Archive for Politics
How’s that Change Working out for You?!
Posted in My Journal with tags campaign, change, election, hope, lies, Obama, Politics, president, Ronald Reagan, taxes, Video, Vote on November 23, 2011 by JoannObama’s “Tragic” Response to Flotilla Incident
Posted in American, Politics, President Obama with tags American, blockade, enemy, flotilla, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Obama . Liz Cheney, Politics, President Obama on June 4, 2010 by JoannKeep America Safe’s Liz Cheney released the following statement on President Obama’s response to the flotilla incident:
Yesterday, President Obama said the Israeli action to stop the flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip was “tragic.” What is truly tragic is that President Obama is perpetuating Israel’s enemies’ version of events. The Israeli government has imposed a blockade around Gaza because Hamas remains committed to Israel’s destruction, refusing to recognize Israel’s right to exist and using territory under their control to launch attacks against Israeli civilians.
The Israeli blockade of Gaza, in order to prevent the re-arming of Hamas, is in full compliance with international law. Had the Turkish flotilla truly been interested in providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, they would have accepted the Israeli offer to off-load their supplies peacefully at the Israeli port of Haifa for transport into Gaza. President Obama is contributing to the isolation of Israel, and sending a clear signal to the Turkish-Syrian-Iranian axis that their methods for ostracizing Israel will succeed, and will be met by no resistance from America.
Kagan Competence Questioned
Posted in Opinions, Politics with tags competence, Ed Morrissey, ELENA KAGAN, Opinions, Politics on May 12, 2010 by JoannHot Air’s Ed Morrissey writes:
“Without any judicial experience, Kagan has to rely on her performance at the Court as Solicitor General over a short period of fifteen months — and at best, it’s mixed.”
Lack of preparation will out. Morrissey’s case for Kagan’s competence or incompetence to be on the Supreme Court is made based on her own bad:
ON BEHALF OF THE APPELLEE GENERAL KAGAN: Mr. Chief Justice and may it please the Court:
I have three very quick points to make about the government position. The first is that this issue has a long history. For over 100 years Congress has made a judgment that corporations must be subject to special rules when they participate in elections and this Court has never questioned that judgment.
Number two -
JUSTICE SCALIA: Wait, wait, wait, wait. We never questioned it, but we never approved it, either. And we gave some really weird interpretations to the Taft-Hartley Act in order to avoid confronting the question.
GENERAL KAGAN: I will repeat what I said, Justice Scalia: For 100 years this Court, faced with many opportunities to do so, left standing the legislation that is at issue in this case — first the contribution limits, then the expenditure limits that came in by way of Taft-Hartley — and then of course in Austin specifically approved those limits.
JUSTICE SCALIA: I don’t understand what you are saying. I mean, we are not a self — self-starting institution here. We only disapprove of something when somebody asks us to. And if there was no occasion for us to approve or disapprove, it proves nothing whatever that we didn’t disapprove it.
GENERAL KAGAN: Well, you are not a self-starting institution. But many litigants brought many cases to you in 1907 and onwards and in each case this Court turns down, declined the opportunity, to invalidate or otherwise interfere with this legislation.
JUSTICE KENNEDY: But that judgment was validated by Buckley’s contribution-expenditure line. And you’re correct if you look at contributions, but this is an expenditure case. And I think that it doesn’t clarify the situation to say that for100 years — to suggest that for 100 years we would have allowed expenditure limitations, which in order to work at all have to have a speaker-based distinction, exemption from media, content-based distinction, time-based distinction. We’ve never allowed that.
Catholic Politicians in the Public Arena – Catholic Issues
Posted in My Journal, Video with tags My Journal, Politics, Pro-life, public, Religion, Video on May 12, 2010 by JoannNuclear Posturing, Obama-Style
Posted in American with tags American, anthrax, biological, chemicals, deterrence, nuclear, Politics, threats, war, weapons on April 10, 2010 by JoannCharles Krauthammer : Nuclear Posturing, Obama-Style – Townhall.com.
Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.”
Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker is up-to-date with its latest IAEA inspections, well, it gets immunity from nuclear retaliation. (Our response is then restricted to bullets, bombs and other conventional munitions.)
However, if the lawyers tell the president that the attacking state is NPT noncompliant, we are free to blow the bastards to nuclear kingdom come.
