President Obama’s Budget: What to Watch For

Patrick Louis Knudsen  "If his budget for fiscal year (FY) 2013 is to be a credible policy document—not just a public relations pitch—it should:

• Show specific proposals for reforming entitlements and reducing other spending not just for the next 10 years but over the long term as well;

• Prevent the devastating cuts in defense that are looming because of the debt-reduction Budget Control Act;

• Offer permanent solutions to the large spending and tax policies that keep vexing lawmakers and the public; and

• Reject phony budget savings and other gimmicks.

http://rc.runryder.com/helicopter/t664418p1/

Rick Moran: The case for WH incompetence, Episode XXIV  "To sum up: Jack Lew is unaware of how a budget is passed by congress despite his being a former head of the Office of Management and Budget. Jack Lew was OMB director over much of the last 1000+ days that Senate Democrats have failed to submit a budget.

"Jack Lew is a poster boy for White House mismanagement and incompetence."

Jack Lew Dodges Why Senate Dems Haven't Passed A Budget In Over 1,000 Days

It’s Not Personal: Why We Resist Obama’s Power Grabs   "The constitutional presidency holds a few specific powers — he’s commander in chief of the military, he can make treaties and appoint various officials and judges with the advice and consent of the Senate, he can make short-term appointments when the Senate is in recess (a provision designed for an age of travel by horseback, and long Senate recesses), he recommends legislation to the Congress and he can veto bills. But beyond that, his main job is to ensure that the law is carried out, not to create law. When not at war, the presidency is a modest job, at least according to the Constitution."


Beltway Confidential: Obama blows last chance to offer serious budget  "But he never presented a tangible plan that could be scored by the CBO and evaluated next to Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan to reform entitlements and put the nation on a sustainable fiscal course. He had his chance with this budget. Instead, Obama decided to forgo tough choices so he could attack Republicans during an election year."

Will we let them take this guy down?

Legal Insurrection  "There is nothing more important we can do between now and the November election than to help Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker defeat the recall effort.

"Don’t let the thugs, Godwins, and head cases win.  Help Wisconsin and the nation end this long, strange trip.

"Links to how to help at the Focus Page."

PETITIONS THAT MAKE YOU BURY YOUR HANDS IN YOUR FACE.  "What's in a recall? A lot of lunacy, as it turns out. These are some of the absurd petitions that have turned up. Read more about WI Recall Fail."  Hat tip to commenter "logos"

Here's a candidate for Obama's "Truth Team" site, so report it.

Runrider

Obama’s Attack Watch returns as … “Truth Team”

Hot Air "Let’s reflect once more on the observations of Victor Davis Hanson last September when Obama and his campaign rolled out Attack Watch  to recall just how offensive and ridiculous this effort is:"

Apparently no one in the administration learned from the spooky tone of the now defunct Journolist. That obtuseness begs the question, what is it with these extra-journalistic efforts to intimidate critics, as if the 2012 campaign will be based around deterrence: e.g., as if: “Beware: if you criticize Barack Obama, your name and picture will appear on our “Attack File”.  We are watching you, so you watch out!”

http://theweek.com/section/cartoon/12/219657/barack-obama

Jamie Dupree: Obama Truth Team  "The Truth Team - along with web sites like AttackWatch.com will be used by Democrats to wage the public relations battle against the eventual GOP nominee."

Here is a candidate for their site: Beyond Cynical "But then, to the rescue, came a Friday presidential press conference, a pliant press corps, and the flat-footed hierarchy of the Catholic church.* Even before the president spoke shortly after noon on Friday, news reports indicated that Obama would “compromise” with or “accommodate” religious institutions. But Obama’s announcement didn’t actually change anything."

National Review Online calls for Newt to drop out and support Santorum

Rick Moran:   Quoting the National Review Online:

Gingrich's verbal and intellectual talents should make him a resource for any future Republican president. But it would be a grave mistake for the party to make someone with such poor judgment and persistent unpopularity its . It is not clear whether Gingrich remains in the race because he still believes he could become president next year or because he wants to avenge his wounded pride: an ambiguity that suggests the problem with him as a leader. When he led Santorum in the polls, he urged the Pennsylvanian to leave the race. On his own arguments the proper course for him now is to endorse Santorum and exit.

