U.S. Falls in Index of Economic Freedom

Wall Street Journal "How about the U.S., historically the country more responsible than any other for leading the march of freedom? Under President Barack Obama, it has moved to the back of the band. Its economic freedom score has dropped to 76.3 in 2012 from 81.2 in 2007 (on a scale of 0-100). Government expenditures have grown to a level equivalent to over 40% of GDP, and total public debt exceeds the size of the economy."....
"The 2012 results show the torch of leadership in advancing freedom passing to other regions. Whether this is a long-term trend remains to be seen, but it is clear that if America and Europe do not soon regain trust in the principles of economic freedom on which their historical successes have been built, their people, and perhaps those of the world as a whole, are in for dark days ahead."
Mr. Feulner is president of the Heritage Foundation and co-editor of the 2012 Index of Economic Freedom. 

Opinions on the Republican fratricide

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

http://conservativedailynews.com/2012/01/11/newt-attacks-back/

DNC Web Video Hits Romney For "Fire" Comment  "This DNC video shows Mitt Romney saying "I like being able to fire people" and then plays clips from popular movies and television programs of being people being fired." 
 Perhaps other Republican challengers can use this video for themselves as well.  Nice going, Republicans.


In Praise of Newt  "Wow Newt!  I guess any publicity is good publicity, eh?  You really "stuck it to the man" Newt!  Just like Jack Kemp would do, right? Newt rolled up his happy warrior sleeves and set up his OWS tent to mindlessly dismantle the "establishment."  Great job Newt!  What's next Newt, defecating on a South Carolina police car?"


Romney’s Profitable Past  "... Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Jon Huntsman seem to be engaged in a perverse contest to be the Republican presidential candidate to say the most asinine thing about Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, the private-equity firm at which he served as chief executive, helped turn around a number of failing businesses, and, in the process, produced magnificent profits for his investors and for himself. Mitt Romney ran a firm that invested in struggling businesses, made money, and never asked for a bailout — and Romney’s rivals apparently expect Republican voters to regard that as a liability.

By the Republican-hating Pat Oliphant

Obama: ‘Everything that we fought for is now at stake in this election’

Sun-Times Media "“If you’re willing to work even harder in this election than you did in the last election, I promise you, change will come. God bless you Chicago, I love you!” "
....

"Even though this is his first visit to his campaign headquarters, Illinois Republicans charge that most of his administration’s key decisions are made at the Prudential Building — and not the White House.

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

"“There hasn’t been a decision out of the White House in three weeks that’s not political,” said Illinois Republican party Chairman Pat Brady."  Via Drudge.

Obama in Chicago: 1 day, $2 million, 3 fundraisers  The final event of the night, was held at the residence of Stuart Taylor, managing partner of The Taylor Group, a private equity firm. Over 140 people reportedly attended paying $7,500 for a ticket.

"It's all my neighbors!" Obama said as he walked into the event, according to White House pool reports."

Would those neighbors include Bill Ayres?

Exit the moderates . . . and weep for the economy  "The announcement that Bill Daley will step down as President Obama’s chief of staff is further proof that as the 2012 election approaches, Obama is embracing his inner leftist on anything touching the economy. The administration has moved so far left that even one of the country’s most prominent Democrats can’t fit in."  H/T to Neal Boortz.

Ann Coulter asks: Who Wouldn't Enjoy Firing These People?

Ann Coulter  "Romney's statement about being able to fire people was an arrow directed straight to the heart of Obamacare. (By the way, arrows to the heart are not covered by Obamacare.)"
....

"I want individuals to have their own insurance. That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. It also means if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. You know, if someone doesn't give me a good service that I need, I want to say I'm going to go get someone else to provide that service to me."

....
 "Obamacare employees will spend their days surfing pornography, instead of approving your heart operation. They can steal from you and even physically assault you. And they can never be fired.

"That's one gargantuan difference with "Romneycare" right there: If you don't like what your insurer is doing in Massachusetts, you can get a new one.

"Now, wouldn't you like to be able to fire people who provide services to you?"

