Atheists Cross Over 'Cross'

American Thinker  "This is the same group demanding that Brooklyn rename a street named in honor of seven Brooklyn firefighters killed on 9/11. They claim that changing Richard Street to "Seven in Heaven Way" violates the "separation of church and state." David Silverman, president of American Atheists, told Fox News: "It implies that heaven actually exists."

"They also filed suit seeking the removal of roadside crosses honoring fallen Utah state troopers. A federal court ruled in favor of the crosses but an appeals court ruled against them. The Utah Attorney General has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling and the American Civil Rights Union has filed an amicus brief in support."

....

"Silverman also wants something that "represents atheism, such as the American Flag" or an "atom." How about nothing?

"Here's an idea-include every religious symbol that spontaneously appeared when the dust cleared."

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/06/outrageous.php

Why Obama actually cared about the Aug. 2 deadline

Hot Air 

[H]e also wanted to get back to some other critical business: fundraising for his 2012 campaign. Obama turns 50 on Thursday. The day before, he is scheduled to fly to his hometown of Chicago for a pair of birthday fundraisers at the Aragon Entertainment Center. The events will feature musical performers and cost up to $35,800 per person, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. …

After the Chicago trip, one administration official [said], the president will hit the road several more times before his annual vacation in Martha’s Vineyard at the end of August.

Sharpton's Affirmative-Action Win

The Daily Beast   "Sharpton has a long and well-documented history of leveraging his civil-rights profile for his own benefit. Grabbing a prime-time anchor spot in exchange for cheerleading for a controversial merger would be the capper on that career. It’s gone remarkably unnoticed that Sharpton was the first major black leader to endorse the Comcast merger, which met fierce resistance."

Sharpton says:  "First of all, then we have to say the American public overwhelmingly voted for socialism when they elected President Obama."

Please tell me...

Rush Limbaugh: The Race Card, Football and Me  "Shortly thereafter, the media elicited comments from the likes of Al Sharpton. In 1998 Mr. Sharpton was found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay $65,000 for falsely accusing a New York prosecutor of rape in the 1987 Tawana Brawley case. He also played a leading role in the 1991 Crown Heights riot (he called neighborhood Jews "diamond merchants") and 1995 Freddie's Fashion Mart riot."

Rich Terrell: The Fastest Finger in the West

http://terrellaftermath.com/

 

Reid signs off on debt deal as negotiators get close

Politico  "Opening the Senate at noon, Reid had proceeded with an attempt to cut off debate on an alternative package he put forward. That motion failed 50-49, as expected, but Reid kept his options open to force a second cloture vote if he so chose. Timing was crucial with financial markets reopening Monday, one day before the threat of default.

"While both sides stress that nothing is final yet, the contours of the would-be agreement suggest a more practical approach by Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, to achieve many of the party’s goals without pushing Obama and the nation into default."

Reid signs off on bipartisan debt deal but Boehner holds out  "But the emerging deal may be imperiled by last-minute reluctance from House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) who worries the proposal cuts too much from future Pentagon budgets."  More here.

(Video) Rand Paul: Obama Manufactured this Crisis

You have to endure a 30-second commercial first.

Krauthammer: Why the Boehner Plan must pass " I have every sympathy with the conservative counterrevolutionaries. Their containment of the Obama experiment has been remarkable. But reversal — rollback, in Cold War parlance — is simply not achievable until conservatives receive a mandate to govern from the White House."

CNN anchor to Rand Paul: I hope you’re happy with yourself, Mr. Tea Party  "From that perspective, this is actually a dynamite sneak preview of how the media will react on Wednesday if today’s deal falls apart and we end up hitting the ceiling. If you want to ask someone why they’ve resorted to desperate measures, at least let ‘em explain why they think these are desperate times, no? Especially since, per Paul, these measures aren’t as desperate as they might be."

http://www.worldmag.com/editorialcartoons/

Rich Lowry: Sounding the Alarm on Defense Cuts  Quoting John Bolton:

....Defense has already taken hugely disproportionate cuts under President Obama, and there is simply no basis for expanding those cuts further. Republican negotiators must hold the line, since the Obama Administration plainly will not.

Mark Steyn on Nancy Pelosi and the debt fight: Decline starts with the money, but it doesn’t stop there.   "That thoughtful observer of the passing parade, Nancy Pelosi, weighed in on the “debt ceiling” negotiations the other day:

“What we’re trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget. We’re trying to save life on this planet as we know it today.”

"It’s always good to have things explained in terms we simpletons can understand. After a while, all the stuff about debt-to-GDP ratio and CBO alternative baseline scenarios starts to give you a bit of a headache, so we should be grateful to the House minority leader for putting it in layman’s terms: What’s at stake is “life on this planet as we know it today.” So, if right now you’re living anywhere in the general vicinity of this planet, it’s good to know Nancy’s in there pitching for you."

