Reason Alert
- February 25, 2011
- Wisconsin Shows What a Broke Democracy Looks Like; - How Public
Pensions Killed California; - California’s Ailing Economy - President
Obama’s WTF Tour; - Don’t Take the Oscars Too Seriously; - The Mind of
a Police Dog; - Losing the Brains Race; - India and China Have Nothing
On Us... read more
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Townhall… Budgeting for Dummies,
By Howard Rich
President Obama has said that the cuts included in his fiscal 2012
budget will force “tough choices and sacrifices.” Meanwhile, House
Speaker John Boehner invoked a former tax-hiking president in defending
his chamber’s proposed budget reductions. “When we say we are going to
cut spending, read my lips: We are going to cut spending,” Boehner
said. It’s no surprise that political leaders are talking a good game.
Americans have finally grasped the rough outlines... read more
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Townhall... A Short Course in
Student Loan Management, By Carrie Schwab Pomerantz
Dear Carrie: I’m in college, and next semester my student loan goes
directly to me for the first time. Since it must last the whole school
year, I’m worried it won’t make it. I’ve already written out a budget,
but I’ve never been able to stick to one before, so I don’t have much
faith in myself. What else can I do to make this money last? -- A
Reader - Dear Reader: Great question -- and so important... read more
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Townhall... Not Wrestling Girls,
By Brent Bozell
It’s so easy to look at teenagers in general today and sigh. They’re
more than a bit lazy, a bit spoiled and more than a bit morally
compromised. Two teenagers made national news. One showed common
decency and sportsmanship, two virtues seemingly uncommon in that
generation. Hope is restored. Sixteen-year-old wrestler Joel Northrup
faced a dilemma when he was scheduled to wrestle Cassy... read more
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The
Columbus Dispatch... Editorial:
Apples to apples
Friday, February 25, 2011 - For months, Ohioans have heard the debate
over whether government employees are overpaid compared with the
private sector. State Auditor Dave Yost says he plans to address the
issue in performance audits his office will conduct of state agencies
and local governments. If he can deliver a straight answer, free of
ideological spin, he’ll bring significant added value to those audits.
As state leaders struggle to bring public-employee pay... read more
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Politico...
Shutdown: Does GOP
have the edge this time? By Jonathan Allen and John
Bresnahan
February 23, 2011 - A new batch of House Republicans getting hammered
for shutting down the government: That’s so 1995. Times have changed.
President Barack Obama is no Bill Clinton, Speaker John Boehner is no
Newt Gingrich. The new guys ran on slashing spending and they’re
showing they meant it. Meanwhile, Washington Democrats wouldn’t cut a
penny in their spending proposal, even though austerity is the buzzword
in state capitals and county... read more
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Townhall... Obama Not Just Above
the Law--He Is the Law, By David Limbaugh
President Obama’s brazenly calculated move to unilaterally abandon the
federal Defense of Marriage Act showcases his attitude that he is above
the law. DOMA defines marriage as “only a legal union between one man
and one woman as husband and wife” for purposes of all federal laws,
rules and regulations (Section 3). It specifies that no state shall be
required to honor laws of other... read more
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Wednesdays with Emily Miller... Government
Shutdown
Human Events - 02.23.11 - The two words heard on Capitol Hill most
often this week are government shutdown. And these two words are most
often coming from the exact people who have the power to stop it: the
Senate Democrats and the White House. The House Republicans passed a
Continuing Resolution (CR) on Saturday that funds the government for
the remaining seven months of this fiscal year... read more
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Townhall...
A Price on Our Heads,
By Cal Thomas
Back in the American Wild West, federal and state governments often put
a price on the heads of infamous outlaws like Billy the Kid, Jesse
James, Sam Bass, Belle Star and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Today, our government is not so selective. It’s seeking to put a price
on the head of every American. Not because they’ve robbed a train, but
for a different reason that could lead to a very bad end... read more
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Redstate...