This is quite insane. It’s like saying that if a terrorist deliberately uses his car to mow down a hundred people waiting at a bus stop, the decision as to whether he gets (a) hanged or (b) 100 hours of community service hinges entirely on whether his car had passed emissions inspections.
Apart from being morally bizarre, the Obama policy is strategically loopy. Does anyone believe that North Korea or Iran will be more persuaded to abjure nuclear weapons because they could then carry out a biological or chemical attack on the U.S. without fear of nuclear retaliation?
The naivete is stunning. Similarly the Obama pledge to forswear development of any new nuclear warheads, indeed, to permit no replacement of aging nuclear components without the authorization of the president himself. This under the theory that our moral example will move other countries to eschew nukes.
Read all here.
The Obama Touch – Disrespecting Foreign Allies
Posted in American, Charles Krauthammer, Obama, Politics with tags allies, American, british, Charles Krauthammer, disrespect, foreign, Israel, Obama, policy, Politics on April 2, 2010 by JoannCharles Krauthammer telling it like it is:
RealClearPolitics – Disrespecting Foreign Allies.
What is it like to be a foreign ally of Barack Obama’s America?
If you’re a Brit, your head is spinning. It’s not just the personal slights to Prime Minister Gordon Brown — the ridiculous 25-DVD gift, the five refusals before Brown was granted a one-on-one with The One.
Nor is it just the symbolism of Obama returning the Churchill bust that was in the Oval Office. Query: If it absolutely had to be out of Obama’s sight, could it not have been housed somewhere else on U.S. soil rather than ostentatiously repatriated?
Perhaps it was the State Department official who last year denied there even was a special relationship between the U.S. and Britain, a relationship cultivated by every U.S. president since Franklin Roosevelt. Read more »
Obama’s Adolescent Fantasy
Posted in American, Government, Politics with tags al queda, American, attorney General, book, Government, Justice Department, Michael Muckasey, Politics, war, War on Terror on March 28, 2010 by JoannH/T Breitbart.tv: Former Attorney General, Michael B. Mukasey, author of How Obama Has Mishandled the War on Terror
In his book the former AG points out the danger of Obama’s castles in the air, his letting down America’s guard to accommodate his adolesent fantasy of utopian higher ideals vs. defender of the Nation and national security.
No Enforcement Arm – Healthcare Bill
Posted in American, Politics with tags American, compliance, health care., law, Mark Levin, penalty, Politics, screw-up, tax on March 27, 2010 by JoannIt will cost the IRS $5 billion to $10 billion over 10 years to handle the new workload, according to a March 11 estimate by the Congressional Budget Office. But the Senate bill doesn’t provide any funding for the expansion of the IRS, and it virtually ties the hands of the IRS to collect fees on individuals and businesses who don’t buy health insurance.
“The use of liens and seizures otherwise authorized for collection of taxes does not apply to the collection of this penalty,” according to the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation. “Non-compliance with the personal responsibility requirement to have health coverage is not subject to criminal or civil penalties under the code and interest does not accrue for failure to pay such assessments in a timely manner.”
That means there’s virtually nothing the IRS can do to enforce the fines in the legislation, forcing the tax man to rely on the consciences of taxpayers or to skim off any federal benefits, tax credits or refunds they have coming to them.
War of Words – What’s In A Name?
Posted in American, Culture, Culture of Death, Politics, Pro-life with tags abortion, American, choice, Culture, Culture of Death, life, name, NPR, Politics, Pro-life, rights on March 26, 2010 by JoannNPR staff memo quoted by La Shawn Barber in NPR Drops ‘Pro-Life for’”Abortion Rights Opponents’:
NPR News is revising the terms we use to describe people and groups involved in the abortion debate.
This updated policy is aimed at ensuring the words we speak and write are as clear, consistent and neutral as possible. This is important given that written text is such an integral part of our work.
On the air, we should use “abortion rights supporter(s)/advocate(s)” and “abortion rights opponent(s)” or derivations thereof (for example: “advocates of abortion rights”). It is acceptable to use the phrase “anti-abortion”, but do not use the term “pro-abortion rights”.
