President Obama wants lower rates for GE and J.P. Morgan than for small business.

Wall Street Journal  "So the 2013 tax cliff is a big enough economic problem that President Obama now wants to postpone it for some taxpayers. But it isn't so big that he's willing to curb his desire to raise taxes on tens of thousands of job-creating businesses.

"That's the essence of Mr. Obama's announcement Monday that he wants Congress to extend current tax rates for a year, but only for those making less than $200,000 a year. This is a political gambit designed to protect Democrats who are starting to feel queasy about opposing GOP plans to extend all of the Bush rates as the economy weakens again. The ploy could help Democrats if Republicans fall for it, but it won't reduce the economic damage to the country."

"They can also put Senate Democrats on the spot by forcing them to choose between extending rates for everyone and accepting Mr. Obama's tax increase. Republicans can win this debate by stressing growth over fairness and jobs over income redistribution."

Hat tip to Patriot Post

The Islamist ascendancy

Charles Krauthammer  "Genuinely democratic rule may yet come to Arab lands. Radical Islam is the answer to nothing, as demonstrated by the repression, social backwardness and civil strife of Taliban Afghanistan, Islamist Sudan and clerical Iran.
"As for moderate Islamism, if it eventually radicalizes, it too will fail and bring on yet another future Arab Spring where democracy might actually be the answer (as it likely would have been in Iran, had the mullahs not savagely crushed the Green Revolution). Or it might adapt to modernity, accept the alternation of power with secularists and thus achieve by evolution an authentic Arab-Islamic democratic norm."

Jerusalem Post

What’s to become of the British Army?

DoD Buzz  "The British Army defeated Napoleon, the Kaiser 
and Hitler, but it was no match for David Cameron."
....
"And even though the British Army of 2020 will be about 41 percent the size of the British Expeditionary Force evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940 — our math, not the MoD’s — the official view is that for its size, it shall be the best damn army in the world."
....
"At most it may kick in a few brigades to join another U.N. or NATO crusade somewhere down the line, but only as a supporting power. The painful lessons of Iraq, Afghanistan and to a lesser extent, Libya, will probably stay with European and American leaders for a long time."

Wikigallery: Tribute To The British Army. This painting is not for commercial use, but since I do the Tunnel Wall for

 absolutely nothing,  I trust we're all on safe ground here. The Tunnel Dweller.

God bless the British, who stood alone against the Axis in WW2 for years, desperately needing help from her allies, which was a long time coming. Just as the pacifists in the UK prevented the British Army from preparing for the coming war, so too did Roosevelt face some similar obstacles. 

There will be fewer troops in the British Army than there were on this beach at Dunkirk:

Imbedded reporter and blogger Michael Yon posted this report on the British Army in Afghanistan;  "The soldiers are living like animals at a little rat’s nest called FOB Gibraltar. They call it “Gib.” Named after the lynchpin of British naval dominance in the Mediterranean, this cluster of mud huts in the middle of hostile territory is more like Fort Apache, Afghanistan. The British soldiers from C-Company 2 Para live in ugly conditions, fight just about every day, and morale is the best I have seen probably anywhere." more...
Who is Michael Yon?


Please know, Brits, that here in the colonies there is so much more respect for Winston Churchill throughout the land than has been exhibited by the current occupant of our White House.
If you plan to have your troops try burning Washington again any time soon, we'll make sandwiches for them.( I offered tea once, but one Brit said our tea was pretty bad and that he preferred we just serve coffee.) The Tunnel Dweller

Some observations on advertising

Neal Boortz   "Also .. in the arena of racially politically correct advertising … you do know that there is some sort of an unwritten law that you can only have so many white people in a TV spot without adding in a minority.  One of the most absurd examples is a commercial – I have no idea what they’re advertising – featuring two adults in the front of a car and a bunch of kids in the back.  The kids suddenly erupt into their cover version of some song.  I guess the critical white mass was reached in the back of that car, because one of the kids is black.  The viewer is left wondering whether or not he might have been abducted.

"Now wasn’t all of that deliciously insensitive? 
"I really love this stuff … and I can keep this up even after my show is over!"
I'm, like, so gonna, like, miss Mr. Boortz when he is off the air. 

Obama guts welfare reform

Nice Deb; Saturday Movie Matinee: Obama Flips on Welfare Reform   "As we ponder Obama’s latest unilateral move to gut welfare reform, let us remember what he told the gullible Pastor Rick Warrren of the Saddleback Church just four short years ago: “We have to have work as a centerpiece of any social policy”."
NiceDeb then links us to this column and video by Greg Hengler 
Obama's Flip-Flop-Flip on Welfare Reform  "A little something I threw together to highlight this guy's latest move giving states an option out of the welfare reforms passed under Bill Clinton (read: Newt Gingrich) in 1996. The food stamp "voting block" has doubled since Obama's election--do you think this "special interest" group is being pandered to?"

Bing

NRO; Obama Ends Welfare Reform As We Know It  "In the past, state bureaucrats have attempted to define activities such as hula dancing, attending Weight Watchers, and bed rest as “work.” Welfare reform instituted work standards to block these dodges. Now that the Obama administration has abolished those standards, we can expect “work” in the TANF program to mean anything but work.

" "Obama’s new welfare decree guts sound anti-poverty policy. The administration tramples on the actual legislation passed by Congress and seeks to impose its own policy choices — a pattern that has become all too common in this administration." "

Barack Obama is proving an embarrassing amateur in confronting the Russian bear

Even our erstwhile allies overseas recognize it now; The United Kingdom Telegraph notes that...   "Resolve, not reset, should be America’s approach to the Russian regime. As Ronald Reagan demonstrated, the world is a far safer place with robust US leadership, with a firm willingness to stand up to the enemies of freedom. This is a message seemingly lost on the current president, for whom deference and decline have become the order of the day."