Defense of Marriage
Act, ObamaCare and Kagan, Posted by Curt Levey
Wednesday, February 23 - President Obama’s decision today to abandon
the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is both outrageous—as a matter of
Justice Department policy and constitutional law—and a miscalculation
that will decreases the chances of ObamaCare being implemented, while
potentially increasing calls for Supreme Court Justice Kagan to recuse
herself from certain gay rights cases... read more
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Townhall... The Media on
Wisconsin? A Bad Joke, By Brent Bozell
The battle in Madison, Wis., between new Gov. Scott Walker and
the public-sector union hacks offers an amazing study in journalistic
double standards. The same national media that have spent the last two
years drawing devil’s horns and Klan hoods on the tea party protesters
have switched sides with lightning speed. In the Wisconsin protesters,
they find sweetness and light... read more
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Townhall... How Public Employees
and Taxpayers Got Scammed, By Steve Chapman
Public employees have been cramming the Wisconsin state Capitol
to protest the governor’s plan to cut their take-home pay and gut their
collective bargaining rights. You can’t blame them for objecting when
the state reneges on a deal. But they should have been protesting years
ago, when politicians and union leaders struck a bargain that was too
good to be true... read more
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Family Events... “Prepare the
child for the path, not the path for the child...” By
Marybeth Hicks
Last summer, with a writing deadline fast approaching, I had to face
facts. I hadn’t been grocery shopping in a couple of weeks and we were
out of food. Really. No peanut butter. No baked beans. No rotting
onions in the basket at the bottom of the pantry. My family was
subsisting on Cheerios and left over Chinese. There was no getting
around it – we needed a major restocking... read more
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Sojourners... This is Not Fiscal
Conservatism. It’s Just Politics. By Jim Wallis
The current budget and deficit debate in America is now dominating the
daily headlines. There is even talk of shutting down the government if
the budget-cutters don’t get their way. There is no doubt that
excessive deficits are a moral issue and could leave our children and
grandchildren with crushing debt. But what the politicians and pundits
have yet to acknowledge is that how... read more
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The Columbus Dispatch Editorial...
False claim: "Public-sector workers are not standing up for Ohio’s
middle class"
- Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - “Dear Supporter, Now is the time. If
ever there was a time to show up, stand up and let our voices be heard,
it is now. The fate of Ohio’s middle class is on the line at the Ohio
Statehouse.” So begins a mass e-mailing from former Gov. Ted
Strickland, calling on members of public-sector unions to attend
yesterday’s Statehouse rally... read more
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Redstate.com... Straight Into
Darkness, Posted by Repair_Man_Jack
Tuesday, February 22nd - 2010 became the year many Americans realized
that the emperor stood shivering in the nude. Liberalism was dead, the
Liberals had killed it; what now would the Liberals do? The impact of
this Nietzsche-like revelation has awakened the American conscience to
the existence of a major crisis. Namely, America is run, lock, stock,
and barrel... read more
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Townhall...
Rocky Mountain RINO?,
By Paul Jacob
In Wisconsin, New Jersey, Indiana and Ohio — and even Washington, DC —
Republicans prove themselves by standing up to powerful special
interests and proposing (and even enacting) daring reforms. But there’s
one spot on the map intent on keeping the old idea of an Insider Knows
Best GOP alive and kicking. In Colorado, leading Rocky Mountain
Republicans have determined that their fight is really not with
Democrats at all; it’s with Colorado... read more
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Human Events... Wisconsin
Students: Dunces and Dupes, by Jason Mattera
02/22/2011 - There are a whole lot of adolescents in Wisconsin who need
to get smacked back to reality. They’ve been lobotomized, and you
can thank the thuggish teachers union for that. What’s been happening
on the ground in Wisconsin is shameful on so many different levels.
First, we have labor activists and leftist agitators acting like
complete animals over a proposal to have... read more
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Human Events... The Political
Resource In Wisconsin, by John Hayward
The Wisconsin protesters are cultivating their most important asset.
