Well-Meaning or Not, Obama Threatens America

Usually Confused.com

Pajamas Media  "Mr. Obama is a doctrinaire socialist who does not, perhaps cannot, see that the pursuit of socialist policies is harmful to America and harmful to his electoral prospects. He simply can’t bring himself to believe that the public won’t ultimately be grateful to him and catapult him back into the White House. Recall that he has, on more than one occasion, said that people ought to be thanking him for imposing socialist policies, and in making those statements, seemed genuinely puzzled and angry that they were not."

The Rise of the Adolescent Mind

Victor Davis Hanson "There are lots of issues involved in Wisconsin, in the impending financial and fuel crises, and in the sense of American impotency abroad. Yet a common denominator is a national adolescence, in which we want what we have not earned. We demand the world be the way that it cannot; and we don’t wish to hear “unfair” arguments from “bad” and “mean” people."
Then along come folk singers who portray these adolescent-minded people as if they were depression-era hobos,  lined up at soup kitchens and wept over by the ghost of Tom Joad

Union protestors as portrayed by Bruce Springsteen

Time to Restore Voter Control: End the Government-Union Monopoly

Heritage  "...now is a crucial time for Americans to understand the difference between private-sector and public-sector unions. Collective bargaining in the private sphere—where companies face competition—is a world away from collective bargaining in government—which faces no competition, and where unions have a legal monopoly. Heritage Foundation labor expert James Sherk explains why it is time to restore voter control over elected government, and how it can be done."

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Then there are these reading assignments from Neal Boortz: 
Particularly this one.
Then this: Missouri: Union Thug Threatens to “Teabag” 17-Year-old Kid Handing Out Copies of the Constitution…Poor video and sound, but enlightening.
Union Boss Trumka Talks to White House EVERY DAY and Visits a Couple Times A Week

Lets ALL get married, shall we?

Lisa Benson

"Law & Order": another TV show that sucker-punches half the American population

We began watching a 2009 episode of "Law and Order" entitled "Fed" last night and I had to shut it off at the start. We saw people like ourselves - TEA partiers, portrayed as rifle-toting, hateful bigots. Only Hollywood is capable of inspiring dislike and outrage by the simple means of the skillful acting of those who portray people like you and me as despicable and violent. They give us the same treatment they give to pharmaceutical  and insurance companies.
May God bless all courageous conservatives in our country trying to stem the socialist tide sweeping America because the left has such massive force to bring against them. And the propaganda is being spoon-fed to the American public. How do we stand a chance?

That would be a pro-Bush TEA partier on the right.

"On Law and Order" Tea Party Protesters are Like Terrorists Murdering Capitalists

CBS Uses Justin Bieber to Smear Tea Party

Shocking mug shots reveal toll of drug abuse

MSNBC   "With disturbing before and after photos of drug users’ faces, a new anti-drug campaign may succeed where others have failed, grabbing teens’ attentions by appealing to their vanity.
"The pairs of mug shots, which graphically display the damage drugs can do to the face, were collected by the sheriff’s office in Multnomah County, Ore.
"Faces that were normal — even attractive — in initial photos, shot when addicts were first arrested, metamorphose over years, and sometimes just months, into gaunt, pitted, even toothless wrecks. "

This is your face;    this is your face on drugs.

10 Things You Need to Know About High Gas Prices and Obama’s Oil Policy

Heritage  "But if you only read, hear or see this week’s news reports, you would think that oil and gas prices were doing just fine until the historic events in Egypt, Libya and across the Middle East unfolded this past month and caused spikes in the futures market. Unfortunately, that is not the case. President Obama has been unilaterally taking steps to increase the cost of gasoline for two years. Here are ten things you need to know about gas prices that you may not hear reported elsewhere:"

Google images



On Teachers and Others; an encounter with economics of the real world

Victor Davis Hanson  "Teachers are right that the crisis transcends compensation. Yet why, others might ask, would teachers’ unions oppose merit pay? Why should someone who did not join the union still have to pay its dues? Why should the state have to collect the dues from employee paychecks on behalf of the union? Moreover, when these questions are posed amid a landscape of teachers skipping classes to protest, urging students to join them, and soliciting fraudulent doctors’ notes to cover their cancellations of classes — while their supporters in the legislature hide out to prevent a quorum and thereby subvert the democratic process reaffirmed last November — the public becomes further estranged from their cause."

America's Gay White House

By Alan Caruba at Warning Signs  "These White House appointments are just one part of what millions of Americans have come to realize as measures taken to undermine the nation’s moral authority, its legal system, its economy, its military strength and defense, and its energy security."

