Thursday, April 28, 2011

Krauthammer: The Obama doctrine: Leading from behind

Charles Krauthammer  "Who truly reviles America the hegemon? The world that Obama lived in and shaped him intellectually: the elite universities; his Hyde Park milieu (including his not-to-be-mentioned friends, William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn); the church he attended for two decades, ringing with sermons more virulently anti-American than anything heard in today’s full-throated uprising of the Arab Street.
"It is the liberal elites who revile the American colossus and devoutly wish to see it cut down to size. Leading from behind — diminishing America’s global standing and assertiveness — is a reaction to their view of America, not the world’s."

The Birth Certificate

Richard Fernandez "That is all most of us have: an assertion of authenticity by normally trusted authorities. Obama’s supporters will argue that any demand for further proof — tests that we ourselves would not routinely be subjected to — is tantamount to treating him like a felon. It springs from a pre-existing bias. They would be right. The reason people have been looking for the birth certificate isn’t because they mistrust official birth certificates in general. It is because they mistrust Obama."

Andrew C. McCarthy:   Birth Certificate: Where Are the Indignant Questions to Obama?

 "So, assuming as we should the legitimacy of the long-form birth certificate produced yesterday, the only thing that makes sense is that Obama knows the mainstream media is in his hip pocket. That is, he knew that he would not be held to the same standard as other politicians, and that if he acted in an unreasonable manner by withholding basic, easily available information that any other person seeking the presidency would be expected — be compelled — to produce, the media would portray as weirdos those demanding the information, not Obama and his stonewalling accomplices."

Political Cartoons by Dana Summers
http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/danasummers


Political Cartoons by Mike Lester
http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/mikelester


(PJM Exclusive) Holder’s DOJ Scuttled More Terror-Related Prosecutions

Pajamas Media   "But with Eric Holder blaming the Bush administration for this decision, it will be interesting to see how he explains the fact that, under his leadership, the DOJ has been responsible for scuttling other terror-related investigations — according to congressional investigators looking at the possible political motivations for dropping prosecutions of American Islamic leaders for terrorism support."

Holder: DOJ nixed CAIR leader's prosecution  ""I think the attorney general's hands should be involved in any case involving CAIR and a possible terrorism indictment," King told the Main Justice website. "He should not be hiding behind the decision of the Bush administration, because that decision was made before the Holy Land Foundation was convicted. Once the Holy Land Foundation was convicted, that would make it easier to get an indictment and conviction of CAIR.""

Card check: More NLRB Overreach?

Volokh Conspiracy  "The New York Times and Associated Press are reporting that the National Labor Relations Board intends to sue Arizona and South Dakota over state-level labor law reforms.  Both states recently adopted constitutional amendments that prohibit unionization other than by secret ballot, as have Utah and South Carolina."

What IS card check?  ""Card Check" is any process by which an employees' right to a federally supervised private ballot election is taken away. This can occur by union organizers coming to a business and asking workers to sign a card in public, or by having mail-in cards; the union, your co-workers and your employee will still know how you voted. "
Bob McCarty
















Card Check – A Column, A Cartoon "You wake up one morning, eat breakfast and go to work as usual. About mid-morning, a union official walks into your office and informs you that your employees have successfully unionized your company."

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Tunnel Dwellers on the road

We leave for Portage, Indiana, Thursday morning to stay with our youngest son and his family, so posting will be more sporadic. We do prefer the morning posting because the news is fresh, but since the TW concentrates on commentary rather than breaking news, we should still be timely. Besides, we tend to post all during the day anyway.
Since Mr. Obama likes to make news during the Rush Limbaugh program, the evening posts may be more current.
The Tunnel Dweller

Come November 2012, independents will remember the president's earlier appeals to the hard left..


Karl Rove  "It's clear Mr. Obama likes campaigning more than governing. And for this president, campaigning means knocking down straw men and delivering a steady stream of misleading attacks. It means depicting opponents as indecent, heartless people who take special delight in targeting seniors and autistic children. It means basking in the adulation of a partisan crowd rather than engaging in the difficult work of passing bipartisan legislation.
"Since Mr. Obama can't make an affirmative case for his re-election, he has decided to try convincing voters that Republicans are monstrous. As a result, America is likely to see the most negative re-election campaign ever mounted by a sitting president."
As an empty suit, just what is this man good for?  He will have left this nation bitter and divided with his time in office nothing but dark ages from which the electorate may never heal.
Obama's Two Modes
About.com


Ann Coulter: "Obama's Budget: More Waste, Fraud, and Self-Abuse"

Ann Coulter Quoting Milton Friedman:
"In January 1975, a typist in the Environmental Protection Agency was so consistently late for work that her supervisors demanded she be fired. It took 19 months to do it, and this incredible 21-foot-long chart lists the steps that had to be gone through to satisfy all the rules and all the management and union agreements.
"The process involved the girl's supervisor, his deputy director, his director, his director of personnel operations, the agency's branch chief, an employee relations specialist, a second employee relations specialist, a special office of investigations and the director of the office of investigations. This veritable telephone directory, need I add, was paid with taxpayers' money. Who could invent a better protected job than this one -- before it came to its end?"
 Can't Budget
About.com