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/02/10/96183

Alana Goodman:  Santorum’s “Women in Combat” Comments Under Fire

He managed to quell some of the criticism – if not all – by saying later that he was referring to the emotional reactions of male soldiers. “Men have emotions when you see a woman in harm’s way,” he told NBC News on Friday, adding that “the natural inclination” is “to not focus on the mission but to try to be in a position where you might want to protect someone.”

Many of us who have served in an infantry unit have these same concerns. TD

The Church of Obama; How about the Separation of State and Church?

Heritage: Voices of Opposition Speak Out Against Obama’s Contraception Mandate ‘Accommodation’

http://terrellaftermath.com/

"That mandate — which tramples heavily on religious liberties — drew tremendous fire across the board, from Christians and Jews alike, drowning the President in a political maelstrom of his own design. And though today the President sought to calm that storm with a “compromise,” the voices of opposition are as strong as ever because, quite simply, it doesn’t remedy the moral and religious liberty objections to this mandate, and as a practical matter, it simply doesn’t work.

"Here’s a roundup of the reactions:...."

The Obama contraception fraud   "But wait!  Maybe Obama will “clarify” his mandate and tell the insurance companies that they cannot increase premiums to pay for his contraceptive mandate … or for any other mandate he comes up with.  Don’t put this one past him.  It would, after all, hasten the bankruptcy of these insurance companies … and that is the ObamaCare final solution.  When the insurance companies are run out of business the government will be there to take over with the coveted (by proggies) single-payer plan."  Neal Boortz

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

Mark Steyn: The Church of Obama "The church model the young American state wished to separate from was that of the British monarch, who remains to this day supreme governor of the Church of England. This convenient arrangement dates from the 1534 Act of Supremacy. The title of the law gives you the general upshot, but, just in case you’re a bit slow on the uptake, the text proclaims “the King’s Majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the supreme head of the Church of England.” That’s to say, the sovereign is “the only supreme head on earth of the Church” and he shall enjoy “all honors, dignities, pre-eminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, immunities, profits, and commodities to the said dignity,” not to mention His Majesty “shall have full power and authority from time to time to visit, repress, redress, record, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, offenses, contempts, and enormities, whatsoever they be.”  "Welcome to Obamacare."

http://conservativedailynews.com/2012/02/obama-care-arena/  More commentary on this at the link.

WaPo: U.S. bishops blast Obama’s contraception compromise

 Bill Kristol:  Could the New Obamacare Mandate Reinvigorate the Tea Party?

This link is currently inaccessible but we will give it to you in a separate post when it is available: American Catholicism’s Pact With the Devil  "This article is an excellent summary of what happens when the true Gospel of conversion and repentance is replaced with the false gospel of social justice, the common good and peace at any price."

Why Americans Hate the Media; Perhaps the public has good reason to think that the media's self-aggrandizement gets in the way of solving the country's real problems

ATLANTIC MONTHLY   from 1996:  "Ogletree pushed Wallace. Didn't Jennings have some higher duty to do something other than just roll film as soldiers from his own country were being shot?

"No," Wallace said flatly and immediately. "You don't have a higher duty. No. No. You're a reporter!" "....

...."A few minutes later Ogletree turned to George M. Connell, a Marine colonel in full uniform. Jaw muscles flexing in anger, with stress on each word, Connell said, "I feel utter contempt."

"Two days after this hypothetical episode, Connell said, Jennings or Wallace might be back with the American forces—and could be wounded by stray fire, as combat journalists often had been before. When that happens, he said, they are "just journalists." Yet they would expect American soldiers to run out under enemy fire and drag them back, rather than leaving them to bleed to death on the battlefield.

" "I'll do it!" Connell said. "And that is what makes me so contemptuous of them. Marines will die going to get . . . a couple of journalists." The last words dripped disgust."

