The threat of illegal alien amnesty-by-executive order

NumbersUSA   "Led by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), eight Senators addressed a letter to the President asking for answers to questions about a plan that would allow DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to provide an amnesty if they can't secure enough votes for a bill in the Senate."

"The Administration would be wise to abandon any plans for deferred action or parole for the illegal population. Such a move would further erode the American public’s confidence in the federal government and its commitment to securing the borders and enforcing the laws already on the books."

The threat of illegal alien amnesty-by-executive order "This administration has accomplished its major policy agenda items through force, fiat, and fraud. Immigration will be no different." Michelle Malkin.

Business leaders say Obama's economic policies stifle growth

Washington Post "The chairman of the Business Roundtable, an association of top corporate executives that has been President Obama's closest ally in the business community, accused the president and Democratic lawmakers Tuesday of creating an "increasingly hostile environment for investment and job creation." "

THE 'WELL DUH!' COMMENT OF THE DAY  "Finally! Maybe the American small business community isn't going to sit back and take it any longer. The business owners, the entrepreneurs, the job-makers .. there is only so much these people can take before things get ugly. Well guess what: things ARE ugly but more importantly .. the future under The Community Organizer doesn't look all that great. If people really want our economy to turn around, clearly changes in our leadership must be made." Neal Boortz.

Every congressman with a D by his or her name is a likely YES vote for this man's policies and goals.

Cops arrest Christians for handing out gospel at Dearborn Arab festival? Update: Pushback

Hot Air "Via Powerline, so insane is this that I’m paranoid there’s a key detail missing somewhere that might explain the whole thing. Could the Christians have been trespassing on private property, maybe? Sure doesn’t look like it, and in any case, they weren’t arrested for trespassing. They were arrested for “disorderly conduct,” which apparently now extends to the offense of offering religious literature to someone who might not want it."
I disagree strongly with this columnist's opinion the the Christians sue for a great deal of money. That is not the calling of Christians.

What a Sack of Sacrosanct

Ann Coulter "...With that in mind, here are some questions it would be fun to ask a New York liberal like Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan at her hearings next week:

-- Roughly one-third of Americans are Evangelical Christians. Do you personally know any Evangelical Christians? Name two.
-- In 1972, Richard Nixon was elected president with more than 60 percent of the vote, winning every state except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. How many people do you know who voted for Nixon?
-- Appropriate or inappropriate: Schools passing out condoms to seventh-graders? Schools passing out cigarettes to seventh-graders?
-- Who is a greater threat to America, Sarah Palin or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?"

What gets Obama’s goat?

Bookworm Room "Obama has been in office roughly a year and a half. That’s long enough to get a handle on what motivates our president. He’s pretty binary. When he’s not partying with rock stars, he’s either apathetic or angry. Here, in no particular order, is a little list of Obama’s responses to both world situations and domestic policy initiatives that have occurred so far during his administration:"...H/t to Lucianne.

Reasoning Arizona

Karl Rove "Rather than forge a coalition on reform, Obama is content to use the issue to secure Latino votes—if not for Democrats in this fall’s contests, then for his reelection. He willingly mischaracterizes the Arizona law because doing so benefits his party and himself. But on matters involving race, the president’s obligation is to unify America, not add to tensions. Obama’s political handling of this sensitive issue is shameful."

Chuck Asay, Townhall

Who’s Lying? McCain Backs Up Kyl

Breitbart "It was made very clear to me... that the President basically conditioned his support for border security to comprehensive immigration reform."

OBAMA FIRES GENERAL McCHRYSTAL

Gateway Pundit "Obama fired General McChrystal for telling the truth and questioning his leadership in the War in Afghanistan. Barack Obama waited months to send in the requested troops."

Time for Obama to Lead or Leave  "By firing McChrystal based on the Rolling Stone article, Obama has handed over control of the Afghan war to left-wing tabloids who happen to get lucky enough to get close enough to a commander that they can weave a sensational story based on almost nothing.
"Obama has replaced McChrystal with Gen. David Petraeus, who was lampooned by Obama's base as General Betray Us when Petraeus was Bush's chosen military leader."

The Degeneration of Democracy

Thomas Sowell    "When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics. Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler’s rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.
“Useful idiots” was the term supposedly coined by V. I. Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.
"Put differently, a democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive. In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it."
Again we refer you to those attending rock concerts in 2008 who were directed straight to voting booths after the music ended.

How Nikki Haley Survived Scandal

Political Wire "Haley's survival was partly due to her gender (women rallied around her), and the fact that she is a conservative Republican (Sarah Palin was for her). Haley was also helped by the backing of the estranged wife of former governor Mark Sanford -- the irony was potent -- who was made a laughingstock by his own sex scandal." I wonder how many Democrats voted for her just because she seemed like one of them.   

Afghanistan links; more to come later (UPDATED)

Mr. President, Don’t Waste this Crisis ; Win the war. "The imposition of a troop-withdrawal deadline, in particular, has poisoned our Afghanistan strategy. McChrystal has, understandably, behaved like a man under pressure to produce quick results to get good marks in the administration’s December Afghanistan strategy review."  Thomas Donnelly and William Kristol

MCCHRYSTAL  "This whole thing will be going down whilst I'm on the air. If you've been following me on Twitter you'll know how I feel. I grew up in a military family ... and the very idea of this community organizer browbeating a four-star general disgusts me. I'm a fan of this civilian control of the military stuff ... and McChrystal crossed the line. But it pains me to see an army career ended by a commander-in-chief who isn't fit to polish his brass." Neal Boortz

On the Carpet Mudville Gazette:  Reasonable people can conclude, and many have, that the comments in the article are just not at the level where a dismissal is warranted. Everyone can read them, and no one can point to any line uttered by the general that challenges the president's strategy or undermines confidence in McChrystal's willingness to implement it. Greyhawk

McChrystal: “I’ve compromised the mission” "Hamid Karzai yesterday issued a strong statement of support for McChrystal, calling him the best American commander in the last nine years in Afghanistan. Will his NATO colleagues feel the same, especially the French, whose social and diplomatic efforts were derided by McChrystal’s team in the article as “f***ing gay”? Or will he be seen as too tightly leashed to the White House now for any reliable independent judgment?"

Analysis: Gen.'s remarks echo troubled Afghan war  "The Republican opposition will likely seize on the McChrystal flap as evidence of Obama's weakness as commander in chief, even though the party supports the president's Afghan policy."

 General Stanley McChrystal has been stitched up by Rolling Stone "If anything, the case for dismissing McChrystal is strengthened by what the article exposes as his failure to win over the hearts and minds of his own men. There is considerable doubt among ordinary soldiers that counterinsurgency is the right strategy, and their commander does not come out of confrontations with them very well. But for insulting behaviour towards the administration? Look elsewhere."

Second-Day Information on the Rolling Stone Article "If you read the Rolling Stone article carefully, you can see that the reporter, Michael Hastings, has woven three stories together. One story is the story of General McChrystal trying to keep up morale in a tough war with his troops thinking he is too worried about civilian casualties and he is forcing them to accept too many risks as consequence. This is also the story of McChrystal feeling under time pressure from Washington. I bet this is the story Hastings pitched to McChrystal's staff and the story McChrystal thought was being reported."