Why ObamaCare Is Losing in the Courts

WSJ Opinion Journal  "ObamaCare's defenders have sought to manufacture another limiting principle. They claim that health care is unique because everyone will use medical services, health-care costs can be financially ruinous for uninsured individuals, and others will then have to pick up the slack by subsidizing consumers who do not pay their medical bills. Yet any number of national markets, including the housing market, share these same characteristics."

Messrs. Rivkin and Casey served in the Justice Department in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. They represent 26 states in one of the lawsuits challenging ObamaCare's constitutionality.

Common Sense And Courage From Pawlenty

Thomas Sowell  "Gov. Pawlenty fought Minnesota's transit unions over runaway pensions and hung tough during a long strike. "Today," he says, "we have a transit system that gives commuters a ride, without taking the taxpayers for a ride."
"Some fear that Gov. Pawlenty doesn't have the charisma and fireworks rhetoric that they would like to see in a candidate. Charisma and rhetoric are what gave us the current disastrous administration in Washington. .....*
"Politicians and the media may want a candidate with verbal fireworks, but the people want jobs. As Pawlenty put it: "Fluffy promises of hope and change don't buy our groceries, make our mortgage payments, put gas in our cars, or pay for our children's clothes.""

* Deleted a reference to Hitler. Sorry; I couldn't handle another one of those, not even from Mr. Sowell.

Truly Shocking: Feminists Back Anthony Weiner

Dana Loesch "As with Bill Clinton before him, Anthony Weiner has managed to spotlight the ironic discrepancy between what feminists say and the things for which they stand." ....
The head of the Brooklyn/Queens chapter of the National Organization for Women "said she could separate Weiner’s sexcapades from the liberal track record that earned the group’s support."

“I wasn’t happy to discover that my congressman is a 14-year-old boy,” said Julie Kirshner, president of the NOW chapter.

“But he happens to be one of the best politicians out there, so we’re in a bad position. We’re trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Feminist Janeane Garafalo:

During an appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Janeane Garofalo said, “Anthony Weiner deserves to be supported and hopefully he will be mayor of New York one day. I’m serious. He is a Democrat [who] actually fights for the things liberals and progressive and rational people care about.

washingtonpost.com/

Exit Gingrich

Michael Barone   "Through all this, Gingrich always was searching for ideas that commanded 70 percent support. He understood that dovish Democrats’ disdain for American exceptionalism was a grave political liability and sought to exploit it. But after his first moments in the spotlight as speaker, he turned off voters. I think he reminded them of the high-school nerd/egghead whom all the other kids disliked."

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



If you saw "Schindler's List", you know this man; Little known hero Mietek Pemper laid to rest in Augsburg

Phil Boehmke "From 1943 to 1944 Mr. Pemper was imprisoned in the Plaszow concentration camp outside of his native Krakow, where he served as the personal typist to the Nazi commandant Amon Goeth.  Despite great personal risk Pemper read Goeth's official correspondence and used his knowledge of SS plans to help save the lives of his fellow Jews at Plaszow."....

"In the 1993 film Schindler's List, the character of Itzhak Stern (played by Ben Kingsley) was a compilation of Oskar Schindler's accountant (the real Itzhak Stern), Mietek Pemper and one other unidentified person."    
                      

 Amon Goeth   Mieczyslaw Pemper, who worked in the Plaszow camp office, testified during Göth’s trial that he had managed to look at Göth’s personal files and had found a letter from SS-Gruppenführer Globocnik, commander of the Lublin region, addressed to the commanders of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka. The letter authorised Göth to have access to all areas of those extermination camps, for administration or possibly construction inspections. Under the direction of SS-Sturmbannführer Willi Haase, Göth conducted the final liquidation of the Krakow ghetto, which began on 13 March 1943. SS officers Kunde and Neumann also assisted with the ghetto clearance, during which mass murders were committed. On the orders of Haase, 75 persons were killed in one place. 

Amon Goeth, shooting inmates from his balcony. This incident was
portrayed in  "Schindler's List" by Ralph Fiennes

If you are looking for more World War 2 history, particularly regarding the Normandy landings on D-Day, check these links:

• Omaha Beach D-Day landings from above; Victor Davis Hanson column.
• D-Day- and beyond- Airborne site; one of the best I've ever seen
• 25 photos of D-Day from the Robert Capa collection
• D-Day; Omaha Beach then and now photographs
• REMEMBERING D-DAY
• Some D-Day sites for you history buffs
• RIP Dick Winters

Many more posts on American politics and culture at the Tunnel Wall.

Lloyd Marcus makes a case for Herman Cain as president

Lloyd Marcus and Herman Cain

Lloyd Marcus "Upon the election of Obama, Al Sharpton was asked, "Will the election of a black president confirm that America is no longer a racist country?" In a nutshell, Sharpton replied "No."

