m white?” It seems that Think Progress used a clip from this video, a video entitled “Proof that the Tea Party is not racist.” The guys at SharpElbows.Net thwarted this infiltrator, heavily documenting his attempt to mingle with Tea Party protesters in Saint Louis. Think Progress misrepresented everything this video and the Tea Party stands for, and against. If staffers, including editor-in-chief Faiz Shakir should not be terminated for this behavior, I’d like to know why.

Flying Nun II

clipped from ace.mu.nu So Is This Fake? I hope not because it looks awesome. And in fact I believe The Flying Nun used a similar technique.

Seeps?

clipped from news.yahoo.com But retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's spill response chief, said a seep had been detected a distance from busted oil well, and he demanded that BP provide results of further testing of the seabed Sunday night. Allen didn't say what was coming from the seep. The concern all along — since pressure readings on the cap weren't as high as expected — was a leak elsewhere in the wellbore, meaning the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix. "When seeps are detected, you are directed to marshal resources, quickly investigate, and report findings to the government in no more than four hours. I direct you to provide me a written procedure for opening the choke valve as quickly as possible without damaging the well should hydrocarbon seepage near the well head be confirmed," Allen said in a letter to BP Managing Director Bob Dudley.

No Delay

clipped from www.washingtontimes.com The Constitution is informative here. In Article IV, Section 4, the federal government is required to "protect each [state] against Invasion; and [on request of the state government] against domestic Violence." As St. George Tucker noted, this provision guards against "the possibility of an undue partiality in the federal government," for example a "sectional" president who might, for political reasons, decline to protect states in a certain region. Today the federal government, at the direction of the president, has declined to carry out its duty under Article IV. Leaving aside its other possible consequences, this intentional failure to protect Arizona raises the question of what action the state is now entitled to take under the Constitution. This brings us to Article I, Section 10, Clause 3, which provides that "No State shall, without the Consent of Congress ... engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay."

Let That Sink In For A Moment

clipped from volokh.com Remember when the Commerce Clause challenge to the individual insurance mandate was dismissed by all serious and knowledgeable constitutional law professors and Nancy Pelosi as “frivolous”? Well, as Jonathan notes below, the administration is now apparently telling the New York Times that the individual insurance “requirement” and “penalty” is really an exercise of the Tax Power of Congress. Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations. Let that sink in for a moment. If the Commerce Clause claim of power were a slam dunk, as previously alleged, would there be any need now to change or supplement that theory?

In Case You Were Wondering Why I'm An Independent

clipped from pajamasmedia.com SMOOTH MOVE: GOP Dumps On Tea Party, Right Blogs. Tea Partiers need to work on taking over the party from the bottom up by filling precinct chairs and state committees, or they’ll wind up marginalized like the netroots even if the GOP wins. For the insiders, it’s all about their own power and perks. On the other hand, beware of divide-and-conquer journalism, too. . .

Plugs Under The Bus

clipped from www.outsidethebeltway.com In a sign that the Obama Administration is unwilling to associate it self with the “Tea Party = Racism” discussion that the NAACP started last week, Vice-President Biden said this morning that he did not believe it was true: “Do you think elements of the Tea Party are racist?” This Week anchor Jake Tapper asked Vice President Joe Biden in an EXCLUSIVE interview. Biden equivocated at first, but then settled on a pretty firm no. “Well, the truth is that at least elements that were involved in some of the Tea Party folks expressed racist views,” he said. “I wouldn’t characterize the Tea Party as racist.  “I don’t believe, the president doesn’t believe that the Tea Party is — is a racist organization.  I don’t believe that,” Biden said.  “Very conservative.  Very different views on government and a whole lot of things.  But it is not a racist organization.”

Railing

clipped from pajamasmedia.com PAMPERED POPULISTS: Victor Davis Hanson: “It’s surreal to see President Obama play the class-warfare card against the Republicans while on his way to vacation on the tony Maine coast, and even more interesting to note that now gone are the days when the media used to caricature Bush I (‘Poppy’) for boating in the summer off the preppie-sounding Kennebunkport. The truth is that the real big money and the lifestyles that go with it are now firmly liberal Democratic. . . . The more the polo-shirted Obama seems obsessed with golf, and the more he seems to prefer the landscape of the elite (who navigate the Ivy League, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Upper East Side, Cambridge, etc.), the more we wonder whom exactly he’s railing about.”

They Forgot

clipped from www.davidwarrenonline.com The Freedom Party of Geert Wilders takes this post-modern notion of freedom more or less for granted. It is hardly a Christian political force. Worse (for them), it creates a yet-to-be-acknowledged breach in the alliance-of-convenience between radical Muslims, and radical Secularists. For anyone with a view into a university campus will have noticed that the two ideological forces converge into one, for the purpose of attacking their common "Judeo-Christian" enemy. The idea that Wilders must be silenced, as an "Islamophobe" -- and he is most certainly that, and proud of it -- wonderfully exposes the hypocrisy on the Left. A little more deeply, it wonderfully exposes the flaw in the whole project of the Enlightenment, which has come to a pretty pass in our post-modern era. For while the earliest "liberal" thinkers fully realized "toleration" could never be extended to the intolerant, the children of their children forgot.