What’s in a name? Barber points us to: “How the Public is Manipulated” which gives us a heads up and out of the sand noting:
It Makes a Pro-Abortion Assumption that the Debate is About Abortion Rights, Not Abortion It Plays Word Games with the Word “Rights” It Ignores the Fact That Abortion Can Exist Without Abortion Rights It Assumes the Negative It Ignores the Concept of a Right to Life It Affirms the Concept of a Right to an Abortion
Barber makes some points of her own for the mainstream media:
- Refer to abortion supporters as “right to life opponents”
- Refer to gun control supporters as “gun rights opponents”
- Refer to “hate speech” backers as “speech rights opponents”
- Refer to racial preferences advocates as “constitutional rights opponents”
Write me if she missed any.
A Turning Point In Dismantling Of America
Posted in American, Government, Politics with tags America, American, congress, democrats, Government, Politics, Thomas Sowell, turning point on March 26, 2010 by JoannBy THOMAS SOWELL
With the passage of the legislation letting the federal government take control of the country’s medical care system, a major turning point has been reached in the dismantling of America’s values and institutions. Even the massive transfer of crucial decisions from millions of doctors and patients to Washington bureaucrats and advisory panels — as momentous as that is — does not measure the full impact of this largely unread and certainly unscrutinized legislation. If the current legislation does not entail the transmission of all our individual medical records to Washington, it will take only an administrative regulation or, at most, an executive order of the president to do that.
Our New Masters
With politicians now having access to our most confidential records and having the power of granting or withholding medical care needed to sustain ourselves or our loved ones, how many people will be bold enough to criticize our public servants, who will in fact have become our public masters? Despite whatever “firewalls” or “lockboxes” there may be to shield our medical records from prying political eyes, nothing is as inevitable as leaks in Washington. Does anyone still remember the hundreds of confidential FBI files that were “accidentally” delivered to the White House during Bill Clinton’s administration? Even before that, J. Edgar Hoover’s extensive confidential FBI files on numerous Washington power holders made him someone who could not be fired by any president of the U.S., much less by any attorney general, who was nominally his boss. The corrupt manner in which this massive legislation was rammed through Congress, without any of the committee hearings or extended debates that most landmark legislation has had, has provided a road map for pushing through more such sweeping legislation in utter defiance of what the public wants. Too many critics of the Obama administration have assumed that its arrogant disregard of the voting public will spell political suicide for congressional Democrats and for the president himself. But that is far from certain. True, President Obama’s approval numbers in the polls have fallen below 50%, and that of Congress is down around 10%. But nobody votes for Congress as a whole, and the president will not be on the ballot until 2012. They say that, in politics, overnight is a lifetime. Just last month, it was said that the election of Scott Brown to the Senate from Massachusetts doomed the health care bill. Now some of the same people are saying that passing the health care bill will doom the administration and the Democrats’ control of Congress. As an old song said, “It ain’t necessarily so.”
Corrupt Process
The voters will have had no experience with the actual, concrete effect of the government takeover of medical care at the time of the 2010 congressional elections or the 2012 presidential election. All they will have will be conflicting rhetoric — and you can depend on the mainstream media to go along with the rhetoric of those who passed this medical care bill. The ruthless and corrupt way this bill was forced through Congress on a party-line vote, and in defiance of public opinion, provides a road map for how other “historic” changes can be imposed by Obama, Pelosi and Reid. What will it matter if Obama’s current approval rating is below 50% among the current voting public, if he can ram through new legislation to create millions of new voters by granting citizenship to illegal immigrants? That can be enough to make him a two-term president, who can appoint enough Supreme Court justices to rubber-stamp further extensions of his power. When all these newly minted citizens are rounded up on election night by ethnic organization activists and labor union supporters of the administration, there might be enough votes to salvage the Democratic Party’s control of Congress as well. The last opportunity that current American citizens may have to determine who will control Congress may well be the election in November of this year. Off-year elections don’t usually bring out as many voters as presidential election years. But the 2010 election may be the last chance to halt the dismantling of America. It can be the point of no return.
Acorn By Any Other Name
Posted in In a nutshell, Politics with tags Acorn, community organizations, congress, In a nutshell, Politics on March 23, 2010 by JoannA rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and Acorn by any other name will still just smell!
Eric Shawn writes:
Critics point to a variety of new local organizations that are springing up to apparently take ACORN’s place. In Brooklyn, New York the ACORN office now has a new sign: “New York Communities for Change,” and in Massachusetts the president of the new group, “New England United for Justice” is listed as Maude Hurd, the president of ACORN, in its articles of Organization.
