Some late posts on ObamaCare

Sen. Kerry Dares GOP to Make Obamacare Election Issue “This is not complicated,” he continued. “It’s made complicated by politicians who pursue an ideological agenda, which is why I’m glad Mitt Romney, when he was here [as governor of Massachusetts], passed healthcare. I’m sorry today he’s running away from it, but this is going to be a great debate.”


The ObamaCare Arguments – The Second Day  "Justice Kennedy made it clear more than once that the government has a “heavy burden” to show that what it is doing is constitutional since it is compelling people to enter into commerce. Kennedy also stated that the government’s theory would “fundamentally change the relationship between the individual and the state.”  This is a key point because in past cases where he has sometimes upset conservatives (such as Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down a state sodomy law), Kennedy has sided with protecting the individual against the power of the state.  This case falls squarely into that category. "


 Legal Insurrection: Obamacare Oral Argument, Day 3 – Severability

"This morning was argument on severability, meaning what will happen to the remainder of Obamacare if the mandate is held to be unconstitutional.

"Via Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog, that dilemma may have some of the Justices rethinking their position on the mandate:"...

Justice Kennedy: Obamacare 'changes the relationship of the Federal Government to the individual in the very fundamental way.
'"Obamacare flips the notion that power is derived from the consent of the governed. In that respect, an ambitious and aggressive government, would literally be able to require anything, as long as it was for the "common good."
"I hope Roberts asks Kennedy to write the opinion - hopefully, the majority opinion."

Many more knowledgeable links at Voloch Conspiracy

EPA's first salvo in their war on CO2

Rick Moran "Electricity costs are going to go up - perhaps way up. It depends on the economy and how it manages to make up for the lost power generation. Efficiencies elsewhere may keep the increase manageable. More likely, that process will lag a few years and rates will skyrocket.

"Consumers will blame the power companies for the increases, not realizing it is their own government that wants them to pay sky high prices for electricity and has fashioned policies to see that it happens."

EPA moves to kill the coal industry  Golly, I’m shocked!  Are you shocked?  I’m shocked!  After all,Dear Ruler did tell us in 2008 that his goal was to “bankrupt” the coal industry by imposing cap and trade regulations: “If somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.”  Neal Boortz

A look at the Trayvon Martin protestors

Police: Trayvon protesters ransack store

"Minutes after walking out of their school Friday, a large group of students walked through the streets of North Miami Beach. Along the way, they stopped at a Walgreens at 163rd Street and 15th Avenue at about 10:40 a.m. 

"Surveillance video shows dozens of teenagers running through the store. Police said about 80 to 100 students stormed in, ransacking the shelves, before the school's vice principal ordered everyone outside."  Black Quill and Ink has this video of the incident:

Now .. some talking dangerously  "Not going to dwell on it here … but if the people rallying for Trayvon Martin were to turn their attention to the culture of violence that dominates young black urban males it might do more to prevent future tragedies like Trayvon Martin than screaming racism and demanding repeals of self-defense laws." Neal Boortz

DOUSE THE FLAMES, MR. PRESIDENT!

Pat Buchanan:  "Barack Obama’s statement that the death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy that cries out for a more thorough investigation was the right and necessary thing to say.

"But it fell far short of what was needed: a presidential call for a halt to the rhetoric that is stirring up racial rage and inflaming the nation. The incendiary language being deployed is both divisive and dangerous.

Farrakhan

Addressing the Sanford, Fla., incident, black Muslim Minister Louis Farrakhan tweeted: “Where there is no justice, there will be no peace. Soon, and very soon, the law of retaliation may … be applied.”

The New Black Panther Party has issued a “Wanted Dead or Alive” poster featuring the face of George Zimmerman, the man who shot Martin, and printed up a flier saying Martin was “murdered in cold blood.”

When Panther leader Mikhail Muhammad was asked if this could ignite an explosive situation that has already seen death threats drive Zimmerman and his father from their homes, Muhammad cursed and said Zimmerman “should be fearful for his life.”

Demanding “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” the Black Panther leader offered $10,000 for Zimmerman’s capture and called for 5,000 black men to run him down.