These so-called newsmen would stay detached reporters, reporting the deaths of their own countrymen for the sake of "journalistic integrity". Yet daily they cast off any convictions of journalistic integrity to promote liberal causes; they have little regard for journalism when faced with the choice of portraying the conservative message truthfully or treating conservatives as suspects to be grilled and demeaned. Interviewees giving conservative opinions are argued with by the reporter.
Brian Williams asking Gov. Rick Perry how he can sleep at night while Texas executes condemned murderers comes to mind as being typical of slanted journalism.
David Gregory, Norah O'Donnell and others asking President Bush to apologize for acts of his presidency were especially disgusting to me.  TD


How's this for propaganda that passes for "journalism: CNN's White House correspondent Dan Lothian asked President Obama in Hawaii, "Are GOP Candidates "Uninformed, Out Of Touch, Or Irresponsible?"?

Rush Limbaugh discussed the press this way:   "They're idiotic, and it makes people who believe them blindly look like ill-educated, uneducated, or what have you, uncurious -- and yet these are the smartest and brightest among us by reputation supposedly, journalists. They're blockheads. They're really blockheads. They don't know anything."


An aspiring liberal journalist tries to explain why she thinks the Tea Party is dangerous

drawfortruth.com

Journalists Admitting Liberal Bias, Part One


Journalists Admitting Liberal Bias, Part Two

Israel vs Iran: 'Please, please don't stand in our way'

American Thinker  "Naftali Bennett, former chief of staff to Benjamin Netanyahu, offers some straight talk to Americans on the threat of Iranian nuclear weapons. Well worth 5 minutes of your time."

• "Ahmadinejad repeatedly demonizes the state of Israel and openly calls for its destruction at every opportunity."
• "If the Zionist regime wants to repeat its past mistakes, this will constitute its demise and annihilation…With Allah's help the new Middle East will be a Middle East without Zionists and Imperialists."
• "The uniform shout of the Iranian nation is forever 'Death to Israel.'..." "
• "The ones who still support the criminal Zionists should know that the occupiers' days are numbered. … Accept that the life of Zionists will sooner or later come to an end."
• ""With God's help, the countdown button for the destruction of the Zionist regime has been pushed by the hands of the children of Lebanon and Palestine . ". . By God's will, we will witness the destruction of this regime in the near future.""
• "...Mufti Mohammed Hussein cited a hadith (saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad) claiming that the Earth's end of days will not happen until Muslims kill Jews in a religious battle:..."
• "“As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map.” The president added: “And God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism”"

There are many more threats where these came from if you really want to see them.


The Brookings Institution: Israel’s Dilemma: If It Attacks Iran, Will It Also Have to Hit Hezbollah?  "The Israel Defense Forces have to calculate whether they would want to open two fronts at the same time, or let Hizbullah and Iran decide if and when to start a massive attack on Israel’s cities from the north." 

Krauthammer: Israel ‘will strike’ Iran to ‘prevent a second holocaust’; Does Ron Paul consider this?

Paul’s foreign policy calls into question his seriousness as a candidate for the presidency
Ron Paul's isolationist policy invites a second Holocaust."  ""I meant it literally," he said. "Iran will use atomic weapons on Jerusalem."
"Ginorio said Santorum has a tougher attitude toward Iran than Paul – something that is needed to prevent the country from attacking its neighbors." Naturally Paul supporters booed this.

Ron Paul’s Destructive Foreign Policy  "It’s no surprise that the left-wing, anti-American Code Pink likes Paul’s message. Code Pink activist Liz Hourican told FoxNews.com that the “Ron Paul people are closer and closer to our talking points with each election.”
"Paul also has other friends on the hard Left such as Tom Hayden,..." 


Ron Paul - Extend Friendship to Iran 

 Daily Caller: Krauthammer:  "“I think he is right. I think the Israelis are serious unless happens between now and midyear or even November that will threaten the regime, because it won’t change the policy. I think Israel will strike because it cannot live under the threat of annihilation from Iran.”
"Krauthammer also had some strong words about why he thought an attack was likely.

"“Unless something intervenes,” Krauthammer replied. “I cannot imagine the Israelis are going to allow Iran to go nuclear and to hold the Damocles sword over 6 million Jews all over again. Israel was established to prevent a second Holocaust, not to invite one.”"

Charles Krauthammer: The Gospel according to Obama/ Rush Limbaugh checks in

Charles Krauthammer  "His policy, he testified “as a Christian,” “coincides with Jesus’s teaching that ‘for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.’ ”  

"Now, I’m no theologian, but I’m fairly certain that neither Jesus nor his rabbinic forebears, when speaking of giving, meant some obligation to the state. You tithe the priest, not the tax man."