There are a growing number of such local groups replacing ACORN, according to Matthew Vadum, of the Capital Research Center. He says ACORN Housing has changed its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America, Inc., and that other ACORN connected groups include: Arkansas Community Organizations, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and Missourians Organizing for Reform Empowerment.
“This is a trick, a public relations trick,” says Vadum, calling the move an attempt “to dupe Congress and the American people to think they have gone away and they have not.” He says “the same people are running the new chapters that have sprung up and in some cases, out of the same offices.”
Congress Thinks He Does Not See
Posted in American, Anti-abortion, Christian with tags American, Anti-abortion, Christian, Defending Life, Obama, Politics, Spiritual on March 23, 2010 by JoannWill God forget? Will lives lost to abortion be as forgotten to God as they are in the halls and votes of Congress? Do they even now cry out from beneath the altar? (see Revelation 6:9-11)
Psalm 10
Lord, why do you stand afar off
and hide yourself in times of distress?
The poor man is devoured by the pride of the wicked:
he is caught in the schemes that others have made.For the wicked man boasts of his heart’s desires;
the covetous blasphemes and spurns the Lord.
In his pride the wicked says: “He will not punish.
There is no God.” Such are his thoughts.His path is ever untroubled;
your judgment is far from his mind.
His enemies regard him with contempt.
He thinks: “Never shall I falter;
misfortune shall never be my lot.”His mouth is full of cursing, guile, oppression,
mischief and deceit under his tongue.
He lies in wait among the reeds;
the innocent he murders in secret.His eyes are on the watch for the helpless man.
He lurks in hiding like a lion in his lair;
he lurks in hiding to seize the poor;
he seizes the poor man and drags him away.He crouches, preparing to spring,
and the helpless fall beneath his strength.
He thinks in his heart: “God forgets,
he hides his face, he does not see.”
Doug Powers» Health Care Quote of the Day
Posted in American, Obama, Politics with tags American, Obama, Politics, Spiritual, Video on March 23, 2010 by JoannDoug Powers writes:
Joe Biden introduced President Obama today at a get-together that was hopefully more of a mass political funeral visitation than a health care bill signing ceremony, but in any case, Biden proved he’s still in “stand-up comic” mode when he reminded Americans that further debt and loss of freedom will make everybody richer:
In his opening remarks, Vice President Joe Biden noted that the Roman poet Virgil wrote that “health is wealth” — and that the signed law would make “Americans a lot more wealthy.”
Just as a reminder for Biden, the poet Virgil also wrote, “His sickness increases from the remedies applied to cure it,” and “Curst greed of gold, what crimes thy tyrant power has caused.” As Biden introduced Obama at the bill signing, an open mic caught Joe telling the president, “This is a big f-ing deal.” For a second there I thought Chuck stood up.
The Biden Incident – Charles Krauthammer
Posted in American, Charles Krauthammer, Opinions, Politics with tags American, Biden, Charles Krauthammer, Israel, Jerusalem, Krauthammer, Netanyahu, Obama, Opinions, peace, Politics, settlements, West Bank on March 22, 2010 by JoannRealClearPolitics – The Biden Incident.
Noting Israel history of peace overtures in the Middle-east Charles Krauthammer asks:
Why did President Barack Obama choose to turn a gaffe into a crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations?
And a gaffe it was: the announcement by a bureaucrat in the Interior Ministry of a housing expansion in a Jewish neighborhood in north Jerusalem. The timing could not have been worse: Vice President Joe Biden was visiting, Jerusalem is a touchy subject, and you don’t bring up touchy subjects that might embarrass an honored guest.
But it was no more than a gaffe. It was certainly not a policy change, let alone a betrayal. The neighborhood is in Jerusalem, and the 2009 Netanyahu-Obama agreement was for a 10-month freeze on West Bank settlements excluding Jerusalem……………………..
Clinton’s spokesman then publicly announced that Israel was now required to show in word and in deed its seriousness about peace.
Israel? Israelis have been looking for peace — literally dying for peace — since 1947, when they accepted the U.N. partition of Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state. (The Arabs refused and declared war. They lost.)……………………
So why this astonishing one-sidedness? Because Obama likes appeasing enemies while beating up on allies — therefore Israel shouldn’t take it personally (according to Robert Kagan)? Because Obama wants to bring down the current Israeli coalition government (according to Jeffrey Goldberg)?