“If the government won’t do the job, we’ll do it,” he warned.

Spike Lee helpfully tweeted Zimmerman’s home address.

Friends say Zimmerman fears for his life.

Tony Branco cartoon

MSNBC and the press: the voice of reason

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/03/27/97822

For the dense among you, this Rich Terrell illustration refers not to race but the propagandic press. I believe Eric Holder lumped them among the cowards.

The ObamaCare hearings in pictures

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

Coincidence? Obama camp peddles 2012 'Hoodies'

Update: Obama campaign hoodies sale canceled after controversy  "The sweatshirt was temporarily discounted to $40 from its regular $50 listing. However, the tweet announcing the sale has apparently been removed and following the hooded sweatshirt link at Obama's campaign re-election site store shows the clothing item listed at its regular $50 price."


The Blaze  "So when the Obama camp announced via Twitter yesterday that it was putting its 2012 hoodies on sale, it got some thinking: Is the President trying to capitalize off the death of Martin?"



Rush Limbaugh: Tasteless: Obama 2012 Sells Hoodies to Exploit Death of Trayvon Martin  "The facts continue to pour in on the Trayvon Martin situation in Sanford, Florida.  It turns out that George Zimmerman is a registered Democrat and self-identified Hispanic-American, not "white Hispanic" American. He's a Hispanic-American.  George Zimmerman is a registered Democrat, and there are other interesting things that are surfacing in that whole case."

Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell on the wearing of hoodies  "Who is really showing concern for the well-being of minority youngsters, Geraldo Rivera who is trying to save some lives, or Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and others who are hyping this tragic episode for their own benefit?

"Race hustlers who hype paranoia and belligerence are doing no favor to minority youngsters. There is no way to know how many of these youngsters' confrontations with the police or others in authority have been needlessly aggravated by the steady drumbeat of racial hype they have been bombarded with by race hustlers."

Obama Whispers Away America’s Security (Updated)

Heritage  "It is hard to overstate the dangerous implications of what happened this week when President Obama was caught by an open mic sending a message to Russia’s dictator-in-waiting to wait quietly till after the November elections, after which Mr. Obama could make concessions on America’s national defense. The White House is trying to explain this incident away as par for the course in an electoral year. It is not.

"Here, in essence, is what it appears to be: this was our commander in chief in league with an anti-American autocrat to dupe the American public until after it’s too late. What makes it even worse is that the issue at hand–missile defense–has to do with protecting the American people against the likes of Russia.

....The President’s surreptitious hat-tip to Putin comes at a dangerous time for the American people and U.S. allies. North Korea is preparing to launch yet another long-range missile, and Iran is in desperate pursuit of a nuclear weapon. Meanwhile, the United States and its allies remain unprotected from the threat of nuclear missiles, and now it appears that Obama wants to cede even more ground to Russia on vital national security issues

William Kristol: Obama Compounds the Problem  "But it's deeply inappropriate for the president to discuss election year considerations—especially with a foreign leader whose country is often hostile to U.S. interests. Obama's comments are therefore not only an acknowledgment of his thorough politicization of American foreign policy. They also represent a self-inflicted diminution of the stature of the American president in the world."

Weekly Standard also had these posts:

Romney Advisers Ask If Obama Is Welcoming ‘Greater Weakness and Inconstancy’
Special Report Panel on Obama's Comments to Russia

Former NAACP leader accuses Sharpton and Jackson of ‘exploiting’ Trayvon Martin

Daily Caller "“His family should be outraged at the fact that they’re using this child as the bait to inflame racial passions,” Rev. C.L. Bryant said in a Monday interview with The Daily Caller.
"The conservative black pastor who was once the chapter president of the Garland, Texas NAACP called Jackson and Sharpton “race hustlers” and said they are “acting as though they are buzzards circling the carcass of this young boy.”"

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/03/26/97757

 Police: Zimmerman says Trayvon decked him with one blow then began hammering his head  "With a single punch, Trayvon Martin decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who eventually shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old, then Trayvon climbed on top of George Zimmerman and slammed his head into the sidewalk, leaving him bloody and battered, law-enforcement authorities told the Orlando Sentinel.
"That is the account Zimmerman gave police, and much of it has been corroborated by witnesses, authorities say."

