Big Government Strikes Back

Heritage  "Last week’s events in Washington were a preview of lawmaking in 2011, but Congress was not where the real action was. While the media was distracted by the last breaths of a defeated leftist majority in Congress, it was the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that gave true picture of how the Obama Administration will advance their agenda in 2011." (Emphasis added.)

Stop the State Bailouts Before They Start  "California already came to Washington asking for an $8 billion bailout last year. The spendthrift 111th Congress said no. At a bare minimum the 112th Congress should hold the line and refuse to bailout any state government. Instead, Congress should consider a way for states to file for bankruptcy or its fiscal equivalent. While such a law would raise some serious federalism issues, as long as states are allowed to enter into bankruptcy voluntary, it could be constitutionally acceptable. But David John warns"...

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Regulated To Death By ObamaCare?

Investors.com  "A post at the time by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on her Facebook page fueled opposition to funding end-of-life counseling by discussing openly what many privately fear and something we have written about before — that end-of-life counseling and efforts to measure cost-effectiveness of treatment will combine in a perfect storm to ration care in a way that lets government bureaucrats decide who lives and who dies.

""The America I know and love," Palin wrote, "is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society' whether they are worthy of health care.

"Such a system is downright evil."

Has Regulation Put An End To Rule Of Law?  Thomas Sowell:  "The Constitution of the United States begins with the words "We the people."  But neither the Constitution nor "we the people" will mean anything if politicians and judges can continue to do end runs around both.

"Bills passed too fast for anyone to read them are blatant examples of these end runs. But last week, another of these end runs appeared in a different institution when the medical "end of life consultations" rejected by Congress were quietly enacted through bureaucratic fiat by administrators of Medicare."

.....But Not Gilad Shalit

Atlas Shrugs  "U.N. to investigate treatment of WikiLeak traitor spy Bradley Manning, but not of the brutalized, kidnapped Gilad Shalit."

Who is Gilad Shalit? "Gilad Shalit (Hebrew: גלעד שליט‎, born 28 August 1986) is an Israeli soldier who was captured on 25 June 2006 by Hamas in a cross-border raid." Wikipedia.

Petraeus: NATO, Afghan, Pakistani Forces to Coordinate More Operations

GlobalSecurity.org  "Petraeus also praised Pakistan for its counter-insurgency efforts in the past two years in areas near the Afghan border where the Taliban and other militants seek shelter. He said Pakistani forces have conducted "impressive" operations in the Swat Valley, the North West Frontier Province and northwestern tribal regions."

Taliban claims responsibility for Pakistan deadly blast  "The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for Saturday's suicide bombing in the country's northwest tribal area, which killed at least 43 people and injured 90 others, CNN said.
"A suicide bomber attacked a crowd of people waiting for food aid in the Bajaur region bordering with Afghanistan. The explosion took place about 600 meters from a U.N. World Food Programme distribution point in the town of Khar, a spokesman for the agency was quoted by CNN as saying."

Napolitano: Clapper's ignorance of U.K. arrests a PR failure

http://townhall.com/cartoons/chipbok

Politico  "Napolitano's sympathy for Clapper is understandable: she had a high-profile gaffe of her own last holiday season when she tackled a question about an attempted Christmas bombing of an American aircraft by declaring that "the system worked."

Clueless clapper   "At least the White House has finally outlined its true security strategy. "

Step 1: Pretend radical Muslims aren't at war with the US. When that fails . . .

Step 2: Close your eyes.

 

PC Christmas, er, holidays

’Tis the Season to Be Politically Correct  "With that in mind, I offer the following exchange of emails to readers. It was sent to me by one of the parties to the exchange, a doctor who has suffered through the increasingly intolerant and politically correct atmosphere of a large Midwestern medical practice. Our story opens with a seemingly innocuous invitation to a “holiday party” a couple of days ago:"  Roger Kimball

Christmas Greetings, and the World Is Insane  "This agnostic has had just about enough of PC Christmastime."