GOP Should Just Say No To Biased Debates

Nice Deb  "Brent Bozell is in high dudgeon over these atrocious debates – as well he should be:"

The only thing that can be said in defense of that horrible decision was turning to NBC the next morning and seeing “moderator” David Gregory be even more slanted in his questioning. ABC slanted the ideological questions in their debate by a ratio of 6 questions from the left to each 1 from the right. The NBC ratio was 8 to 1.
Why must the Republicans keep handing over their debate stage in the primary season to the people who desperately want them all to bumble, stumble and fall on their faces on national TV?

floydreports.com

 "I’ve been wondering the same thing. It’s a Republican primary. Why would our candidates agree to hold their debates on hostile ground? Don’t they have a say in the matter? Why not say no to ABC, CNN, NBC, and CBS if they can’t hold a debate in a fair, unbiased manner? Perhaps they think that it would be spun that they are too afraid to answer tough questions. But the ideological questions weren’t tough – they were just stupid – contraception and gay marriage are not the top issues of the day. The questions were  designed to make Republicans look foolish, or outside the mainstream."

AUSTRALIA: MAN LOSES JOB OVER INNOCUOUS FACEBOOK COMMENTS ABOUT CHRISTIANS, NO WAIT, JEWS, NO WAIT, NO WAIT, HINDUS, NO WAIT....

Atlas Shrugs  " This is astonishing. I know it's Australia, but clearly this is coming to America, because we have seen folks lose their jobs over insulting comments about Islam.
"But this? The poor fellow didn't say anything! This is crippling free society. Devastating -- and for what?"
She refers to this article:

A refugee advocacy group says it is unrepentant after it played a role in getting a worker at a Darwin immigration detention centre suspended for spiteful comments he wrote about Muslims on Facebook.

The article quotes the offending words that got this man suspended:

"The man reacted to information about refugee activists' efforts to get Christmas presents to children being detained in Darwin.""Sad for all the Christian kids! Not sure why an Islamist would want a Christmas present????" the man wrote.

 Several hours later he added to his earlier post."Maybe you need to come and face these men who teach their children that women have no rights," he said."I guess you must think there is nothing wrong with domestic violence," he added.

 About SERCO who employs this man.

Romney vs. the “Bitter Politics of Envy”

Commentary Magazine  "Mitt Romney's main challenge going forward, aside from the general need to unite the party, is to find a message that refutes the class warfare arguments without offering up clumsy sound bites. If his victory speech last night was any indication, he may be finding his voice on this. He said:"

President Obama wants to put free enterprise on trial. In the last few days, we have seen some desperate Republicans join forces with him. This is such a mistake for our party and for our nation. This country already has a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy. We must offer an alternative vision. I stand ready to lead us down a different path, where we are lifted up by our desire to succeed, not dragged down by a resentment of success. In these difficult times, we cannot abandon the core values that define us as unique — we are one nation, under God.

donkeyhotey

I think my frustration with Mr. Romney is not that he would be a poor president; on the contrary, I think in most cases he would be an excellent one. But now many of us are angry at what has been done to this country by Barack Obama: The man has driven a wedge into our society, he has turned most against the very institutions that have made our economy vibrant and prosperous; our military has suffered at the hands of anti-military, anti-American influences; the Obama administration at all levels has reversed good and evil; it has confused allies with enemies and established America as an unreliable partner.
 We want a president who is as angered at what the left has done as we are and I just do not see that "fire in the gut" in Mitt Romney. Democrats move this nation further and further to the left, then Republicans take over to "manage" the changes, reversing nothing. Then comes the left again, taking us even more to the left. The effect of all this is that both Democrats and Republicans are turning America into a European socialistic model with no apparent fear of what Obamaites will do to this nation.
Isn't there someone out there that inspires the ardor that Ron Paul does, only without the Paulite isolationism that the Obamatons endorse? 

Obama’s Arrogant Authoritarianism

Heritage  "Last week, President Barack Obama took the latest step on his road toward an arrogant, new authoritarianism with four illegal appointments that entirely trampled on the Constitution’s requirements. More troubling still, the President chose to shred the Constitution all in the name of serving his Big Labor agenda while killing jobs in the process."
....
"The policy implications of the President’s appointments? The CFPB will now have unmitigated authority to issue regulation upon regulation, contributing to the already-crippling red tape that is strangling business in America. And the NLRB will have the power to advance the President’s agenda to bolster unions across the country at the expense of job growth in a smarting economy."