.... "This is what the Sentinel has learned about Zimmerman's account to investigators:"....

Zimmerman told them he lost sight of Trayvon and was walking back to his SUV when Trayvon approached him from the left rear, and they exchanged words.
Trayvon asked Zimmerman if he had a problem. Zimmerman said no and reached for his cell phone, he told police. Trayvon then said, "Well, you do now" or something similar and punched Zimmerman in the nose, according to the account he gave police.
Zimmerman fell to the ground and Trayvon got on top of him and began slamming his head into the sidewalk, he told police. Zimmerman began yelling for help.
Several witnesses heard those cries, and there has been a dispute about whether they came from Zimmerman or Trayvon. Lawyers for Trayvon's family say it was Trayvon, but police say their evidence indicates it was Zimmerman.
One witness, who has since talked to local television news reporters, told police he saw Zimmerman on the ground with Trayvon on top, pounding him — and was unequivocal that it was Zimmerman who was crying for help. Zimmerman then shot Trayvon once in the chest at very close range, according to authorities. When police arrived less than two minutes later, Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose, had a swollen lip and had bloody lacerations to the back of his head.

 Obama, the great racial and economic divider

Neal Boortz : And some stories the media doesn't seem to want to highlight

• Has Obama, or any race pimps, urged the country to do some soul-searching after the attacks on Allen Coon?
•  85-year-old woman raped, husband (a veteran) beaten.  Tyrone Woodfork, age 20, arrested and charged.  No Sharpton.  No Jackson.  No Obama.
•  Three black males murdered a white male student at Mississippi State.  Some have suggested it may be retaliation for Treyvon’s death.  No word from Jackson, Sharpton or Obama. 
• Covering the news on Trayvon Martin

 Witness Speaks: Martin attacks Zimmermann

Witness: Martin attacked Zimmerman: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

Why Manipulate the Tragedy of Trayvon Martin?   "Family breakdown, not white racism, is the biggest impediment facing blacks today, producing such casualties as the 18-year-old gangbanger who fatally shot a 34-year-old mother picking up her child from school in Brownsville, Brooklyn, last October. Sharpton and the national media didn’t show up for that killing, just as they don’t for the thousands of other black-on-black killings each year. By all means, demand justice for Trayvon Martin. But when that justice comes, as it most surely will, perhaps some small part of the energy devoted to securing it could be redirected towards stigmatizing black criminals and revalorizing the role of fathers in families." 

Victor Davis Hanson:   Racial-Relations Regression   "Fairly or not, by now the president, through his past selective editorializing, has lost a great deal of credibility as a national healer.

Maxine Waters would not condemn
the LA riots and the maiming of Reginald
Denny, calling it all a "rebellion"

"While it is natural that African-American activists need answers as to why the armed assailant Mr. Zimmerman was not charged in the shooting, they also cannot explain why their attention is not in commensurate fashion focused on the far greater number of young black males gunned down, many just last week in Chicago, by other black males. Nor can they explain to the non-African-American community why the far greater instances of black-on-white violent crime supports any such notion of a supposed war on young black males."

....

"So far all that is clear is that there is a growing anger among African-Americans about a failure to immediately arrest the shooter that in turn is provoking an even greater backlash against the antics of Al Sharpton, the creepy bounty offered by the New Black Panther Party, and others who inflame for their own careerist advantage, and no one — not the president, not the media, not the civil rights leadership, not the politicians — seems willing or able to call for a time-out until all the facts are reviewed and released. We have collectively regressed to the days of Rodney King and the L.A. riots and the O. J. Simpson trial — or to something far worse. Hope and change came and went."

Are we to re-live this?  Picture this: hordes of people descending on stores, looting them,  being filmed carrying off millions of dollars of merchandise; businesses being burned and emergency personnel being shot at. Black areas of town left devastated and blackened with stores left shuttered and empty for years and unemployment in those areas skyrocketing.
Then will come blame from the Jackson's, Sharpton's, Waters, Farrakhan's and their like saying businesses will not come into those same areas because of "racism". What sane business would ever risk a fortune opening up in these violence-prone areas when one single incident could cause all they had there to be destroyed, with area politicians calling it a justified rebellion?  The Tunnel Dweller.