...."Yet according to the Gospel of Sebelius, these very same Catholic institutions are not religious at all — under the secularist assumption that religion is what happens on Sunday under some Gothic spire, while good works are “social services” properly rendered up unto Caesar.

"This all would be merely the story of contradictory theologies, except for this: Sebelius is Obama’s appointee. She works for him. These regulations were his call. Obama authored both gospels."

Rush Limbaugh: The Real Target of Obama’s HHS Birth Control Mandate Is the Constitution  " “It‘s not the government’s business to make any church or any religion ‘modernize’ …there is no permissible way the government can do this, according to our Constitution,” Rush Limbaugh said during his Tuesday radio broadcast.

Limbaugh, who believes the real target of the Obama administrations contraceptives mandate is in fact, the U.S. Constitution, “pure and simple." "

Thanks Barack… 3 West Virginia Coal Plants to Close

Gateway Pundit  "Before the election in 2008 Barack Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle that he would cripple the coal industry and bankrupt coal plants."

The plants operated under subsidiary Monongahela Power. Mon Power recently finished a study of unscrubbed coal fired plants in the system to determine the potential impact of the most recent environmental regulations from EPA. Company officials determined the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) made it unfeasible to retrofit or continue operating the three plants.“The high cost to implement MATS and other environmental rules is the reason these Mon Power plants are being retired,” said James R. Haney, regional president of Mon Power and president of West Virginia Operations for FirstEnergy.

They told us back in August this was coming:  Getting ready for a wave of coal-plant shutdowns   "CRS notes that many of the plants most affected by the new EPA rules were facing extinction anyway: “Many of these plants are inefficient and are being replaced by more efficient combined cycle natural gas plants, a development likely to be encouraged if the price of competing fuel—natural gas—continues to be low, almost regardless of EPA rules.”


Not that it matters to the Obama Administration any more than this shutdown that killed the economy of Garibaldi, Oregon back in the 70's bothered the EPA.

alleghenytreasures.com

windpowerninja

Oh, yeah- there's this as well: Forest fires and wind turbines: The danger no one is talking about

Industrial Wind Turbines Cause Real Damage.




(Left) Two griffon vultures killed by turbines in Navarre, Spain. One of them has been sliced in half by the blade.

From Heritage: "162 Reasons to Marry"; also "Definition of Marriage" plus a Jack Benny story

Family Research Council    ...."The future of the human race and all its component societies is embodied in each new- born. Whether that newborn grows to be a strong, capable adult depends much on the marriage of his parents. Whether he is physically strong; whether she is intelligent; whether he is hardworking or a dropout; whether she will be mentally healthy and happy; whether he will be more educated; whether she will marry in her own turn; whether he will be a taxpayer or a drain on the commons; whether she enjoys her own sexuality to the full; whether he worships and prays; whether she has children and how many; whether he finishes high school and goes to college or learns a trade; whether she is law-abiding; whether he grows old with a family surrounding him—all these most desirable outcomes (common goods) are strongly connected to the strength of the marriage of that child’s parents."....


Definition of Marriage by Kerby Anderson  "Their latest survey of 1,500 adults found that nearly two-thirds (62%) of Americans agreed with this statement: “I believe marriage should be defined only as the union of one man and one woman.”
"The results stand in stark contrast to the media template being used today that most Americans are ready to change the definition of marriage."

Kerby Anderson serves as a visiting professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, Philadelphia Biblical University, and Temple Baptist Seminary. He has spoken on dozens of university campuses including University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University, Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Colorado and University of Texas.

Jack Benny

Yes, there ARE great marriages in Hollywood   "The day after Benny died, a single, long-stemmed red rose was delivered to Mary Livingstone Benny, his wife of nearly 48 years. After several days, with another rose delivered each day, Mary called the florist to find out who was sending them. The florist told her that Benny had made arrangements for a rose to be sent to her every day for the rest of her life, and included a provision in his will for the deliveries -- a touching and romantic final gesture for a man born on Valentine's Day."


"Benny's sarcophagus contains the simple inscription, "A gentle man."
Buried with Benny is his wife, Mary Livingstone Benny (1906 - 1983), his co-star on both his radio and television shows.