02/22/2011 - People are naturally inclined to cultivate valuable
resources to improve their lot in life. In a politicized economy,
influence is an extremely valuable resource. In fact, as more of
the economy falls under political control, influence becomes the most
important commodity. What we are witnessing... read more
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Townhall.com…
5 Political
Catchphrases You Should Never Believe, By John Hawkins
One of the most tragic things about modern politics is that it’s
practically impossible for the average American to understand what’s
going on without an interpreter. By that, I mean that the “Saving
Kittens, Baby Pandas, and Puppies Act of 2011” may actually be a bill
that gives $10,000 tax credits to lawyers who defend sleazy zoos from
negligence suits. From there, things only get worse because the
newspapers blindly parrot whatever the liberal line is on... read more
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Townhall.com... Feds and Unions:
Foes to Educational Reform, By Chuck Norris
“The fate of our country won’t be decided on a battlefield. It will be
determined in a classroom.” Do you believe that? Last week, Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker called on 14 state Senate Democrats, who had fled the
state instead of voting on a deficit-cutting anti-teachers-union bill,
to return and do their jobs. Senate Republicans hold a 19-14
majority... read more
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Townhall... Obama’s 2012 Budget
Gimmicks - By Lurita Doan
“Obama’s inability to understand that it doesn’t make sense to spend
$17B in order to get $5B may be one of the reasons...” President
Obama’s Fiscal Year 2012 federal budget is an example of shoddy math
and non-transparent government at work. The 2012 Federal Budget fiscal
shell game is as curious for what items are included as for what Team
Obama chose to exclude... read more
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Townhall...
Daniels and Christie
Light Fuse Under GOP Lawmakers, By Michael Barone
As congressional Republicans mull whether to address the government’s
long-term fiscal problems -- House Republican leaders are being pushed
by the 87 freshmen to do so, while some Senate Republicans are seeking
some bipartisan accords with Democratic colleagues -- two Republican
governors barreled into Washington with the message that the lawmakers
better get moving. And that congressional Republicans might do just
fine politically if they do... read more
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Townhall... Defining Our Fiscal
Crisis Correctly is Step One, By Star Parker
Private Investment accounts... “Despite a 37% drop in 2008, they
still would have earned 75% more than they would have gotten from
Social Security.” The first step in solving any problem is defining the
problem correctly. It’s here, at step one, where we’re already failing
in how we’re thinking about our nation’s fiscal crisis. Despite the
fact that we’re talking about an out-of-control federal budget, the
problem... read more
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Townhall... George Who? What
Happened to Washington’s Birthday?
By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown - “If we do this [change the date of the
Washington holiday celebration], ten years from now our school children
will not know what February 22 means. They will not know or care when
George Washington was born. They will know that in the middle of
February they will have a three-day weekend for some reason. This will
come.” Theses prophetic words... read more
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Right Wing and Ron
Paul, Federal Budget & More, Reason Alert
February 18, 2011 - Florida Governor Makes the Right Decision on Rail
Project - The Right Wing Tries to Figure Out Ron Paul - This Federal
Budget Is No Way to Win the Future - The Medicaid Mess Is Even Worse
Than You Think - Did President Bush Set the Stage for Middle Eastern
Democracy?... read more
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Townhall...
Don’t Like It? Riot,
By Rich Galen
Welcome to another new normal: If you don’t like something your
government is doing, or if your government is not doing something you
think it should be doing - riot. Don’t wait for one of those pesky
elections. Take over the square, the roundabout or the state house and
demand that the government do - or stop doing - what you want. I
understand that Hosni Mubarak was a despot in dictionary meaning: A
ruler with absolute or virtually... read more
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Politico… Has Obama set GOP
entitlement trap? By Glenn Thrush
2/16/11 - Senior congressional Democrats were plenty nervous on the eve
of President Barack Obama’s 2012 budget presentation, fretting that
Obama would suddenly gain his nerve and decide to take on the issue
that editorial pages ceaselessly debate but elected officials are wary
to touch — entitlement reform. They needn’t have worried. White House
officials assured their friends on the Hill that... read more
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Townhall... Shut Down the
Government, By Matt Towery
It sounds harsh and cruel, but U.S. House Speaker John Boehner’s threat
to shut down all but essential federal government services if the
Democrats on Capitol Hill can’t actually reign in spending is not only
the fiscally responsible approach, it is also one that would be popular
with the public. Enough with the gamesmanship of Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid and the silliness of House... read more
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Columbus
Dispatch... Prisons
‘about to blow’?
