Fire Holder

Newt Gingrich: President Obama should fire Attorney General Eric Holder | Washington Examiner: "All of the allegations of unauthorized methods - all of them - have already been carefully evaluated by career prosecutors. These were legal officials who, unlike Holder, do not owe their jobs to any partisan political figure.

Impartial prosecutors evaluated 20 incidents of unauthorized activity and decided against taking legal action in all cases but one. In that one case, in which a contract employee attacked a terrorist detainee with a metal flashlight, the contractor was found guilty. His case was appealed and his conviction upheld.

In other words, justice was done.

But apparently for Holder, justice under a Republican administration doesn't mean the same thing as justice under a Democratic administration."

This guy's a piece of work -pardoning vicious Puerto Rican terrorists, sleezy Democrat crony Mark Rich, refusing to pursue blatant voter intimidation by Black Panthers, and now he's going to flush $10's of millions on a witch hunt against loyal CIA operatives. I don't believe for a minute that the President doesn't support what he's doing. If nothing else, it is a great diversion from the growing attention on the ineptitude and corruption of the Obama administration.

Steyn Slices Through the Teddy BS

Mark Steyn: Things only a Kennedy could get away with | kennedy, ted, chappaquiddick, mary, senator -

Opinion - OCRegister.com: "When a man is capable of what Ted Kennedy did that night in 1969 and in the weeks afterward, what else is he capable of? An NPR listener said the senator's passing marked 'the end of civility in the U.S. Congress.' Yes, indeed. Who among us does not mourn the lost 'civility' of the 1987 Supreme Court hearings? Considering the nomination of Judge Bork, Ted Kennedy rose on the Senate floor and announced that 'Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit down at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution.'

Whoa! 'Liberals' (in the debased contemporary American sense of the term) would have reason to find Borkian jurisprudence uncongenial but to suggest the judge and former solicitor-general favored resegregation of lunch counters is a slander not merely vile but so preposterous that, like his explanation for Chappaquiddick, only a Kennedy could get away with it. If you had to identify a single speech that marked 'the end of civility' in American politics, that's a shoo-in."

Thank you, Mark Steyn, for telling it like it is.

What, Raising Taxes Doesn't Balance The Budget and Bring Prosperity?

Connecticut Governor Plans Income Tax Hike - WSJ.com: "Since the income tax became law, Connecticut has experienced a long, slow exodus of jobs and people. The Yankee Institute notes the astounding fact that since 1992, the year the income tax went into effect, businesses in Connecticut have hired a grand total of zero net new workers. This is while the nation added 22 million jobs and despite the Wall Street boom. As the tax burden has surged, the state lost population to other states (a net 113,000) in every year but one over the last decade.

What the income tax did stimulate was a spending binge and big pay raises for the state's unionized government workers."

In case you didn't learn this lesson from Europe, California, New York...

Even the Washington Post Sees Obama Rebuff of DC School Vouchers as "Wrong-Headed"

Beach Reading for Mr. Obama: Useful Literature on Schoomight cause the president to rethink his administration's wrong-headed decision to shut down the voucher program to new students. l Vouchers - washingtonpost.com: "'The D.C. voucher program has proven to be the most effective education policy evaluated by the federal government's official education research arm so far.' Equally adamant was his opinion that vouchers paid off for the students lucky enough to win them: 'On average, participating low-income students are performing better in reading because the federal government decided to launch an experimental school choice program in our nation's capital.'

Mr. Obama, along with Education Secretary Arne Duncan, has repeatedly promised to support 'what works,' so we figure he should be interested in Mr. Wolf's findings."...

Why would a Democratic administration and Congress want to cut such an experiment short?...

[Reading Mr Wolf's and another report] might cause the president to rethink his administration's wrong-headed decision to shut down the voucher program to new students."

But WashPost, you are operating under a false premise. You think President Obama cares about DC public schools, the ones he won't send his own children to. But his policy has nothing to do with educating DC's struggling school children, and everything to do with paying off the unions and maintaining government control over primary education.

Let's Cancel The Porkulus Before it Buries Us

The Pelosi-Obama Deficits - WSJ.com: "We've never fretted over budget deficits, at least if they finance tax cuts to promote growth or spending to win a war. But these deficit estimates are driven entirely by more domestic spending and already assume huge new tax increases. CBO predicts that debt held by the public as a share of GDP, which was 40.8% in 2008, will rise to 67.8% in 2019—and then keep climbing after that. CBO says this is 'unsustainable,' but even this forecast may be optimistic."

Here's why. Many of the current budget assumptions are laughably implausible.