The Wisconsin Shoot Out on Public Unions

Hoover Institution  "All too many of my recent columns have lamented the threat that public unions pose to the long-term political and financial stability of state government. Operating in their current pampered legal environment, unions have extracted extravagant settlements that are unsustainable in the long run. Now it turns out they are unsustainable in the short run as well. Tomorrow has become today as the ever-rising sea of red ink from union pensions and benefits overwhelms state budgets." Via Heritage.

Oh, as long as we're on the subject: Obama: Lets Unionize the TSA   "Our senate has been far too preoccupied with its abominable health crimes legislation to bother itself with national security; an issue liberals never take seriously.
"Eight months into his administration, Obama at last got around to nominating police detective Erroll Southers for the top position at TSA with the full support of the intractably incompetent Janet Napolitano." From Our senate has been far too preoccupied with its abominable health crimes legislation to bother itself with national security; an issue liberals never take seriously.
Eight months into his administration, Obama at last got around to nominating police detective Erroll Southers for the top position at TSA with the full support of the intractably incompetent Janet Napolitano. Our senate has been far too preoccupied with its abominable health crimes legislation to bother itself with national security; an issue liberals never take seriously.
Eight months into his administration, Obama at last got around to nominating police detective Erroll Southers for the top position at TSA with the full support of the intractably incompetent Janet Napolitano.
From CanadaFreePress.
Can we ever repair the damage Obama is doing to this nation? The day he leaves office I wonder if we will gaze out upon America and have in some small way the same feeling Londoners had after Hitler surrendered, peace reigned and they gazed out over their bombed-out city.

The Mayor of LA thinks we are racists to want a fence on the border. But He wants one around his house.

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Wants a Six-Foot Security Wall Erected Around His Mansion

"But no 'hood is small or wealthy enough to protect his royal highness. Much to the dismay of the Windsor Square Association, whose residents generally abide by the city's 42-inch yard-wall limit, Villaraigosa just applied for a six-footer:"

The Mayor lives at 605 South Irving Boulevard.

H.R. 685: Checkpoint Images Protection Act of 2011

Overcriminalized.com  " H.R. 685 would make it a criminal violation for an unauthorized individual to “knowingly” photograph, record, or distribute any images produced using “advanced imaging technology during the screening of an individual at an airport, or upon entry into any building owned or operated by the Federal Government.”"

About.com

Where Is The Outrage Now?

Khaled Abu Toameh  of the Jerusalem Post   "It took President Barack Obama nine days to condemn Col. Muammar Gaddafi's massacres in Libya as "outrageous" and "unacceptable."
"It took the UN Security Council more than a week to hold a closed-door meeting and issue a tempered statement condemning the violence in Libya and calling for its immediate end and for those responsible to be held accountable.
"This is the same Security Council that one week earlier held a special and open session to condemn construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.'

Hat tip to Big Peace : "According to Abu Toameh, there’s another double standard at work: the relatively deferential approach that Washington has taken toward Gaddafi when compared to its handling of the uprising against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak."

Young Republicans Produce Ad about Wisconsin Senators, “Fugitives on the Run”

Video and sound  "The Illinois Young Republicans are having some fun with Democratic State Senators, “fugitives on the run.”"

Tribal Dynamics Sets Libya Apart From Neighbors

GlobalSecurity.org "Ziad Akl, a researcher at Cairo's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, keeps a close eye on neighboring Libya. He says that in Libyan society, the loyalty to the tribe supersedes loyalty to the state. This means that amid the current turmoil, clan affiliations and customs are more important than civic organizations, or following the state law.
"He says that the tribal dynamics that Qaddafi long suppressed through modernization, nationalism, and the development of patron-client relations with tribal heads appear to be turning against him."

The American protestor meets the Arab protestor

http://townhall.com/cartoons/jerryholbert

Let's talk peace and tolerance over some, like, Ben & Jerry's, y'know.

Miss him yet?

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

From the party of peace, love, tolerance and naturally, civility.

The Real Political Math In Wisconsin

HuffPost  "For all of the valid concern about reining in state spending -- a concern shared by politicians and voters of all labels -- the underlying strategic Wisconsin story is this: Gov. Scott Walker, a Tea Party-tinged Republican, is the advance guard of a new GOP push to dismantle public-sector unions as an electoral force."
When reading the Huffington Post, bear in mind the site is sponsored by MSNBC. If you must watch NBC shows on TV, remember to watch the dialog for attacks on conservatives, Christians, TEA partiers and Republicans in general.
Why Bush Senior says he likes watching "Law & Order" reruns, I'll never know.

The Constitution and Obamacare

Big Government  "What does the Constitution really say about the most controversial policy decisions of the present day? What arguments against Obamacare have potential in court, and which are DOA?