By Alan Johnson - Violence data part of argument for Senate bill -
Violent or destructive incidents involving six or more inmates in Ohio
prisons have almost quadrupled in just three years. Such confrontations
occurred an average of once every 28 days in 2007, but by last year
they were breaking out once every 7.6 days. That’s keeping Gary C.
Mohr, the new director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and
Correction, up at night... read more
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Columbus
Dispatch... Health-care
pooling makes sense for Ohio’s school districts
Wednesday, February 16, 2011 - Editorial: Band together - This should
be the year that Ohio lawmakers start the wheels turning toward
statewide health-insurance pools for school employees. This eminently
sensible idea has been batted around the Statehouse at least since
1998, when then-gubernatorial candidate Lee Fisher proposed it for all
public employees statewide. It has been resisted fiercely by
health-insurance companies and not embraced... read more
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Human Events... Apocalypse Now:
Wisconsin vs. Big Labor, by Michelle Malkin
02/18/2011 - Welcome to the reckoning. We have met the fiscal
apocalypse, and it is smack dab in the middle of the heartland. As
Wisconsin goes, so goes the nation. Let us pray it does not go the way
of the decrepit welfare states of the European Union. The lowdown:
State government workers in the Badger State pay piddling amounts for
generous taxpayer-subsidized health benefits. Faced with... read more
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The
Columbus Dispatch... Who will lead? President, Congress still not dealing with
looming fiscal crisis
Friday, February 18, 2011 - The budget proposal President Barack Obama
presented Monday is a grossly inadequate response to the nation’s
growing fiscal crisis. It offers modest cuts, confined to a relatively
tiny area of the federal budget. Its projection of $1.1 trillion in
savings over 10 years is ludicrous considering that the budget adds
$1.6 trillion to the national debt in just one year, and contributes to
a projected debt increase of $7.2 trillion by the end of the decade... read more
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Human Events... Four problems
that can only exist if Big Government creates them
What Big Government Can Do - by John Hayward - 02/15/2011 - On Monday
morning, President Obama dropped the bloated corpse of a bizarre, $3.73
trillion budget on the steps of Capitol Hill. It is a remarkable
document, in that it extends the wildly irresponsible spending and Big
Government devotion of Obama’s first two years almost without
hesitation, despite the historic pounding his party... read more
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Columbus
Dispatch... Tax-expenditure
reform could save the state a bundle, By Mark Cassell
February 13, 2011 - Imagine lawmakers in Columbus pass a $7 billion
stimulus package designed to create jobs. Now imagine that they do this
year and after year, passing multibillion-dollar stimulus packages. Now
consider that Ohio not only fails to add any new jobs but instead loses
hundreds of thousands of jobs each year the stimulus program is in
effect. How, you might ask, could policymakers continue to pass such
massive stimulus packages with... read more
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Townhall... Barbara Bush: ‘No
More, You’re Killing Us’, By Chuck Norris
Former first lady Barbara Bush said on Greta Van Susteren’s “On the
Record” this past week: “We’ve got a real problem in public schools.
... This is a national crisis. It’s as bad as anything in our country.”