Or is it because Obama fancies himself the historic redeemer whose irresistible charisma will heal the breach between Christianity and Islam or, if you will, between the post-imperial West and the Muslim world — and has little patience for this pesky Jewish state that brazenly insists on its right to exist, and even more brazenly on permitting Jews to live in its own ancient, historical and now present capital?
Who knows? Perhaps we should ask those Obama acolytes who assured the 63 percent of Americans who support Israel – at least 97 percent of those supporters, mind you, are non-Jews — about candidate Obama’s abiding commitment to Israel.
Kill The Bill 2: DC Protesters to Keep Setting Brush Fires of Freedom
Posted in American with tags American, Politics, Video on March 18, 2010 by JoannFocused on Ramming through the Healthcare Bill
Posted in American, Politics with tags American, American People, congress, Obama, Politics, Scott Brown, transparency on March 13, 2010 by Joann“The President and Congress are focused on ramming through their health-care bill, whatever it takes, whatever the cost.”
Praise Bart Stupak Now!
Posted in American, Conservative, Culture of Death, Opinions, Politics with tags abortion, American, Conservative, Culture of Death, democrats, euthanasia, Joseph bottum, midterm elections, Opinions, Politics, Pro-life on March 13, 2010 by JoannDemocrats Against Abortion » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog.
Joseph Bottum directs us to Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List,who” has an op-ed in the Washington Post called “If Republicans Keep Ignoring Abortion, They’ll Lose in the Midterm Elections.”
Dannenfelser writes:
Republicans oppose President Obama’s health-care reform effort for many reasons: It will cost too much, it’s “socialist,” it’s big government at its worst. But they are letting Stupak and his fellow antiabortion Democrats lead on that issue. And the more the GOP ignores abortion and focuses on economic populism—taking up the “tea party” cause—the more the party risks leaving crucial votes behind in November.
Bottum responds:
That’s right—and yet, it isn’t. There are genuine reasons for pro-lifers to resist any move toward a nationalized health-care system. The iniquitous distribution of American healthcare is a scandal, but even the incomplete moves of the current plan create a system that no future bureaucracy or Congress will be able to resist using for purposes of social engineering. And, given the condition of social-elite opinion today, that will always mean increased government-sponsored abortion and euthanasia.
Bottum further says:
All of American politics has been corrupted by this murderous procedure, and, at present, the party platforms are clear enough. But pro-life forces should not want an America in which the great pro-life message is shoved off into one party. We shouldn’t want an America that squanders its religious exceptionalism by having a political party of believers and a political party of non-believers—a European-style division between the Christian Democrats and the Socialists. This is everyone’s issue, we must believe, and when Democrats such as Bart Stupak arrive, they ought to be celebrated.
Democrats’ push for health care “bitter, destructive and endless.”
Posted in Economy, In a nutshell, Opinions, Politics with tags Americans, bitter, clinging, congress, Economy, healthcare, In a nutshell, Obama, Opinions, Politics, Scott Brown, Senator Scott Brown on March 13, 2010 by JoannAlthouse: Senator Scott Brown calls the Democrats’ push for health care “bitter, destructive and endless.”.
H/T Althouse:
Well… you know, sometimes they get bitter, and they cling to health care…
Senator Scott Brown:
“An entire year has gone to waste,” Brown said in the weekly GOP radio and Internet address. “Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, and many more jobs are in danger. Even now, the president still hasn’t gotten the message.
“Somehow, the greater the public opposition to the health care bill, the more determined they seem to force it on us anyway.”
We need to drop this whole scheme of federally controlled health care, start over, and work together on real reforms at the state level that will contain costs and won’t leave America trillions of dollars deeper in debt,”
“Courage and Consequence” Karl Rove
Posted in In a nutshell, Obama, Politics with tags Chris Dodd, consequence, courage, Government, History, In a nutshell, Karl Rove, Obama, Politics on March 12, 2010 by JoannCourage and Consequence - Karl Rove
“the unwritten story of the whole affair is that if Democrats had granted the Bush administration the regulatory powers it sought, the housing crisis would no have been nearly as severe, the financial sector’s collapse not nearly as damaging, the economy’s slide not nearly as steep and lengthy, and global distress not nearly as widespread.
Among the Democrats who backed Dodd’s filibuster and opposed reform was the freshman senator, Barack Obama. He was the third-largest recipient of campaign gifts from Fannie and Freddie employees in 2004. Since winning the White House, he has pointed to the economic problems he “inherited”, but he has never owned up to his role in creating them.”