"Constitutional law experts Richard Epstein and John Yoo joined us to discuss these very issues. They examine the constitutionality of Obacamare through the lens of the “encroachment” argument (which has potential) and the “general welfare” argument, which they argue won’t work."  Some things they say you might like, others: not so much.

Democrats and the Defense of Marriage Act

Obama’s Constitutional Epiphany "The American people are learning that Obama’s Constitution is a very strange creature indeed. Whether it’s ignoring a district-court decision striking down his signature health-care legislation or abandoning a duly enacted law to establish a right to same-sex marriage through the courts, Obama’s constitutional interpretation is ultimately dictated by his political needs of the moment. 2012 can’t come fast enough."

Jonah Goldberg: Throwing in the Towel on the Constitution "Either way, what Obama is doing is flatly outrageous. Carney says that “the president is constitutionally bound to enforce the laws and enforcement of the DOMA will continue.”"

Gingrich rips Obama on DOMA but denies call for impreachment ""Congress has every responsibility to demand President Obama live up to his constitutional obligations, but impeachment is clearly not an appropriate action,” Gingrich said in a statement, released after news outlets had interpreted Gingrich's statements to Newsmax as suggesting that Obama could be impeachable for not executing the law regarding DOMA."

Obama and DOMA  "Did anyone on any part of the political spectrum ever actually believe that Obama opposed gay marriage? That was never anything but disguise. This new move suggests that the centrist mask is slipping, the country is polarizing, and Obama is being forced to fly his true flag. I don’t doubt that the president will continue to resist full disclosure of his leftist political allegiances. Yet that is the direction in which he is now being pulled."

DOMA Watch  "The Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman for purposes of all federal laws, and provides that states need not recognize a marriage from another state if it is between persons of the same sex. 37 states have their own Defense of Marriage Acts (DOMAs), while 2 more states have strong language that defines marriage as one man and one woman. There are 30 states that have constitutional amendments protecting traditional marriage, including the three states (Arizona, California, and Florida) that passed constitutional amendments in November 2008."

Libya and the US

US military advisers in Cyrenaica. Qaddafi's loses his air force "This is the first time America and Europe have intervened militarily in any of the popular upheavals rolling through the Middle East since Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution in early January. The advisers, including intelligence officers, were dropped from warships and missile boats at the coastal towns of Benghazi and Tobruk Thursday Feb. 24, for a threefold mission:"  DEBKAfile

Help Libyans Liberate Themselves from Qadhafi  "The United States has a humanitarian interest in easing the suffering of Libyans and halting the regime’s criminal atrocities and a strategic interest in removing the anti-Western dictatorship that has unleashed terrorism at home and abroad. The Obama Administration, which has muted its voice and equivocated on Libya, should take stronger action to achieve these goals."

ELLIOTT ABRAMS :  Our Bargain With the New Gadhafi  "After Saddam Hussein fell, Libya's leader handed his weapons to the U.S. in exchange for warmer relations. We got his nuclear program. He got to stay comfortably in power."  Max Boot adds his comment to the previous article:

We must make clear to him that the days when he could strike a deal with the West are over. All that we are willing to negotiate now are the terms of his departure from power.

http://townhall.com/cartoons/ericallie

"President Obama’s failure to deliver that message is both shameful and puzzling.

U.S. Will Announce Sanctions Soon  "The United States moved to increase diplomatic pressure on the embattled Libyan government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi on Friday, suspending relations and preparing to impose unilateral sanctions because of the deadly violence the Libyan government has directed at protesters in the country."

Foreign Policy Initiative to Obama: U.S., Allies Must Act on Libya "The Foreign Policy Initiative has authored a letter to President Obama recommending his administration act with America's NATO allies on ending the violence and the "murderous regime" in Libya. The letter was signed by 41 former U.S. government officials, human rights and democracy advocates, and foreign policy experts, including the boss and several contributing editors and contributors to THE WEEKLY STANDARD. The text of the letter is below."...

Rubicon: A river in Wisconsin

Charles Krauthammer "We have heard everyone - from Obama's own debt commission to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - call the looming debt a mortal threat to the nation. We have watched Greece self-immolate. We can see the future. The only question has been: When will the country finally rouse itself?
"Amazingly, the answer is: now. Led by famously progressive Wisconsin - Scott Walker at the state level and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan at the congressional level - a new generation of Republicans has looked at the debt and is crossing the Rubicon. Recklessly principled, they are putting the question to the nation: Are we a serious people?"