When Van Susteren was pointing out from Bush’s own op-ed piece that
“Texas (is) 36th in the nation in high-school graduates (and) 3.8
million Texans don’t have a high-school diploma,” Bush said... read more
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Family Events... Achy Breaky
Family, By Marybeth Hicks
Billy Ray Cyrus has regrets. In a revealing interview for the upcoming
edition of GQ Magazine, the actor/country music icon (for the mullet)
shares his grief over the demise of his once-happy family and asserts
that Disney’s “Hannah Montana” destroyed their lives. Moreover, Billy
Ray admits that he was a poor disciplinarian, and worst of all, that he
sought to be... read more
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Redstate... Finally Asking My
Question of Donald Rumsfeld - Posted by Academic Elephant
Sunday, February 13th - I had a novel experience last Thursday–I had
lunch with my boss in our office conference room, not as we have untold
numbers of times, but as a blogger hoping to get a question in. In a
way it was a lunch more than four years in the making. In October, 2006
I was on a long weekend trip to Colorado, most of which I sent
critiquing... read more
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Redstate...
No Wonder Non-Union
UFCW Reps Want a Union at Their Jobs…
Posted by LaborUnionReport - Monday, February 14th - A couple of weeks
ago, a group of union representatives filed a petition with the NLRB to
hold a secret-ballot election to determine whether or not to become
unionized at their employer, UFCW Local 400. While the post (here on
Redstate and cross-posted on LaborUnionReport) was highlighting the
hypocrisy of a union that backs card check (as opposed to secret ballot
elections) yet refuses card... read more
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Redstate...
Obama’s deficit
reduction - a measly $400 billion over ten years, Posted
by Dan Spencer
Sunday, February 13th at 10:30AM EST - President Obama offers deficit
reductions of a woefully inadequate $400 billion over ten years as he
continues his ”trillion-dollar deficits for years to come.” In this
week’s edition of his, or rather “Your Weekly Address,” President Obama
claims he is ”proposing a new budget that will help us live within our
means”: “My budget freezes annual domestic spending for the next five
years – even on programs I care deeply about... read more
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Obama’s Budget Bluff,
By Dick Morris & Eileen McGann
The Obama Administration and its acolytes on the Bowles-Simpson deficit
reduction commission are propagating the myth that it is Social
Security and Medicare that are driving the deficit over $1.5 trillion.
Discretionary spending, they plead, is but a tiny part of the budget,
not much worth fooling with. The reality, as we explain Revolt! - our
new book due out on... read more
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Toledo Blade editorial... Raise
Ohio’s cigarette tax
Editor’s Note: Then after
this we can tax potato chips (and other junk foods) and fast food
restaurants, and raise alcoholic beverage taxes... Gov. John
Kasich and the General Assembly have less than five months to fill a
projected $8 billion chasm in Ohio’s $50 billion budget. The governor
vows not to raise taxes to help close that gap. But what if Mr. Kasich
were to get behind a tax... read more
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Townhall...
True Believers,
By Bill O’Reilly
Presidents Obama and Bush the Younger have one striking
similarity: self-assurance. After speaking with both men recently, I am
firmly convinced that they are convinced their policies are/were right
for the nation. Let’s take Bush first. The Iraq War has cost America
more than $750 billion since it began in March 2003. So far, more than
4,400 Americans have been killed in that country, in addition to the
approximately 32,000 who have been wounded. Many of those wounds... read more
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Townhall... Choice, Not
Compromise, By Terry Paulson
Rep. Paul Ryan’s response to President Obama’s State of the Union
provides a clue to the political battle that is coming: “The principles
that guide us; they are anchored in the wisdom of the founders in the
spirit of the Declaration of Independence and in the words of the
American Constitution. They have to do with the importance of limited
government and with the blessing of self-government... read more
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Townhall... The Feds and
California in Mortal Combat, By Bruce Bialosky
Former Republican Ray LaHood, now Obama’s Secretary of Transportation,
recently announced that he wants to outlaw cell phones and navigation
systems in cars. He maintains that even hands-free cell phones
(Bluetooth) are too much of a distraction. Apparently, he believes that
reading a map is safer than a navigation system. These 19th-century
proposals – along with some other doozies... read more
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Politico... Hard choices:
Obama’s 2012 budget, By David Rogers
February 14, 2011 - Long on tough choices, short on final answers,
President Barack Obama‘s new 2012 budget goes to Congress on Monday in
what many hope is only an opening bid before he and Republicans come to
the table on a bipartisan deficit reduction plan. For the current year,
the White House projects a better-than-$1.6 trillion deficit — even
higher than the Congressional Budget Office... read more
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Townhall...