Lisa Benson on offshore drilling permits

Thomas Sowell: The Trump Card

Townhall  "What Trump has that so many other Republicans are so painfully lacking is the ability and the willingness to articulate his positions clearly, forcefully and in plain English. Too many Republicans talk like the actor of whom a critic once said, "he played the king like he was afraid that someone else was going to play the ace."
"What electrified so many Republicans about Sarah Palin in the 2008 election campaign was that she was such a contrast to the usual mealy-mouth talk that was more common among other Republican candidates, including Senator John McCain."
I think Republicans fear any frank talk will be demagogued by the Democrats and the liberal media. And it will.
Political Cartoons by Gary Varvel
http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/garyvarvel

Newsweek's Evan Thomas: Democrats Will Demagogue Paul Ryan All the Way to Reelection
This is going to be one of the most demagogic campaigns we have ever seen. I think it’s incredibly irresponsible, but I think it might actually work. I think that if you are a Democrat, you want to get reelected in 2012 as Obama does, I, I will bet he will sit back and ride the anti-Ryan demagoguery all the way into reelection.            Quoting Charles Krauthammer
The Democrats' Tactic: Fearmongering  "Voters this past November have spoken: they want government to cut the federal budget and they want it to happen now. GOP legislators who are determined to return our country to a culture of fiscal discipline have nothing to fear but fearmongering itself. "

That birth certificate: Obama distracts from his other distractions


We anxiously await the cartoons that will follow this.
Jennifer Rubin  "But he was on a roll with zingers like this: “We’re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.”And then he flew off to do the Oprah show in Chicago.Yeah." ....
"Obama is apparently impervious to sound advice. For what other explanation could there be for his decision to join the carnival? I mean, there had to have been people in the White House who thought this was a daft idea, right?"

Video: Obama explains timing of birth-cert release  "Via Tommy Christopher at Mediate, be prepared to see Barack Obama the happiest he’s been in public in a long while, perhaps since taking office. And why not? In one fell swoop, Obama gets to paint his opponents as nutcases, tweak the press for their sudden obsession over the circumstances of his birth while we move from one government-shutdown deadline to the next, and act like the grown-up in the room.

The Birth Certificate – A Teaching Moment  "This doesn’t mean I don’t think the press haven’t hidden or deliberately been disinterested in plenty of important details about Barack Obama (his education, political relationships, etc.) that we should know about, but stick to those that have true policy implications. Here’s one we have all known about for a few years – the unreleased Khalidi tapes, currently in the hands of the LA Times. With the Middle East in turmoil, that would be particularly interesting now."

The Complainer-in-Chief just hijacked the airwaves for another moment of presidential petulance:
"The president needs to understand that the problem is not that the press is nonserious. It is that he has failed utterly to give it something serious to cover. The controversy over his birth certificate was more substantive than the impact of his plan because there was no plan."

White House releases Obama birth certificate

CNN  "A new CNN investigation revealed earlier this week what most analysts have been saying since the "birther" controversy erupted during the 2008 presidential campaign: Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961."
So there. That wasn't so much to ask, now was it?

Birth Certificate, page one
Birth Certificate, page two

Why didn't he do this two years ago? Did he enjoy his "amusement" that much?

Arrogant –adjective
1. making claims or pretensions to superior importance or rights; overbearingly assuming; insolently proud: an arrogant public official.
2. characterized by or proceeding from arrogance: arrogant claims.

 Condescending –adjective
showing or implying a usually patronizing descent from dignity or superiority: They resented the older neighbors' condescending cordiality.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

(Updated) Former Obama Adviser Van Jones Helping to Push 'Human' Rights for Mother Nature


Van Jones is now helping to push the issue of giving the environment rights comparable to those provided to humans.Fox News  "Van Jones, the Obama administration's controversial former "green jobs czar," has found a new calling: helping to push for a new, global architecture of environmental law that would give Mother Nature the same rights status as humans." Photo: Van Jones
(Update) Mother Earth says to treat all of her creatures equally "Sadly, a lowly frog naturally born and raised in the swamps of Florida can not presently become the President of the United States. True, frogs are hatched rather than “born,” but that is not their fault and is of no consequence. The unfairness of this discrimination on account of mere color — green — should be apparent to all. Since frogs must soon be recognized as having full human rights, why not as naturally born, or hatched, citizens of the United States, endowed by Mother Nature with all of the requisite Constitutional qualifications for the presidency?"

United Nations to Debate Human Rights for ‘Mother Earth’ (they’ll do anything to get out of paying those parking tickets)  "Keep reminding yourself as you read the story that we pump a good deal of money into supporting this cuckoos nest. Sometimes though I think it’s worth it in order to keep them isolated in pockets of New York, Vienna and Geneva instead of being entirely free-range socialist nut cases, and this might be one of those days:"   Doug Powers via Michelle Malkin

GAIA WORSHIP - THE NEW PAGAN RELIGION   "Gaia is a revival of Paganism that rejects Christianity, considers Christianity its biggest enemy, and views the Christian faith as its only obstacle to a global religion centered on Gaia worship and the uniting of all life forms around the goddess of "Mother Earth".  ...
" Gaia worship is at the very heart of today's environmental policy.  The Endangered Species Act, The United Nation's Biodiversity Treaty and the Presidents Council on Sustainable Development are all offspring of the Gaia hypothesis of saving "Mother Earth". "
http://randysidescartoons.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/cartoon-32-environmentalist-cartoon/