Today's Democrats and the Wisconsin Assembly

American Thinker  "Nice. Comforting to know that in our republic, lawmakers have to be escorted by police to prevent the opposition from causing bodily harm."

Wis. Assembly passes bill taking away union rights  "The Wisconsin Assembly early Friday passed a bill that would strip most public workers of their collective bargaining rights—the first significant action on the new Republican governor's plan.

Green Bay Press Gazette

"The vote put an end to three straight days of punishing debate, but the political standoff over the bill is far from over. The measure now goes to the Senate, where minority Democrats have been missing for a week, preventing a vote in that chamber."

Video:  Wisconsin Democrats yell "Shame" at Republicans in chamber
What the American Democrat Party has become.

Hate-a-rama: The vulgar, racist, sexist, homophobic rage of the Left "My new syndicated column today does the reporting the Tea Party-bashing national media won’t do on the rabid outbreak of progressive incivility and violence at Big Labor protests across the country. On Saturday, the grievance convergence will descend on all 50 state capitols spearheaded by the smear merchants of MoveOn.org — who will stoke further hatred and class warfare against America’s taxpayers, job creators, and wealth producers:"

What Madison Revealed   "Although the term “special interests” is usually deployed as an epithet by Democrats and is meant to refer to oil companies, “the rich,” or other undesirables, in fact, as economist James M. Buchanan and other “public choice” theorists explain, a special interest is any community that attempts to gain a particular advantage from government."

Why Obama and the Dems Blundered in Wisconsin  "It is becoming clear that the Wisconsin battle was a strategic political blunder for President Obama and the Democratic Party. The decision by the Democratic Party and its allies to draw a line in the sand in Wisconsin was the wrong strategy, in the wrong state, at the wrong time, on the wrong issue, and executed in the wrong way."

Prime Time CBS Drama 'The Good Wife' Impugns Tea Party as 'Racist Organization'

Media Research Center  "Tuesday night’s episode of The Good Wife on CBS gave prime time legitimacy to the presumption the Tea Party is racist as a lawyer in a courtroom tried to discredit an expert witness (Gary Cole as Sarah Palin supporter “Kurt McVeigh”) who testified against a since-exonerated black defendant, by demanding he admit he’s “a member of the Tea Party.” The lawyer asserts “it is our contention that my client’s prosecution was racist,” citing McVeigh’s “membership in a racist organization,” namely the Tea Party."

Meeting Young Obama

American Thinker  "Whatever impact our encounter might have had on him, I know something about what Barack Obama believed in 1980. At that time, the future president was a doctrinaire Marxist revolutionary, although perhaps -- for the first time -- considering conventional politics as a more practical road to socialism. Knowing this, I think I have a responsibility to place on the public record my account of this incident from our president's past."

Victor Davis Hanson:  After Obama, the Deluge  "Shortly after Barack Obama leaves office, we are all going to have to eat cake. Then a less eloquent president will have to balance budgets, pay off trillions in new debt, develop more energy, come up with a sane health-care policy, and in symbolic fashion have the first family share the sacrifice of a more mundane lifestyle."

Danny Ayalon on the Death of ‘Linkage’ and What It Means for Israel

Commentary   "This turns the linkage theory completely on its head. Instead of trying to solve the problems of the Muslim world through the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, it now seems more likely that a peace agreement won’t be signed until the current grievances across the Middle East are resolved."

(Updated) Media Mash: Wis. Protest Edition; Bozell and Hannity Analyze Media's Bias, Double Standards

Newsbusters  "BRENT BOZELL: It's not just virtual silence, it is complete silence from the national media.
This is incredible. After a year of lectures about civility and the need to stop being so hate-filled and looking for those pictures of those whack-job Lyndon LaRouche supporters at Tea Party rallies that had those pictures equating Obama to Stalin, Obama to Satan, you have the exact same pictures now with Scott Walker.
Look, when Sarah Palin had pictures on her website with crosshairs on counties, not people, counties, she was accused of being a participant in the murders in Arizona. Yet you've got that going on now [with Madison protesters putting crosshairs over pictures of Gov. Scott Walker (R)].

How the Left views the Wisconsin protestors

Pat Oliphant in the Washington Post

One Chart that Tells You Everything You Need to Know about State and Local Government Pay

Big Government  "Every labor economist, right or left, will agree that higher “quit rates” are much more likely in sectors that are underpaid and lower levels are much more likely in sectors where compensation is generous.
"Not surprisingly, this data shows state and local bureaucrats are living on Easy Street. As the chart illustrates, private sector workers are more than three times as likely to quit their jobs."