Need a good belly laugh? Read the assumptions behind the conclusion that we will have ONLY $9 TRILLION in deficits over the coming decade.

It is amazing that Obama's economic advisors had the gall to get on TV yesterday and try and pin these deficits on George Bush. Shameful.

We are burying our children and their children in debt. Disgraceful.

IF YOU READ ANY COLUMN THIS WEEK...

Fouad Ajami: Obama’s Summer of Discontent - WSJ.com: "A political class, and a media elite, that glamorized the protest against the Iraq war, that branded the Bush presidency as a reign of usurpation, now wishes to be done with the tumult of political debate. President Barack Obama himself, the community organizer par excellence, is full of lament that the 'loudest voices' are running away with the national debate. Liberalism in righteous opposition, liberalism in power: The rules have changed.

It was true to script, and to necessity, that Mr. Obama would try to push through his sweeping program—the change in the health-care system, a huge budget deficit, the stimulus package, the takeover of the automotive industry—in record time. He and his handlers must have feared that the spell would soon be broken, that the coalition that carried Mr. Obama to power was destined to come apart, that a country anxious and frightened in the fall of 2008 could recover its poise and self-confidence...

So our new president wanted a fundamental overhaul of the health-care system—17% of our GDP—without a serious debate, and without 'loud voices.' It is akin to government by emergency decrees. How dare those townhallers (the voters) heckle Arlen Specter! Americans eager to rein in this runaway populism were now guilty of lèse-majesté by talking back to the political class."

...you must read this article. He nails the Obama presidency.

I Guess This Is What Democrats Mean By Energy Independence?

Oil Industry Details Costs of Climate Bill - WSJ.com: "Proposed federal legislation aimed at curbing global warming would drastically reduce domestic fuel production, according to a new study commissioned by the oil industry as part of its campaign to oppose new restrictions.

The report's findings, which are expected to be released Monday, project that by 2030, U.S. refining production could drop 17% from today's levels if the climate bill is passed as currently proposed. The drop would have to be made up by foreign imports, the study says, meaning the U.S. could end up relying on other countries for 19.4% of its refined fuel -- nearly twice the amount it imports today."

No wonder Obama is investing in Brazilian oil production. We are going to have to get our oil from somewhere, and apparently, it's not gonna be from the US of A.

Chutzpah

Obama Challenges Critics of Health-Care Overhaul - WSJ.com: "WASHINGTON-- President Barack Obama continued to confront critics of his health-care overhaul proposal in his Saturday radio and Internet address, charging them with making 'phony claims meant to divide us.'"

From the master of phony claims that divide us. Mr Obama, the President who:

Encourages envy of the "rich"
Claims his unbridled spending can be paid for by merely taxing the "rich"
Signed a $787B porkulus bill without the support of a single Republican member of the house
Named to the Supreme Court an ardent practitioner of racial and identity politics
Claims his Medicare spending plans will save money, when the CBO says they will cost money
Demonizes insurance companies, despite the fact that 70% or more of Americans are happy with them.
Refuses to prosecute Black Panther thugs despite the recommendations of career Justice lawyers
Hired the legally and ethically tainted ACORN to help manage the 2010 census
Has lead an effort to villify, discredit, and demonize ordinary Americans who have the temerity to disagree with his statist health care plan...

A Great Solution To Health Coverage for Indivuals That Won't Bankrupt Uncle Sam!

Insurance Companies Should Be Allowed to Sell Policies Across State Lines - WSJ.com: "A 2008 publication 'Consumer Response to a National Marketplace in Individual Insurance,' (Parente et al., University of Minnesota) estimated that if individuals in New Jersey could buy health insurance in a national market, 49% more New Jerseyans in the individual and small-group market would have coverage. Competition among states would produce a more rational regulatory environment in all states."

Oh, but wait, it won't concentrate power in Washington and necessitate a huge expansion of the federal bureaucracy. This idea stinks. Never mind.

Even If You're a Cap and Trade Fan, Waxman Markey is a Stinker

David Schoenbrod and Richard B. Stewart: The Waxman-Markey Cap-and-Trade Bill is a Fraud - WSJ.com: "Progress on most or all such fronts will be needed, but when, where and how should be decided principally by a cap-driven market, not the 'red tape' that candidate Obama deplored.

This government dictation of technology would undermine President Obama's March 19 pledge that, by addressing climate change, we would become 'the world's leading exporter of renewable energy.' That requires coming up with better, lower-cost technologies than the rest of the world. This won't happen if the government picks the technologies. Recall that, in the 1980s, government established the Synfuels Corporation that spent billions to produce energy alternatives and came up with nothing. More recently, government required refiners to put corn-based ethanol into gasoline on the theory that it's good for the environment. Yet we've learned that wide-scale ethanol production can do more harm than good in regard to air quality and climate change, turn wildlife habitat into corn fields, and raise food prices."