Jennifer Rubin:  Time for Justice Department transparency  ..."He observes that this shows why Eric Holder “has been a terrible attorney general — he won’t even stand up for his own department’s function as legal advisor to the government, or he has twisted the law so far to please the White House as to render the job meaningless.”....
Quoting David S. Addington:

It is reasonable that people are asking the White House whether a Department of Justice legal opinion was issued before the President made the purported recess appointments."....So, Mr. President, did the Department of Justice issue a legal opinion in relation to your purported recess appointments to the NLRB and the CPFB before you made them?....

"So, Mr. President, did the Department of Justice issue a legal opinion in relation to your purported recess appointments to the NLRB and the CPFB before you made them?"  (Emphasis added)

Bain is our Bane

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/01/10/95369

Obama picks immigration reform advocate to lead domestic policy

The Hill    "The White House announced Tuesday that Cecilia Muñoz, a former senior vice president of the National Council of
La Raza, would replace Melody Barnes at the top of the council. White House press secretary Jay Carney announced the appointment during his press briefing."....
 "All of this has led to questions about whether Obama will garner strong support from Hispanics in his 2012 reelection bid. It is crucial to Obama's reelection that he win a large majority of the Hispanic vote, particularly in critical swing states such as Florida, New Mexico and Colorado." 
Be sure to read the comments to this article.

The Mexican flag flew over a crowd of pro-amnesty marchers
 in New York. Marches like this across the U.S. have been supported
by the “La Raza” movement.

The Truth About 'La Raza'  "MEChA and the La Raza movement teach that Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon and parts of Washington State make up an area known as "Aztlan" -- a fictional ancestral homeland of the Aztecs before Europeans arrived in North America. As such, it belongs to the followers of MEChA. These are all areas America should surrender to "La Raza" once enough immigrants, legal or illegal, enter to claim a majority, as in Los Angeles. The current borders of the United States will simply be extinguished. 
"This plan is what is referred to as the "Reconquista" or reconquest, of the Western U.S."....
"As Miguel Perez of Cal State-Northridge's MEChA chapter has been quoted as saying: "The ultimate ideology is the liberation of Aztlan. Communism would be closest [to it]. Once Aztlan is established, ethnic cleansing would commence: Non-Chicanos would have to be expelled -- opposition groups would be quashed because you have to keep power." "


For now, they are just looked upon as potential Democrat voters and welcomed into the halls of power.

Won't you go home, Bill Daley?

http://doninmass.com/2012/01/10/bill-daley-resigns-cartoon/

Rick Moran:  Why Daley had to go  "His power gone, his relations with Hill Democrats frosty, perhaps the biggest reason for his departure was that he didn't fit in with the newly hyper-liberal, hyper-partisan Obama White House where the inner circle is transforming the administration into a cog in the re-election machine:

WaPo: White House Chief of Staff William Daley resigns; budget chief Jacob Lew fills post
"In one particularly embarrassing episode, Obama requested to speak to a joint session of Congress in September only to be rejected by House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who invited him instead to come a day later. The White House claimed that Daley had earlier secured Boehner’s agreement for the original date, but the speaker’s office denied that an agreement was in place."

Greens to Daley: Don’t let the door hit you in …Bill Daley left plenty of fingerprints on energy policy during his yearlong stint in the White House, but environmentalists will remember him most for undercutting EPA’s attempts to set tough new air pollution limits.
The outgoing White House chief of staff, who announced his departure Monday, is seen as the person to blame for successfully urging President Barack Obama last summer to halt the ozone standards.

OBAMA’S NEW DEFENSE STRATEGY: PRESCIENT OR PROBLEMATIC?

Blackfive  "Over the years I have seen more “new” defense strategies than one can shake a stick at.  And I’ve noticed one thing about all of them: for the most part they’ve been uniformly wrong.  We have mostly had an abysmal record in divining what sort of a military we need in the future, and I doubt this particular version will be any better. "

http://terrellaftermath.com/

....


"Libya, for instance, seems anything but a success with Islamist militias poised to take over.  It certainly may be seen as a “military” success, but military success should tied to a strategy of overall success, not just whether it was able to defeat a rag-tag enemy.  After all the the military is but the blunt force of foreign policy, used when all less violent means have been exhausted.  There should be an acceptable outcome tied to its use.  Libya’s descent into Islamic extremism seems to argue against “success” on the whole.  Couple that with the fact that al Qaeda has set up shop there, and you could argue that even if al Qaeda has been “seriously weakened”, it has just been given a new lease on life in Libya."