Wisconsin Assembly Passes Bill Curbing Collective Bargaining

Bloomberg.com  "The Assembly in Madison early today voted 51-17 over the shouted objections of some legislators, and 28 lawmakers failed to cast their ballots. The measure still must be considered in the Senate, which has been unable to muster a quorum since last week after its 14 Democrats fled the state to stall the measure."

Next Step in Congress’ Fight for Marriage

boston.com

Heritage  "DOMA was enacted by overwhelming majorities of both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. DOMA has two core provisions. First, it defines the words marriage, spouse, husband, and wife wherever they appear in the U.S. Code as referring only to the union of a man or a woman. Second, it defends the right of each state not to be forced to accept the redefinition of marriage in a handful of other states as a result of state court decisions or laws. Nearly 40 states have enacted state-level DOMAs, and 31 have embraced traditional marriage in their state constitutions. No state’s voters have ever voted to the contrary."

Exposed: Obama’s 23-Year Pastor Jeremiah Wright Travelled to Libya to Meet With Gaddafi in 1984…

Weasel Zippers   "Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of Obama’s longtime Chicago church, went with Farrakhan to visit Gadhafi in 1984.
"During the 2008 presidential campaign, Wright himself noted the trip could cause problems for Obama.

“When [Obama’s] enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli to visit [Gadhafi] with Farrakhan, a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell.”

"Farrakhan, a close friend and associate of Wright, has been financed by Gadhafi, including with a $5 million interest-free loan in 1985."

More on the Saudi Jihadist Arrested in Texas (Updated)

Andrew C. McCarthy   "Aldawsari also e-mailed himself instructions on how to convert a cellular phone into a remote detonator and how to prepare a booby-trapped vehicle using items available in every home. One e-mail allegedly contained a message stating that “one operation in the land of the infidels is equal to ten operations against occupying forces in the land of the Muslims.”" I suppose the press would call him a "Texan" .

The Arrest of a Would-Be Bomber in Texas and the Limited Anticipatory Scope of Criminal Law in Lone Wolf Cases   "In another e-mail titled “NICE TARGETS 01,” Aldawsari allegedly sent himself the names of 12 reservoir dams in Colorado and California. In another e-mail to himself, titled “NICE TARGETS,” he listed two categories of targets: hydroelectric dams and nuclear power plants. On Feb. 6, 2011, the affidavit alleges, Aldawsari sent himself an e-mail titled “Tyrant’s House,” in which he listed the Dallas address for former President George W. Bush. The affidavit also alleges that Aldawsari conducted research that could indicate his consideration of the use of infant dolls to conceal explosives and possible targeting of a nightclub with an explosive concealed in a backpack."

A New America in a New World Order

Victor Davis Hanson   "A strengthened US role in the UN has come to nothing. Did we gain anything by humiliating Israel in 2009? Are Venezuela and its axis moderating their efforts to turn Latin America into a Marxist utopia? Has America ever before joined Mexico — or any other foreign government — in efforts to sue one of its own states that simply wanted federal law enforced? Was Russia really all that eager to help an appeasing US diplomatically? When the US provided serial numbers of British nuclear weapons to Putin’s Russia, and when Europeans like Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have to lecture the West about the failures of multiculturalism, we are reminded that the Europeans should have been careful of what they so loudly wished for during the 2008 presidential campaign."

http://townhall.com/cartoons/garymccoy

Wisconsin Unions vs. The Tea Party: A Classic Double Standard

Newsbusters   "A story-by-story analysis by the Media Research Center shows the Wisconsin protests are a perfect case study in the media’s longstanding double standard favoring left-wing causes while demonstrating much more hostility to the Tea Party and conservative protest."

Bill Whittle’s scathing indictment of the Obama foreign policy (video)

Bookworm Room  "You know, there comes a point where – no matter how you try to offer the benefit of the doubt – evidence builds up to such a degree that you can no longer deny that the evidence is trying to tell you something. And halfway through his first term, the foreign policy decisions made by Barack Obama and his administration are so appalling, and so destructive in the long term; they no longer can be credited to inexperience or even incompetence. They are so consistent that they must be due to ideology."

Obama takes a stand on Libya   "The day before Obama firmly came out on the side of world peace via Libya, his press secretary had informed the world that Obama's 9 day silence on the Libyan inferno was due to "scheduling conflicts." Now that Obama has made time in his schedule, he has finally made a decision. America is going to let the United Nations handle the problem."

Obama's Libya Silence  Quoting Charles Krauthammer:

"This is a President who went around the world in the first year in office saying he would he was raising the moral standard of the United States in the world after the travesties as he saw it or the Bush Administration. Here he is, he has nothing on what's happening in Libya which is a case of brutality and mere genocide to use the word of one of Gaddafi's own diplomats. The shooting of demonstrators from helicopter gunships, the strafing of demonstrators from bombers is astonishing."