Waxman Markey is not really a cap and trade bill. It is not designed to foster free market solutions to a post-fossil fuel economy. It is about statism, big government, central planning and maximizing power in Washington, DC. Does this sound familiar? Sound at all like ObamaCare?

Good News Out of Washington, For a Change

Obama Has Fewer Than Half of His Top Appointees in Place - NYTimes.com: "Of more than 500 senior policymaking positions requiring Senate confirmation, just 43 percent have been filled — a reflection of a White House that grew more cautious after several nominations blew up last spring, a Senate that is intensively investigating nominees and a legislative agenda that has consumed both.

While career employees or holdovers fill many posts on a temporary basis, Mr. Obama does not have his own people enacting programs central to his mission."

Oh no, Obama's statist mission being thwarted by a shortage of senior statists in Washington?

Time To Cash In All Those Apology Tour Chits

U.S. Military Says Its Force in Afghanistan Is Insufficient - NYTimes.com: "BAGRAM, Afghanistan — American military commanders with the NATO mission in Afghanistan told President Obama’s chief envoy to the region this weekend that they did not have enough troops to do their job, pushed past their limit by Taliban rebels who operate across borders."

Now that we have a President who apologizes and sweet-talks our allies, certainly offers of allied support must be streaming in, right?

Putting that issue aside, I am concerned that we are in the equivalent of Iraqi pre-surge mode in Afghanistan, only Afghanistan is a much more challenging situation than Iraq. The President needs to put forth a strategy for winning in Afghanistan, or else stop putting our forces in harm's way. And while we are unlikely to see a surge in allied forces in Afghanistan, how about a surge in allied funding?

The Government Can "Invest" Your Money Better Than You Can

» Special Report: Is US Chief Information Officer (CIO) Vivek Kundra a Phony? Dvorak Uncensored: General interest observations and true web-log.: "So what have we got so far from this person? Well, for starters we are looking at the Recovery.gov website that will cost the taxpayers around $18 million. This news was released recently. What websites costs $18 million? And that’s with no warrantee.

The incredibly popular Digg.com, one of the most advanced news gathering sites in the world was initially coded from scratch for between $1200-2500 according to one of its founders."

Fascinating story about the phony, self-promoting US CIO, hailed by the mainstream media as a "whiz kid." You'd think a whiz kid could launch a simple webiste for something south of $18M. And this guy is going to oversee our entire government's spending on information technology?

HEALTH CARE GOES POSTAL - New York Post

HEALTH CARE GOES POSTAL - New York Post: "The lines have gotten even longer lately because a couple of years ago the two machines selling stamps and other items were removed. I was stunned. When was the last time you saw something de-automated? Ever heard of anyone trading in their washing machine for a new washboard? Are you thinking about buying a car with a hand-cranked ignition system? An employee told me, 'It wasn't cost effective.' USPS logic: It's more cost-effective to make people wait in line to ask a unionized employee for something than to use a machine."

Hilarious. But sadly, this is the future of medicine if we get government-run health care.

Guess I'll Have to Begrudgingly Shop At Whole Foods

Obama Health Care Reform Riles Up Whole Foods CEO John Mackey - ABC News: "Like many of his fellow health food fanatics, Joshua said he will no longer patronize the store after learning about Whole Foods Market Inc.'s CEO John Mackey's views on health care reform, which were made public this week in an op-ed piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal."

...but I won't pay extra for organic.

Well, John Mackey ran afoul of the totalitarian left. Apparently, according to the article, he is supposed to poll all of his pate and granola eating clients and only express their majority views. He certainly shouldn't oppose the Annointed One, nor express vicious views like these, published in the Wall Street Journal:

Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs).

• Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.

• Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable.

• Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover.

• Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

• Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost.

• Enact Medicare reform.

• Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren't covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

I think he may be a closet Nazi!!! Aren't there hate speech laws against stuff like this?

I predict that John's NPR subscribing clientele will be back at Whole Paycheck in no time, unable to resist the siren call of chic Eurofood.

Americans Aren't Brain Dead part XLVIII

Poll: Stimulus not helping Americans personally - Austin Business Journal:: "More than three-quarters of Americans say the economic stimulus is not helping their financial situation and another 57 percent say it is not helping the overall economy, according to a new poll.