Lets discuss the media, also known as the MSM (Mainstream Media), the "drive-by media"

Yes, Virginia, There Is Truth in Media  "Follow -- or better yet, join -- the TEA Party.  Know what it really stands for -- not just the imbecilic, racist picture old media and Saturday Night Live paint.  Listen to Rush Limbaugh.  No matter what you believe him to be, Limbaugh is still the standard-bearer of truth in the muddied political world.  Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Dennis Prager, and Dennis Miller are other good conservative radio choices."


Big Journalism; MEDIA COOPERATES WITH OBAMA'S DESPERATELY SLEAZY CAMPAIGN "This isn't a case of media bias; it's how the corrupt media and the Obama campaign are working together, frequently directly, to turn Romney into an unacceptable alternative to this failed president.
"Considering Obama's failed record, the march is obviously on to win Obama reelection in the only way possible: demonize and undermine Romney at every turn."


Shouldn't these charges made against the MSM be a big enough deal to be covered by the media?


Newsbusters; Ex-SNL's Dana Carvey Jabs Romney: 'I Hate Poor People'; Obama Is Like a 'Zen Master'  "Appearing as a guest on Friday's The Tonight Show on NBC, former Saturday Night Live cast member Dana Carvey demonstrated the tendency of comedians to have fun with President Obama in a fashion that builds him up while poking fun at Republicans in a way that tears them down."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brent-baker/2012/07/14/friday-night-funny-video-auditioning-alternate-campaign-slogans-obama-b

The Obama Way: Selling Failure as Success

American Thinker   "While "success" is most often measured by its return, benefit, or gain, with no way to prove otherwise, this administration chooses to measure its success by "how much worse the recession might have been" if they had not spent the $5 trillion.  In fact, as we get closer to the election, these same experts are now telling us that the $5 trillion they spent actually saved the world from another Great Depression. 
"....Having gained nothing from our $5 trillion somehow proves that they were right to spend it and save us all from "much worse." "
Then the Obamites hit us with this  bit of leftist logic:
" "The economy turns out to have been far worse ... than we knew at the time" simply tells us that Mr. Obama never understood the problems to begin with."

This article ends with this diagnosis of lib- er, progressivism:

"Only in the liberal Democratic world is failure proof of success.  We see it not only in the White House, but in Congress, at our universities, and in increases in compensation for fewer hours and less productivity demanded by our municipal unions.  

"Dylan told us that "There is no success like failure," but in fact, Mr. Obama has learned nothing from his failures during more than three years of on-the-job training.  And failure is no success at all."

http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/07/outsourcerer/

Condi for veep! YES! er...No!

This is why TW only posted one link for this story this morning; the whole thing was too much of a bandwagon to suit me.

Rick Moran; No - it won't be Condi for Veep: "Romney has spent the last year running away from George Bush. Why would he pick someone so closely associated with the former president?
"If Romney is going to go with a pick outside the box -- and I don't believe he will -- there are plenty of other choices he could make. Condi Rice isn't one of them."
Here is a sample of the tolerant liberal invective directed at Rice in the past. This would be nothing compared to what would come her way as Romney's running mate.
I print this offensive cartoon because you must all see what the left is like under all their pseudo-compassionate platitudes.

Here is commentary on the above cartoon in ALAS! A Blog: "I think this is borderline racist. There’s nothing wrong with depicting Rice as a parrot – doing so in no way makes fun of her race, and the cartoon would make just as much sense if she were white. But why did he have to draw her lips that way? Yes, it’s a cartoonist’s job to exaggerate, but a caricaturist as hugely skilled as Oliphant could have drawn Rice without reminding us of the history of racist big-lipped caricatures of blacks. (From the interviews I’ve read, my guess is that Oliphant would dismiss 
such a concern as political correctness.)"


 Ramesh Ponnuru; The Case Against Condi  "I doubt Romney is seriously considering Rice, because it seems so obvious that she would be a disastrous pick. Just in case there are people who do not see this, let me run through some of the reasons."...

Obama's stash

Obama's stash?

KEN ROGULSKI: Why are you here? 

WOMAN: To get some money.

ROGULSKI: What kind of money?

WOMAN: Obama money.

ROGULSKI: Where's it coming from?

WOMAN: Obama.

ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get it?

WOMAN: I don't know. His stash. I don't know. I don't know where he got it from but he's giving it to us, to help us. We love him. That's why we voted for him. Obama! Obama!

This 2008 jewel by Howard Stern

Romney Considering Pro-Choice Architect of Bush Foreign Policy for VP

CNS  "Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has put former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “near the top of the list” of his potential running mates, the Drudge Report revealed Thursday evening.

"Rice favors legalized abortion--calling herself "mildly pro-choice"--and was a leading architect of President George W. Bush’s foreign policy, which aimed, as Bush put it in his second inaugural address, at “ending tyranny in our world.”

"Rice served as national security adviser in Bush’s first term and as secretary of state in his second."

More on this this evening if the story progresses. I just have too many doubts right now about her since she is too closely affected by the left's hatred of George Bush.

Alan Caruba; "Executive Tyranny"; If this doesn't make you want to vote Obama out of office, please do not have children

Warning Signs  "A study, “Profiles of Perpetrators of Terrorism”, commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security identified the following characteristics of potential “terrorists.”

# Americans who believe their “way of life” is under attack;
# Americans who are “fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation)”;
# People who consider themselves “anti-global” (presumably those who are wary of the loss of American sovereignty, opposed to the United Nations, etc.);
# Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority”;
# Americans who are “reverent of individual liberty”;
# People who “believe in conspiracy theories that involve grave threat to national sovereignty and/or personal liberty.”

Do you find yourself described in this list anywhere?