U.S. Fears Tripoli May Deploy Gas As Chaos Mounts

Wall Street Journal  "The George W. Bush administration reached a key agreement with Tripoli in 2003 that called for Libya to scrap its weapons of mass destruction programs in return for normalized diplomatic relations. The deal followed the toppling of Saddam Hussein and was viewed as a major victory in the push to rid the Middle East of advanced weapons."
Thank President George W. Bush that the nuke-ninnies Hussein and Ga-whatsit have been disarmed and are not part of the current equation.

http://townhall.com/cartoons/glennmccoy

Hide and Seek: White House hides meetings with lobbyist offsite

Another Black Conservative  "Politico: Caught between their boss’s anti-lobbyist rhetoric and the reality of governing, President Barack Obama’s aides often steer meetings with lobbyists to a complex just off the White House grounds – and several of the lobbyists involved say they believe the choice of venue is no accident.
"It allows the Obama administration to keep these lobbyist meetings shielded from public view — and out of Secret Service logs collected on visitors to the White House and later released to the public."

Wisconsin governor urging others to take stands against unions

Washington Post  "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, whose efforts to curtail the rights of public-employee unions have thrust him into the national spotlight, is pushing other new Republican governors to follow his lead.
"He said he communicates regularly with Ohio Gov. John Kasich and has spoken with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval. And Walker has suggested that his counterparts in Michigan and Florida seek to address their budget problems in part by demanding major concessions from public workers.
"There's a lot of us new governors that got elected to do something big," Walker said this week. "This is our moment."
"His comments about his GOP brethren came in an unusual forum: a recorded telephone conversation with a liberal blogger purporting to be conservative financier David Koch."

Obama Bows Out on the Defense of Marriage Act

National Review  "The Holder letter concludes: “Our attorneys will notify the courts of our interest in providing Congress a full and fair opportunity to participate in the litigation in these cases.” It would have been fuller and fairer for President Obama and the Justice Department to have done that from the beginning when the DOMA suits were filed in Massachusetts. The silver lining is that the way has now been cleared for a real adversarial process. The law enacted by Congress and the views of the American people finally will have a champion in court."

Volokh Conspiracy on DOMA   "So I take the Obama Administration to task not for asserting executive review here, which is at least arguably proper, but for trying to split the baby in half, and declaring that it won’t defend an unconstitutional law, but will enforce it. And not just any unconstitutional law, but one regarding which the Administration claims there are no “reasonable” supporting arguments."

More from Volokh Conspiracy:  "I also agree that there is a big difference between declining to enforce a law and declining to defend it. ... First, my sense is that it is not clear that others can step in to defend DOMA, and if so, how that would work. ...And second, the decision not to defend DOMA is likely to trigger a tit-for-tat that will have significant repercussions for the role of the Executive branch in defending legislation in the future."

Will Harry Reid Also Hide in Illinois?

Heritage  "If President Obama and Majority Leader Reid want to punt these tough choices to another time, another Congress, another generation one more time they will be abdicating their responsibilities in the same way their liberal colleagues in Wisconsin and Indiana are doing. It’s time for both chambers of Congress and the White House to get to work. Kicking the can is no longer an option."

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Jihadist Opportunities in Libya

STRATFOR "However, even though jihadists have not been successful in overthrowing governments, they are still viewed as a threat by regimes in countries like Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. In response to this threat, these regimes have dealt quite harshly with the jihadists, and strong crackdowns combined with other programs have served to keep the jihadists largely in check.

"As we watch the situation unfold in Libya, there are concerns that unlike Tunisia and Egypt, the uprising in Libya might result not only in a change of ruler but also in a change of regime and perhaps even a collapse of the state."

Look for the Union Fable

Ann Coulter  "Government unions have nothing in common with private sector unions because they don't have hostile management on the other side of the bargaining table. To the contrary, the "bosses" of government employees are co-conspirators with them in bilking the taxpayers."....

http://townhall.com/cartoons/lisabenson

"Democrats buy the votes of government workers with generous pay packages and benefits -- paid for by someone else -- and then expect a kickback from the unions in the form of hefty campaign donations, rent-a-mobs and questionable union political activity when they run for re-election."

UN Asks Lefty Hollywood to Write Global Warming Propaganda Into Movie Story Lines…

Weasel Zippers  "Now the beleaguered multi-national agency, fresh from a disappointing round of climate negotiations in Cancun, wants something more concrete: actual story lines in movies, television and social media drawing attention to the dangers of global warming."