Sixty-eight percent of those questioned in a survey of 1,010 adults by the Gallup Inc. for the USA Today newspaper said the Obama administration’s stimulus has not impacted their personal finances, while 13 percent said the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has hurt. Eighteen percent said federal economic efforts have made things better."

Starting out your administration by hawking and signing a $787B fraud is not a good way to build trust.

Power Line - Quid Pro Quo

Power Line - Quid Pro Quo: "We noted here that the drug companies intend to spend $150 million--more than the McCain campaign's entire television advertising budget--on ads supporting Obamacare. Today on CNN, Wolf Blitzer asked Linda Douglass whether the ad campaign was part of the deal that the drug companies struck with the Obama administration:

...[SERIES OF REPEATED QUESTIONS BY WOLF BLITZER TO LINDA DOUGLAS ABOUT WHETHER PhRMA LOBBY AGREED IN WHITE HOUSE NEGOTATIONS TO DROP A COOL $150M IN TV ADVERTISING FOR OBAMACARE]...

BLITZER: So is part of the deal that they would support this legislation, go forward with $150 million in advertising?

DOUGLASS: You know, Wolf, part of the agreement here is that we're all going to work together to bring comprehensive health reform. I mean, clearly, the pharmaceutical industry said we are going to support comprehensive health reform. And that's what they're doing.

I guess that's a yes. This is beyond Astroturf; this is a veritable Jurassic Park of fake foliage."

Didn't candidate Obama say there wouldn't be any closed door meetings in the White House on big issues like health care? Didn't he say they'd be broadcast on C-SPAN? Another campaign promise broken.

Appeasing Chavez For the Approbation of the UN and OAS - Disgusting

Mary O’Grady: The U.S. Should Not Help Chavez Advance an Anti-American Agenda - WSJ.com: "Mr. Obama is the president and commander in chief, and millions of people in this hemisphere are counting on the U.S. to stand up to Venezuelan aggression. Playing footsie under the table with Mr. Chávez on Honduras while the Venezuelan is threatening the peace isn't going to fly in a hemisphere that prefers liberty over tyranny."

President Obama's approval ratings are remarkably good in foreign policy. I'd argue it is because in many respects he has begrudingly adopted the Bush policies he demagogued against on the campaign trail. We see in Honduras, when he strikes out on his own, he gets it completely wrong.

Grasping for Straws, Obama Touts Savings From Preventitive Medicine

Charles Krauthammer - Preventive Care Isn't the Magic Bullet for Health Care Costs - washingtonpost.com: "Obama followed suit in his Tuesday New Hampshire town hall, touting prevention as amazingly dual-purpose: 'It saves lives. It also saves money.'

Reform proponents repeat this like a mantra. Because it seems so intuitive, it has become conventional wisdom. But like most conventional wisdom, it is wrong. Overall, preventive care increases medical costs.

This inconvenient truth comes, once again, from the CBO. In an Aug. 7 letter to Rep. Nathan Deal, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf writes: 'Researchers who have examined the effects of preventive care generally find that the added costs of widespread use of preventive services tend to exceed the savings from averted illness.'"

The President just keeps on trotting out rationalizations for ObamaCare, and they continue to be refuted by the facts. Savings from electronic medical records were going to pay for the whole thing. Nobody bought that. The Example of Britain's out of control NHS EMR program was brought to the fore. Then, his unaccountable national health board was going to drive savings that paid for the program. The CBO shot that down.

Now he claims prevention will pay for it, and he give wildly inaccurate anecdotal examples like his $30,000 diabetic foot amputation example. The CBO has already shot this one down, too. The President is not a dumb fellow. He could be educated on health care economics if he wanted to be. But of course, this whole program has nothing to do with health care economics, it has to do with wresting away control for 17% of our economy.

Petulant Child

Transcript: President Obama's Montana Health Care Town Hall Meeting - Kaiser Health News: "When the previous administration passed the prescription drug bill, that was something that a lot of seniors needed, right? They needed prescription drug help. The price tag on that was hundreds of billions of dollars. You know how we paid for it? We didn't. It just got added on to the deficit and the debt."

This response blew me away. It ranks right up there with the comment about how we shouldn't be afraid of a public option since we all know how inefficient the Postal Service is. In this one, the President is bringing up a fact that certainly argues against his health care expansion plans - we have yet to pay to pay for the last big government expansion in health care - yet he brought it up any way. WHY? He's like a petulant child who's being prohibited from doing something his older sibling got away with - "Georgie got to expand health care without paying for it, so I should be able to also, IT'S NOT FAIR!!!"

Axelrod better get the President back on teleprompter.