Liberals; the civil, compassionate people: Dick Cheney heartlessly mocked

Boston Herald:  "Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.com dismissed the left’s online mean-spiritedness as a sign of weakness: “Barack Obama’s presidency is a failure and all they have left between now and the election is to get the base angry. So they’re spreading a lot of hatred. Hate is all they have left.” 


Liberals express hate as Dick Cheney recovers from heart transplant surgery Poster "Media Elite" wrote: "Why couldn't he just die!"


Good news: Letterman’s jokes about Cheney’s heart problems still crowd pleasers   "They must have some master checklist, last updated in 2006, titled “Funny Things About Dick Cheney” which they call up any time they write bits like this. At the very top of the checklist, apparently: Gravely serious cardiac complications. 
"I like Mika and she’s usually not a jerk, so I’m going to pretend that she’s convulsing here not over Cheney gasping for air but at either (a) the audacious tastelessness of the gags or (b) the sheer stale hackishness of the bit. Pretend with me."

Obama Caught on Hot Mic: Tells Russian PM He‘ll Have More ’Flexibility‘ ’After My Election’

Noisy Room 

More at The Blaze "At the tail end of his 90 minute meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev Monday, President Obama said that he would have “more flexibility” to deal with controversial issues such as missile defense, but incoming Russian President Vladimir Putin needs to give him “space.”

The exchange was picked up by microphones as reporters were let into the room for remarks by the two leaders.

The Left and their racialist allies

Affirmative Action and Radical Politics; Affirmative action radicalizes minority students whose achievements become suspect. 
"Universities operate under quotas masquerading as goals and government audits of racial outcomes known as cultural audits. Consequently, university administrators have numbers to produce because the government wants to see numbers. The reality is that the faculty that push black students through aren’t compassionate at all. They’re part of a bureaucracy that needs a certain statistical outcome. The black student is a means to an end. That end is a check in a box." 

The article refers to this Thomas Sowell column entitled Race and Rhetoric in which Sowell writes: 

Not only was unemployment among blacks in general lower before the liberal welfare state policies expanded in the 1960s, rates of imprisonment of blacks were also lower then, and most black children were raised in two-parent families. At one time, a higher percentage of blacks than whites were married and working.

'New' Black Panthers same as the old - only worse  "With Louis Farakhan threatening "retaliation" for the killing of Trayvon Martin, you might have wondered if African American leaders could make the situation any worse. They did:"...

PANTHERS: ZIMMERMAN 'WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE

Zimmerman not a racist, says family   "Despite the racially charged nature of the case, Zimmerman's lawyer insisted his client was not racist.
"I asked him, 'Are you a racist? Do you have anything against black people?' and he said 'No,'" Zimmerman's legal adviser Craig Sonner told CNN on Friday. "I don't see anything that indicates to me that he's a racist."
Sonner said Zimmerman and his wife acted as mentors to two teenage African Americans, even after funding was cut for the program.
They have also helped at a fundraiser for an African-American church, according to the lawyer. 

Jesse Jackson bringing the hate  "This is one reason why it is impossible to talk intelligently about race in this country. There are too many people invested in ratcheting up emotion and hate when it comes to the way in which incidents like the Trayvon Martin tragedy are portrayed.
"Jesse Jackson - who probably felt left out of media coverage - has put both feet into the controversy."

Cartoons by Henry 

Victor Davis Hanson: Beware of the Mob

PJ Media "The role of a president is to rein in the mob, not to unleash it. The latter is what community organizers do; the former is what makes statesmen. Yet on issue after issue — anti-terrorism, global warming, government ethics, and racial relations — a frenzied mob, egged on by the media and demagogues like Barack Obama, have almost stormed the jail, only to dissipate when met by either evidence, or the knowledge that the incarcerated was one of their own — as if they had never screamed and threatened in the first place."