Breaking: Obama to abandon DOMA defense

Hot Air  "President Obama has decided that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and has asked his Justice Department to stop defending it in court, the administration announced today.
"“The President believes that DOMA is unconstitutional. They are no longer going to be defending the cases in the 1st and 2nd circuits,” a person briefed on the decision said."

Obama Won't Go to Court Over Defense of Marriage Act  Attorney General Eric Holder "said that Obama also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, which defines “spouse” as a member of the opposite sex, “fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the president has instructed the department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the president’s determination.”

Government Unions vs American Taxpayers

Heritage  "Conservative governors across the nation should absolutely work to reform the way public-sector unions drain our economy. As Governor Christie told MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ today: “We’re not trying to break the unions, the unions are trying to break the middle class.”"

http://townhall.com/cartoons/henrypayne

Civility from the left

Skip Maclure

Wisconsin Unions vs. The Tea Party: A Classic Double Standard  "A story-by-story analysis by the Media Research Center shows the Wisconsin protests are a perfect case study in the media’s longstanding double standard favoring left-wing causes while demonstrating much more hostility to the Tea Party and conservative protest."

Can American Values Radicalize Muslims?

Raymond Ibrahim  "In fact, far from eliminating radicalization, there is reason to believe that Western values can actually exacerbate Islamist tendencies. It is already known that Western concessions to Islam — in the guise of multiculturalism, "cultural sensitivity," political correctness, and self-censorship — only bring out the worst in Islamists. Yet even some of the most prized aspects of Western civilization — personal freedom, rule of law, human dignity — when articulated through an Islamist framework, have the capacity to "radicalize" Muslims."

But That’s What Community Organizers Do

Victor Davis Hanson   "So we should cease being surprised that the president editorializes about extraneous issues while ignoring critical ones, or that the administration is now addressing breast pumps, or that Obama has ignored the findings of his own debt commission, or that he has added 200,000 new federal workers at a time of fiscal insolvency, and on and on.
"You see, that is what community organizers do, now and in the past."

http://townhall.com/cartoons/mikelester

The US and the Revolutions

 Blackfive   "A few thoughts on the revolutions, and how to respond.  Responses are meant to be effective without opening a new ground war, which is a condition that has to be avoided for obvious reasons."....
"We can imagine the heartening effect among the protestors of seeing US warplanes guarding them above. We can also imagine the effect the memory of that sight will have on post-revolutionary Libya."

US warships box in Iranian flotilla, delay Suez passage

USS Enterprise

DEBKAfile  "The Iranian warships found themselves cheek to jowl with a major concentration of America naval might piling up in the Red Sea and Suez and were not sure what would happen if they went forward with their mission to transit the Suez Canal for the Mediterranean for the first time in 30 years on their way to Syria."

Cables show China used debt holdings to press US

Breitbart  "China's clout -- gleaned from its nearly $900 billion stack of US debt -- has been widely commented on in the United States, but sensitive cables show just how much influence Beijing has and how keen Washington is to address its rival's concerns.
"An October 2008 cable, released by WikiLeaks, showed a senior Chinese official linking questions about much-needed Chinese investment to sensitive military sales to Taiwan. "

What Unions Do: How Labor Unions Affect Jobs and the Economy

Heritage  "What do unions do? The AFL-CIO argues that unions offer a pathway to higher wages and prosperity for the middle class. Critics point to the collapse of many highly unionized domestic industries and argue that unions harm the economy. To whom should policymakers listen? What unions do has been studied extensively by economists, and a broad survey of academic studies shows that while unions can sometimes achieve benefits for their members, they harm the overall economy." Hat tip to Neal Boortz, who also contributed this:

And this:

Plus these videos: MEGYN KELLY TAKES ON WI TEACHERS' UNION PRESIDENT

How often does the president of the AFL-CIO speak to somebody in the White House?

How the GOP Can Win the Budget Battle

Wall Street Journal  "Democrats will bewail every domestic program cut. Can Republicans convince the public we can't afford to play this game any longer?" Fred Barnes is executive editor of the Weekly Standard and a commentator on Fox News Channel.

Shutdown: Does GOP have the edge this time?  "It all adds up to this: Republicans have less to fear from a government shutdown now than they did when they endured the blame 15 years ago — at least that’s the thinking in some GOP circles."

http://townhall.com/cartoons/glennfoden

It's Crunch Time for Organized Labor .

Former Gov. Ted Strickland (D., Ohio)
speaks to protesters in Columbus.


.

Heritage  "Gov. Walker and other Republicans say they have no choice as states struggle to cover huge budget gaps. Gov. John Kasich, who is pushing a similar measure in Ohio over heated union opposition, says the moves are not an attack on unions, but an effort "to restore some balance."