"What Sharpton really meant was, "I ain't lettin' white America off the hook that easy. Promoting that blacks are eternal victims of a racist America has been an extremely profitable GREAT GIG over the years. I'm not gonna let a little thing like facts which prove otherwise, stop me from getting' paid."

 "Well, despite Sharpton, so-called "civil rights" race exploitation organizations and the liberal media, America has come a long ways baby in regards to "race relations.""

Liberals Can't Get Over the Fact That Herman Cain Is Black "Jon Stewart Makes Racially Charged Joke at Herman Cain's Expense: He Doesn't 'Like to Read'"
"Daily Kos: Herman Cain Is The Perfect Racist Republican"
"Bill Maher Takes Racist Swipe At Herman Cain: Gingrich is Republican 'Polling Behind a Black Guy'"
Neal Boortz

Herman Cain: 'Don't Condemn Me Because First Black President Was Bad'  ""Now people are over this first black President thing," he said. "But there are some people who will say, 'I'm not going to vote for another black guy because this one didn't work out.'
""And my response is, 'Well, what about those 43 white guys you put in there? How did they work out?'"

American Way: Sarah Palin email frenzy backfires on her media antagonists

UK Telegraph  "The trove of more than 13,000 emails detailing almost every aspect of Sarah Palin’s governorship of Alaska, released late on Friday, paints a picture of her as an idealistic, conscientious, humorous and humane woman slightly bemused by the world of politics.
"One can only assume that the Left-leaning editors who dispatched teams of reporters to remote Juneau, the Alaskan capital, to pore over the emails in the hope of digging up a scandal are now viewing the result as a rather poor return on their considerable investment." ....
"...she sought help from her staff in keeping the alcohol in the governor’s mansion away from young people, stating that it should be boxed up and “removed from the People’s House” – both for practical reasons and as a statement about her administration."....
"The email release could mark the end of a chapter of what conservatives have termed “Palin Derangement Syndrome”. Her enemies in the media appear to have overplayed their hand."
Toby Harnden is the Daily Telegraph's US Editor, based in Washington DC. .... His bestselling new book Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and Britain's War in Afghanistan, about a Battle Group in Helmand in 2009, is available from Telegraph Books.

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

NBC wants email bombshells, then check Obama Administration's, not Palin

Newsbusters  "Following a story from “national investigative correspondent” Michael Isikoff in which “MSNBC.com investigative reporter” Bill Dedman had the gall to complain “we waited longer for these records than Sarah Palin was Governor, almost a thousand days,” NBC’s David Gregory recognized, in an understatement: “As Mike and his team are finding, not a lot of bombshells here.”"....

ISIKOFF: The e-mails have lots of redactions, and so far, there are no bombshells, but they do show Palin's irritation with what she calls the “lamestream media.” Writing from the McCain campaign trail, she writes in one e-mail: “It drives me crazy to catch all the corrections.” And in an earlier e-mail, “I feel like I'm at a breaking point with hurtful gossip.” Lester?

Perhaps they could find much juicier emails on the Obama Administration's correspondence with the NLRB over their Boeing suit, or any of their SEIU correspondence. TD

You think all those cyber sleuths searching Sarah Palin’s e-mails would get a similar thrill looking at, say, Gov. Deval Patrick’s BlackBerry?  "The answer is no, and not just because MSNBC would never mobilize an army of reporters to go after a Democrat. The real reason people will never see Patrick’s e-mails is because they can’t." Via Instapundit

Release the Redacted Transcript!  "I posted some thoughts on the media’s Palin/Obama paper-trail hypocrisy last Friday. Around the same time, Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft highlighted the continued refusal of the LA Times to release the unseen but nonetheless famous video tape in which Obama toasted Rashid Khalidi at a testimonial dinner likely also addressed by Bill Ayers (h/t Glenn Reynolds). Will we ever get to see that tape, and if so, how best to shake it loose?" Via Instapundit; More Here.

AP Crushed That Palin Emails Reveal No Dirt    "But isn’t it funny how citizens and news organizations have never asked for Mr. Obama’s emails. Or Nancy Pelosi’s. Or Harry Reid’s. Or Barney Franks."....
"Or perhaps the delay was because the ‘powers that be’ were hoping to release them after Mrs. Palin had announced she is running for the 2012 nomination. But they got frustrated by the delay, and decided they should try to knock her out even before she threw her hat into the ring."

TD personally likes Palin as an excellent vice-president, but Democrats seem to feel she would be a real winner as president. Why else would they and Hollywood "elites"  be obsessed with destroying her?

Palin's Trig Letter "The Briton* writes that far from being embarrassed by any findings in the trove of her electronic missives, Palin "is likely to emerge from the scrutiny...with her reputation considerably enhanced.""....   (emphasis added TD)

"Among some 13,000 messages was an unexpected, revealing and touching email from Palin to friends and family.

"It was initially written, obviously not for publication, in April of 2008 just a few days before....

...the arrival of her fifth child, Trig, who was born with Down syndrome. In her email Palin imagines a letter from God to the family about to launch on its challenging child-rearing experience together.

