Reflections on an Ailing Society

Victor Davis Hanson "The public is starting to sense that the progressive dream for us is an abject nightmare, castor oil far worse than the illness. And there is no reason to believe that the losses of 2010 are over with yet — if Pelosi, Reid, and Obama stay in denial and think they only need to communicate more effectively their EU-plans of redistributive change."



http://townhall.com/cartoons/cartoonist/ChipBok



Krauthammer to liberals: Conservatism is bigger than just Sarah Palin

Hot Air "His basic point is unobjectionable — every movement is bigger than its most charismatic champions, as the endless number of lefties who are disappointed in Obama could tell you — but his obvious exasperation with Palin’s present status as de facto conservative spokesman-in-chief has commenters in Headlines buzzing."

WELL SAID MARINE!

Nealz Nuze  "Robert A. Hall [is the actor. Yup .. part of that Hollywood crowd. He plays the role of the coroner on CSI - sorry, but I don't watch it.] Hall also served in the Massachusetts State Senate and is a Marine Vietnam War veteran. Here's a little bit that he wrote --- and yes, it is been verified by Snopes. Read it. Copy it. Post it on your company bulletin board. Send it to your know-it-all children in college. Tape it on windshields in parking lots. Well .... After you've read it you'll know what to do. "

Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles try to scare America into doing something about the deficit.

Slate "In their deficit-reduction plan, all budgets would be eventually balanced, all ledgers in the black. Earmarks would no longer exist, nor would tax expenditures. More Americans would pay federal income taxes, if at lower rates.
"Then cuts, lots of cuts, cuts making up more than half of the chairs' proposal. Seniors would work longer and get less from Social Security in many cases, for instance. Dozens of federal programs would face the axe. The National Zoo would start charging admission."

Obama's Malignant Narcissism

American Thinker  "I don't think we've had this extreme and radical a president ever before in American history. Lincoln, Wilson, and FDR took radical actions, but only at a time of huge national crises. We don't have a national crisis today. Obama is our national crisis."

I'm sure he means that in a nice way. 

"This is why the People have Thrown You Out"

Atlas Shrugs “There's nothing about -- because it's all rigged," Bennet said. "I mean, the whole conversation is rigged. The fact that we don’t get to a discussion before the break about what we’re going to do in the lame duck -- is just rigged. This stuff’s rigged.”

This is a great reaction by republican Rep. Steve Buyer of Indiana  "When Indiana Republican Rep. Steve Buyer sought recognition to speak for five minutes about legislation dealing with veteran’s issues, Rep. Laura Richardson, the presiding speaker, looks confused and seemed to look like she is taking direction from someone on how to react. You may say she almost looks like an Obama zombie.
"Richardson keeps turning down the request and keeps asking an empty House if someone objects to Buyer speaking. No one does. Yet she keeps asking and waiting for an answer!"

California, There It Went

Google Cartoons

Jennifer Rubin  "As promised, Prop 13 drastically reduced property taxes and permitted residential homes to be re-assessed only at the time of sale, fixes that relieved homeowners of the heavy tax burden that had fueled the revolt. But Prop 13 had other effects as well. Local governments lost nearly a quarter of their revenue, and the state, which was then flush with cash, stepped in to take over school and social-welfare funding. This centralized spending in Sacramento and made the state capital an unparalleled target of opportunity for special-interest groups, which became expert in navigating the unwieldy bureaucracy and convoluted budgeting apparatus."

Did the Obama Administration Truly Want to Stop WikiLeaks?

Big Peace   "The leaks show America as pusillanimous, feckless, and blundering. While the State Department apparently pegs many world problems correctly – Russia is indeed turning away from democracy, North Korea works with Iran, China hires computer hackers to target US websites, and the Iranian regime is Hitlerian – the State Department has no solutions whatsoever to these pressing problems. The same countries we have correctly labeled problematic are treated with kid gloves, handed re-set buttons, and sold US debt.

"So here’s the question: why did the Obama Administration allow WikiLeaks to move forward with this information?"

Emphasis added

Mike Huckabee: Leaker should be executed  "“They’ve put American lives at risk,” Huckabee said. “They put relationships that will take decades to rebuild at risk. They knew full well that they were handling sensitive documents, they were entrusted. And anyone who had access to that level of information was not only a person who understood what their rules were, but they also signed under oath a commitment that they would not violate. They did. … Any lives they endangered, they’re personally responsible for and the blood is on their hands.” "

Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle

Wikileaks a terrorist organization? "What to do? Durn .. this one is tough. I always default to freedom. I believe that once the media has this information the protections of a free press come into play. As for this Julian Assange character ... clearly he dislikes America intensely and seeks to weaken our country. That's not a crime. In fact, that makes him not unlike our esteemed ruler.

"The solution here is, I'm afraid, to lick our wounds and do something about protecting our classified material. As for this Army PFC being held at Quantico? If it's proven that he's the one who leaked the information to Assange ... then it's a firing squad."

Russians targeting Wikileaks to stop new data dump  "Russia will most likely contain itself to cyberwarfare on a massive scale to shut down Assange rather than violence. If they succeed, they may wind up doing Barack Obama a huge favor, since the continuing exposure of communications data has the White House continually on the defensive. But if someone winds up grabbing Assange, he may want to pray that it’s the Americans rather than the FSB."


http://townhall.com/cartoons/cartoonist/LisaBenson

Interpol Issues Red Notice For Wikileaks Founder Traitor/Pervert

"A Red Notice is kind of international wanted poster seeking the provisional arrest of a fugitive, with an eye towards extradition to the nation that issued the underlying arrest warrant. Interpol transmits the notices to its 188 member countries, including Britain, where Assange is believed to be located. Interpol has no authority to compel a subject’s arrest. It issued 5,020 Red Notice last year for a variety of crimes."

The Slippery Slope Toward National Science Standards

Heritage  "National standards—in any subject—are bad policy. They are unlikely to result in high standards but rather the standardization of learning. They would also result in the standardization of mediocrity, because the rigor and content of national standards would tend to align with the mean among states, weakening states with higher quality standards such as Massachusetts, California, and Virginia. But perhaps worst of all, national standards would further diminish parental authority in education. The federal government would gain more power over education as a result, which would come at the expense of parents and local communities."

Texas Social Studies Standards Promote the Blessings of Liberty  "(In fact, in the 1990s, the federal government tried to create history standards. They ended up being so anti-American, however, that they were unanimously rejected.)
"While some liberal media outlets were prompted to call Texas’s standards “propaganda,” the outcome was in fact a strong set of social studies standards that emphasize the American founding, highlight the role of free-market enterprise in American economic success, and institute “Celebrate Freedom Week.”"

Karzai and the Scent of U.S. Irresolution

Good neighbors

FOUAD AJAMI "A big American project, our longest war, is now waged with doubt and hesitation, and our ally on the scene has gone rogue, taking the coin of our enemies and scoffing at our purposes. Unlike the Third World clients of old, this one does not even bother to pay us the tribute of double-speak and hypocrisy. He is a different kind of client, but then, too, our authority today is but a shadow of what it once was."

Victor Davis Hanson: The Confused Morality of WikiLeaks

National Review "Under Bush, press discussion of leaks focused on their embarrassing contents (after all, it was supposedly a higher calling that made brave whistle-blowers release confidential communications emanating from the Bush-Cheney right-wing nexus). In contrast, the press now seems more interested in responses of “How dare they” to the WikiLeaks methodology — as in, how could one be allowed to break laws and leak things from the Obamian State Department, if doing so might harm liberal diplomats, human-rights activists, etc., and embarrass a progressive government?"