Political Cartoons by Gary Varvel

Townhall

Red Tape Rising: Regulation in the Obama Era

Heritage "Yet, explicit taxes and spending are only part of the total burden that government places on Americans. The rest comes in the form of hidden taxes imposed by government regulations. These "regulatory taxes" appear on no budget or balance sheet, but are very real--costing Americans an estimated $1 trillion or more each year."

Airline Bomb Scare Diplomat Was Traveling To Visit Imprisoned Al-Qaida Agent...

AP via Weasel Zippers "The diplomat, Mohammed Al-Madadi was going to meet Ali Al-Marri in prison, according to a State Department official and another person close to the matter. Al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar, is serving eight years in prison after pleading guilty last year to conspiring to support terrorism."

Waxman Plans Industry Show Trials

Big Government "Democrats understand that passage of Obama’s healthcare “reforms” will probably hurt them in November, so they’re doing everything they can to dampen the anger directed at them and turn it against someone – anyone – else."...."The hearing will be a nasty show trial. It is intended to vilify, not find fact: to shift the blame from congress to the industry executives who are trying to do their jobs in accordance with the law." Waxman again.

Petraeus’s Israel Problem

Andrew McCarthy "The State Department with which [General Petraeus] anxiously partners is the institution of government foremost dedicated to the view that we must be absolute neutrals in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. No material distinction is to be drawn between one side’s construction of housing and the other’s suicide bombings."

Obamas to Appear on "American Idol"

FoxNews "The President and First Lady took time out of their busy schedules on Wednesday to sit down for a taping with "American Idol" as part of the hit show's fundraising event set to air next week."

Iran's President Warns Israel against Invasion of Gaza

FARSNews " "And you (Zionists) should know that an attack on Gaza will end your inauspicious and filthy life," the Iranian president warned. " FARS is Iran's independent news agency. Whatever "independent" means.

Obama's credibility crisis

Thomas Lifson "The most valuable tool in a president's political arsenal is slipping away from Barack Obama. Once people believe a leader is a liar, it is very hard for that person to be effective in his role."

Some in MSM Cry Uncle

American Thinker "CNN just the other day ran a story: "Disgruntled Democrats join the Tea Party". And this just in from CNN, an African-American producer who went on a tour with the Tea Party to report on what actually happens at the rallies. Here are some of his remarks. " ...Ann Kane

Five things we learned about Obamacare after it passed

Washington Examiner "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., famously said that about President Obama's health care reform package. She was right. We are just finding out what was contained within that Obamacare law that Obama signed weeks ago." And this: Could Health Care Law Bring Down Sheriff Joe? "A provision in the newly passed health care law could give the Justice Department an extra tool in investigations of state-run institutions and prisons — including in its high-profile probe of an obstreperous Arizona sheriff under scrutiny for his law enforcement record." H/t to Neal Boortz

Barack Obama Bans College Internships, But Only in Free Enterprise

Redstate “Barack Obama is opposed to an individual’s right to make the individual’s own decisions about what is in the individual’s own best interest.”

Obama’s Nuclear Nonproliferation Fantasy

Jennifer Rubin "Obama’s speech in Prague last year was upstaged by a North Korean missile blast — the perfect metaphor for his foolishness. He talks; the despots shoot rockets. He signs agreements with other democracies; the rogue states build reactors. If you don’t feel safer you are not alone."

LOBIONDO HAS HIS BUTT HANDED TO HIM BY TEA PARTIER

Boortz "Tea Party member schools Rep. LoBiondo on the Constitution. "

Pelosi tells the simple-minded American people not to worry our pretty little heads about it

NeoNeocon "It’s like the back of the refrigerator. You see all these wires and the rest. All you need to know is, you open the door. The light goes on." Quoting Nancy Pelosi.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounds a warning on growing deficit

WaPo via Heritage : "Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke warned Wednesday that Americans may have to accept higher taxes or changes in cherished entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security if the nation is to avoid staggering budget deficits that threaten to choke off economic growth." The next president will have a lot to whine about "inheriting".

Obama’s False START

Heritage "Why should the U.S. Senate ratify a treaty that Russia maintains it can exit at any time?" And here: Obama, Medvedev sign treaty to reduce nuclear weapons "Let's remember where U.S.-Russian relations were when we took office," one top adviser said. "We were at one of the lowest points in a quarter-century. We're only now 15 months from that and we're in a different kind of relationship."