Fort Hood Suspect Had Left-Wing Fan Base

Alana Goodman in Commentary  "When Pfc. Naser Abdo applied for CO status last year, the utterly discredited Iraq Veterans Against the War organization posted a message in support of him on its website, and asked readers to donate to his legal defense fund. And Kimber Heinz, a writer for the far-left website Truthout, unluckily chose to profile Abdo in a 2010 article entitled, “One Year After Fort Hood: The Missing Story of Muslim Peacemaking.”

" “We must lift up the stories and ongoing work of Muslim peacemakers like Naser Abdo,” Heinz wrote."

Hat tip to Weasel Zippers via Freedom Fighter's Journal

Truth in pictures

Hat tip to Ronbo over at Freedom Fighter's Journal  for these.

Moody's: Neither debt plan protects the nation's AAA rating

The Hill   ""Reductions of the magnitude now being proposed, if adopted, would likely lead Moody's to adopt a negative outlook on the AAA rating," the credit rating agency said in a new report. "The chances of a significant improvement in the long-term credit profile of the government coming from deficit reductions of the magnitude proposed in either plan are not high."

"It added that "prolonged debt ceiling deliberations" have increased the odds of a downgrade, but that the firm is still confident policymakers will avoid a default."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/garyvarvel

What’s so wrong with Reid’s bill?

Hot Air  "Finally, as has been repeatedly pointed out, the savings in Reid’s bill aren’t exactly real. Reid touts dollar-for-dollar savings, but that’s a ruse. The bill actually delivers just $1 trillion in cuts in exchange for that unprecedented $2.7 trillion increase. The Global War on Terror savings are a gimmick. The administration has never requested current levels of funding for the war for the next ten years (i.e. the administration has never planned to spend $160 billion each year on the war for the next 10 years).  Not funding what the administration was never going to fund doesn’t qualify as a cut."

House Kills Reid Plan  "Per reports on Twitter, the vote was 246 to 173, with bipartisan opposition to the plan.

"UPDATE: House roll here. I believe 11 Democrats voted against: Barrow, Boren, Braley, Loebsack, Matheson, McIntyre, C. Peterson, Ross, Schrader, Viscloskey, Wu. (Yeah, Wu.)

"So we have Boehner plan killed by Senate and Reid plan killed by House.

"What now?"

The BBC, Breivik, the EDL and Islam

Gates of Vienna "The BBC regards itself as a politically impartial organisation, but their behaviour in the fallout of the Breivik atrocity shows them to be nothing other than the unapologetic propaganda arm of the hard Left and Islam." ....

At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war.

...."I have written before that a future religious civil-war will be preceded by tit-for-tat small scale atrocities, and now we have seen the start. By shamefully closing down a desperately needed debate in order to pursue perverse and politically-driven objectives, Paxman, the BBC and the entire political liberal/left have ensured the inevitability of potential carnage and thus have the blood of future innocents on their hands alongside those of the inevitable psychopathic perpetrator."  Paul Weston

The English writer and former UKIP parliamentary candidate Paul Weston weighs in on the state of the BBC, as evidenced by the treatment of Tommy Robinson by Jeremy Paxman on a recent Newsnight program.

Gaffe: when a politician accidentally tells the truth

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/chipbok

While this cartoon captures the nature of Obama's politics, there is one perhaps insurmountable obstacle for those running against the man; he is viewed not as a leftist politician but a celebrity.

 Consider:

From People Magazine: President Barack Obama Pens Essay on 'Being the Father I Never Had' and: Barack Obama Covers People Magazine

From The Black Spin: Obama's Picture, A Thousand Words, Countless Magazine Covers

From the Obama Collector Shop: Barack Obama Magazines

This pretty well sums it all up: 2006-2008 Magazine Covers

 Fawning:  –verb (used without object) Dictionary.com

1. to seek notice or favor by servile demeanor: The courtiers fawned over the king.

2. (of a dog) to behave affectionately.

Hey, Who Wants to Talk About Wisconsin’s Economic Miracle?

Pajamas Media  "If one listened to the violent rhetoric of the public employee unions, one would have expected today to be a dark day for education in Wisconsin. “This is a disaster,” said Wisconsin Senate Democratic leader Mark Miller in February after Governor Scott Walker first proposed Act 10. Miller predicted catastrophe if the bill were to become law, a charge repeated thousands of times by his fellow Democrats, union officials, and protesters in the streets. Now the bill is law, and we have evidence of how wonderfully it is working. Instead of a catastrophe, it is a day of miraculous optimism, balanced budgets, educational improvement, and fiscal recovery."

But it took the political and personal courage of Governor Walker to stand up to demagoguery such as this:



www.benfroland.com



And this:



www.newsrealblog.com