ACLU Warns Schools to Say "Holiday" vs. "Christmas"  "School superintendents across the state were reminded by the ACLU this week that holiday celebrations focusing primarily on one religious holiday amount to an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
"The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) letter, addressed to 137 public shool leaders across the state, stated that it was responding to a number of complaints from families about school party activites this Christmas season."

Palestinians: Obama no longer backs Palestinian state within 1967 borders

DEBKAfile  "Palestinian leaders in Ramallah, including Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayad, are sunk in gloom over what they perceive as US President Barak Obama repudiation of his promises to them and greater sympathy for the Netanyahu government's side of the Middle East dispute. They also see a spreading push in Europe, the Arab countries and Moscow for them to bite the bullet and reconcile themselves to partial or interim accords, since no feasible solutions are visible on the outstanding core issues of borders, refugees and Jerusalem."

Photo: http://www.palwatch.org/

Beautiful virgins await Muslim Martyrs in Paradise  "A music video on official Palestinian television (2000-2010) is designed to promote the desire among Palestinian males to be killed in the conflict with Israel in order to achieve the reward: beautiful virgins in Paradise. The video shows a woman being shot dead and joining other virgins in Paradise. Afterwards a man is killed and he is greeted by all the virgins who have been awaiting him. "

Peeling Back Congressional Overreach

Photo: http://freedomist.com/

Heritage   "Americans are all too familiar with the federal government’s intrusion into our daily lives. It sometimes seems that the feds have their hands in nearly every aspect of our daily life: what we drive, how we educate our children, down to the very food we eat. Unfortunately, Americans are less familiar with how the federal government is able to justify such intrusions.

"They should look no further than the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which is embodied in: Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 ."   Hat tip to The Freedomist

NYC Russians Flock to GOP – Say Democrats Are “Too Socialist”

Gateway Pundit  "Many New York City Russians are reportedly flocking to the Republican Party, claiming that the national Democrats’ “socialistic” policies remind them too much of Mother Russia’s top-down oligarchy they fled from in the past."

They have tasted and seen what American liberals cannot imagine.

An ex-Soviet immigrant goes Socratic on his liberal American critics.  "Question Insanity: What to Ask Progressives":

"Dear Americans, these are some questions I have collected in 16 years of living in your country. Please see if you can answer them for me:"...

Obamacare Criminalizes Medicine

The Daily Beast  "The president's health-care plan is one big entrapment scheme, argues Shikha Dalmia of  Reason Foundation —one that will turn both patients and providers into criminals, pushing some families to fudge their tax reports to receive better care."

Obama Returns to End-of-Life Plan That Caused Stir  "When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan.1."

Palin's Food Fight

Wall Street Journal  "Mrs. Palin would be more effective if she made some distinctions among the Obama policies that really are worth opposing. ObamaCare further redistributes the cost of obesity and other lifestyle ills by forcing individuals to buy the insurance that Washington says is for their own good, and then subsidizes the cost for some at the expense of others. That really is an affront to liberty. Telling kids to eat their vegetables and run around the block is merely instructing them to take responsibility for their own choices."

Palin’s Counterproductive Complaint "Mocking the First Lady and portraying her anti-obesity campaign as several steps on the Road to Serfdom is exactly the type of thing that will turn the public against the legitimate efforts by conservatives to rein in the reach and scope of government. Ms. Palin might consider this before she takes yet another unfair shot at Mrs. Obama."  Peter Wehner

Obama's new start

Charles Krauthammer  ""Harry Reid has eaten our lunch," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, lamenting his side's "capitulation" in the lame-duck session. Yes, but it was less Harry than Barry. Obama came back with a vengeance. His string of lame-duck successes is a singular political achievement. Because of it, the epic battles of the 112th Congress begin on what would have seemed impossible just one month ago - a level playing field."

START the Damage Control  "Last week’s rushed vote on New START in the lame-duck session of the Senate represented that body’s abandonment of its constitutional obligations to provide to “advise and consent” on treaties, despite the best efforts Sen. Jon Kyl and some of his colleagues to prevent the Senate from being reduced to such a “rubber stamp”. The vote cannot be undone, but the damage can be mitigated if our leadership exercises the political will to do so."