""We have finally elected people who are doing what they said they would do," said U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, the newly elected Republican from Wisconsin, who supports efforts to trim labor's powers. "I certainly hope that voters will stand by Gov. Walker when he makes these tough decisions.""

Admiral Provides Details of Somali Piracy Killings

GlobalSecurity.org   "The admiral gave a timeline of the action. Pirates captured the vessel about 190 nautical miles southeast of Masirah Island, Oman, Feb. 18. Four U.S. Navy warships responded: the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, the guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf and the guided-missile destroyers USS Sterett and USS Bulkeley.
"The ships found the vessel and made contact with the pirates via bridge-to-bridge radio, and began a series of negotiations. Yesterday, two pirates boarded the USS Sterett to continue negotiations.

Southern California residents Jean Adam,
 66, and her husband, Scott, 70, were in
 the  seventh year of an off-and-on,
 round-the-world
 trip on their beloved sloop, Quest.
 (Del Rey Yacht Club / October 20, 2005)

"“At 8 a.m. this morning … a rocket-propelled grenade was fired by the pirates from the Quest toward the Sterett,” Fox said. “Immediately thereafter, gunfire erupted from inside the cabin of the Quest. Several pirates appeared on the deck of the Quest and moved up to the bow with their hands in the air in surrender.”"

Four Americans, including Southern California couple, are killed by Somali pirates, U.S. officials say  "Such a jarring end to what had seemed a charmed life devastated scores of people around Southern California, in the array of communities they touched — at Fuller Theological Seminary, where Scott Adam was a long-time student; in the television industry, where he had worked in production and direction; among patients Jean Adam had treated as a dentist; and in Marina del Rey, where the couple hosted deck-top dinners and holiday parties with Christmas lights wound through the rigging of their yacht."  Remember that LA is the home of Michael Moore and Oliver Stone; you may expect the LA Times to run some columns on understanding-the-poor-pirates-side-of-things in three...two...one.

Death to Apostates: Not a Perversion of Islam, but Islam

Andrew C. McCarthy  "Ever since 2003, when the thrust of the War On Terror stopped being the defeat of America’s enemies and decisively shifted to nation-building, we have insisted — against history, law, language, and logic — that Islamic culture is perfectly compatible with and hospitable to Western-style democracy. It is not, it never has been, and it never will be."

Bill Clinton and the New Civility Center

Commentary  "Mr. Clinton said in a statement that the new institute “can elevate the tone of dialogue in our country.” Perhaps, though I do wonder if a few notes of apology from our 42nd president might be in order first.

"Let’s take a journey down memory lane, shall we?"

From Woodstock to Civility Commissions "To see Alinskyites, radical intellectuals, and Woodstock yuppies lecturing fellow Americans on the virtue of civility is tiresome but unsurprising. No one is more authoritarian than a successful left-wing revolutionary: he rises to power by extolling dissent, then stays in power by suppressing it."

Somali Pirates Murder 4 Americans

Human Events  "Aggressively hunting down and killing Somali boats is a much more practical use of our limited but powerful naval resources, and transfers the initiative to our Navy instead of the pirates. It’s time to take the initiative."

Friends mourn 4 US yachters killed by Somali pirates  " Scott Adam, who is in his mid-60s, had been an associate producer in Hollywood when he turned in a spiritual direction and enrolled in Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena a decade ago, said Robert K. Johnston, a professor at the seminary.

""They were just passing out Bibles, trying to do a good thing," said Barbara Herred, who attended the Mass in Santa Monica. "It’s just so sad.""

Leaked Email: Screen Actors Guild Asks Members to Join Anti-Walker Protests in Wisconsin

Big Hollywood  Meaning you should watch for lines in your favorite TV shows where familiar characters take verbal jabs at anyone not on the side of the teachers union.
..."is an email generated by the Screen Actors Guild to “SAG Members” that was leaked to Big Hollywood. We’ve gone ahead and emphasized what we found the most interesting. Is collective bargaining enshrined in law?  How many astro-turfed actors will show up in Madison to protest Governor Scott Walker? Will Sean Penn bring his shotgun? Will Oliver Stone bring his Uncle Hugo? ..."

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Screen Actors Guild

Unrest and Libya's Energy Industry

STRATFOR  "At the risk of oversimplifying, Libya’s population is split in half: Leader Moammar Gadhafi’s power base is in Tripoli in the extreme west, the opposition is concentrated in Benghazi in the east, with a 600 kilometer-wide gulf of nearly empty desert in between."....

"If Libya veers towards civil war, each side will have its own source of income to feed on, as well as a similar income source on the other side to target."