"Here is Palin's entire letter:"

*American Way: Sarah Palin email frenzy backfires on her media antagonists Read this in a separate post in the Tunnel Wall, above this one.

           

Which of these two people does Hollywood admire and respect?

Obama Seeks to Win Back Wall St. Cash

NY Times  "A few weeks before announcing his re-election campaign, President Obama convened two dozen Wall Street executives, many of them longtime donors, in the White House’s Blue Room."
....
" The event, organized by the Democratic National Committee, kicked off an aggressive push by Mr. Obama to win back the allegiance of one of his most vital sources of campaign cash — in part by trying to convince Wall Street that his policies, far from undercutting the investor class, have helped bring banks and financial markets back to health."  Via  Freedom Fighter's Journal


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



Durbin’s Innovation Killer

American Enterprise Institute The Durbin amendment would raise costs for consumers, increase fraud, and kill innovation.

"Attached as a floor amendment at the very last moment to the Senate version of the Dodd-Frank legislation, the Durbin amendment was passed with no hearings and minimal discussion of its likely impact on consumers and the economy. Since that time, however, many of the likely unintended consequences have been identified."
Hat tip to Volokh Conspiracy

Tips for Not Appearing Crazy on the Internet

Pajamas Media  "How conspiracy nuts, basket cases, paranoid loons, and other half wits can fool the rest of us into thinking they make perfect sense."

Here is the outline of the article:  

"Caps Lock Is Your Enemy  "NEVER EVER TOUCH THE CAPS LOCK KEY EVER AGAIN! I can use it because I’m a professional, but you crazy people just need to leave that key alone. This tip by itself will make a lot of you look 100% less crazy."

"i can haz proper grammar? "Write actual English sentences using real words and proper grammar. Capitalize the first word of each sentence. Use punctuation. there is no reason ur comment 2 a blog or column shud look lik ur a n00b at texting."

"No Long Screeds  "And that’s why no will read what they write except other crazy people with way too much time on their hands. So keep it short. Pick one point, and write no more than a couple of sentences. Keeping it short also helps you police your crazy."
If you're at a TEA Party rally, enjoying the non-angry family atmosphere and someone arrives with a poster packed chock-full of writing, stay close by them. Especially if you see the press heading for that person. TD

"Proofread "So after you write a comment, don’t listen to the crazy in your head shouting, “You need to share this now! Now! NOW!” Instead, take a deep breath and read it over before hitting the submit button."
Speaking of which, Tunnel Dweller just corrected two egregious spelling errors he made in a Palin email post above. There is the hope that nobody noticed them, but if you didn't, shame on us all.
"Don’t Be Surprised When People Have Opinions Different From Your Crazy One 
"And there are truthers who are so amazed anyone can believe the government’s story on 9/11...

"No Living Person Is Hitler, and the World Isn’t Ending   "To a crazy person, every little bit of nonsense is a crisis of epic proportions that has to be handled right now (e.g., “If it isn’t recognized that Obama doesn’t meet my obscure definition of ‘naturalized citizen,’ then the Constitution will burst into flames and society will collapse!”)! "

Respond to an Actual Point and Not Just Something That’s Been Mentioned  "Like if someone mentions when Hanukkah is this year and you respond with a rant about Jews controlling the banks, you’re not actually having a sane person conversation."

________________________________________________________________________________

..."If you want a role model, try to be more like Andrew Sullivan. When it was revealed in 2008 that Bristol Palin was pregnant and thus couldn’t physically have given birth to Trig Palin, even the most hardcore conspiracy theory nuts gave up on that one, but not Sullivan. He stuck with it despite it being “the government is concealing the fact that 2 + 2 = 5!” crazy. And yet he’s still treated by many as a serious pundit because he has the discipline to make it so it’s not blatantly obvious to a casual reader that he’s Kleenex-boxes-for-shoes, the-squirrels-are-spying-on-me, kung-fu-fighting-invisible-ninjas crazy."

ONLY A HITLER WOULD NOT PASS THIS ARTICAL ON TO 10 OTHER PEOPL. HOW ABOUT YOU ARE YOU A HITLER? OUR FATE DEPENDS ON THIS

Charles Krauthammer; Stewardship? Or ideology?

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Washington Post  "We are in the midst of a once-in-a-generation debate about the nature of the welfare state (entitlement vs. safety net) and, indeed, of the social contract between citizen and state (e.g., whether Congress can mandate — compel — you to purchase whatever it wills). Let’s finish that debate. Start with Obama’s abysmal stewardship, root it in his out-of-touch social-democratic ideology, and win. That would create the strongest mandate for conservative governance since the Reagan era."

Obama Recovery  "I know … let’s blame the Republicans!
"Take a look at this headline: Are Republicans Intentionally Sabotaging Economy For Political Gain? Can you believe that? The headline doesn’t ask if Democrats are scaring the diapers off old ladies for political gain. Not, it’s the Republicans sabotaging the economy." Neal Boortz