Conservatism On the
Rise, By Mike Needham
It’s been a long time since you could say this, but last week was a
great week for conservatives in Washington. On Tuesday, House
Republican leaders decided not to pursue an extension of Trade
Adjustment Assistance (TAA), a $2.4 billion program that isn’t equital
and doesn’t work. Of all the Americans who lose their jobs, only about
one percent of those who filed for unemployment benefits in 2010
received TAA. Why should these individuals get a better... read more
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Townhall... Have a Little Faith,
By Ken Connor
“We like to pretend that our experiments define the truth for us. But
that’s often not the case. Just because an idea is true doesn’t mean it
can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn’t mean it’s
true. When the experiments are done, we still have to choose what to
believe.” from “The Truth Wears Off,” The New Yorker, December 2010.
Over the last few centuries, our society... read more
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Human Events… Lieberman, Harman
and Vanishing Democratic Moderates, by Michael Barone
02/10/2011 - Political pundits of a certain stripe have been lamenting
the disappearance of Republican moderates for years. It’s time now to
lament the disappearance of moderate Democrats. Last month, Sen. Joseph
Lieberman announced he wouldn’t seek re-election. He lost the
Democratic primary in Connecticut in 2006 because of his support of the
Iraq war, but won in November as... read more
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Townhall...
Passenger Trains:
Clearly the Change We’ve Been Waiting For - By John Stossel
You are our Ruler. An entrepreneur tells you he wants to create
something he calls a “skating rink.” Young and old will strap blades to
their feet and speed through an oval arena, weaving patterns as moods
strike them. You’d probably say, “We need regulation -- skating
stoplights, speed limits, turn signals -- and a rink director to police
the skaters. You can’t expect skaters to navigate the rink on their
own.” And yet they do. They spontaneously create their own order... read more
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Townhall...
Why Obama Wants To
Cut Corporate Taxes
By Steve Chapman - America doesn’t feel much like the champion of the
world these days. Everywhere we look, we see other countries outdoing
us -- in economic growth, educational performance and men’s soccer. But
this year, we are expected to gain an impressive distinction: the
highest corporate tax rate in the developed world. I don’t know about
you, but it doesn’t make me feel like chanting “USA! USA!” If high
corporate taxes are a good policy, why are we... read more
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Reason
Foundation... Phasing out
Fannie and Freddie
Housing Finance Reform: Protecting Taxpayers, Ending Bailouts, Reducing
the Government’s Role, and Promoting Private Capital By Anthony
Randazzo - February 9, 2011 - Testimony Before the U.S. House of
Representatives Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital
Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises. Chairman Garrett, Ranking
Member Waters, and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you
for the opportunity to join you... read more
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Human Events... De-Fund the
Predators of Planned Parenthood - by Michelle Malkin
02/11/2011 - Thanks to the persistent investigative work of young
pro-life journalists, Planned Parenthood’s ruthless, money-grubbing
colors are on full, fresh YouTube display. But as shocking as the
illicit new videos from Live Action Films are, the routine, parental
authority-sabotaging advice the taxpayer-funded abortion racket gives
teens every day deserves more front-page headline.... read more
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Akron
Beacon Journal... Prescriptions
for an epidemic
Friday, Feb 11, 2011 - Large numbers of Ohioans live reasonably healthy
and productive lives because prescription drugs provide relief from
pain. These drugs play an increasingly larger role in managing painful
health conditions. Unfortunately, mounting evidence also points to the
scourge that prescription drug abuse is becoming in communities across
Ohio. This is particularly true for high-potency opium-based
painkillers such as oxycodone and hydrocodone... read more
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Townhall...
I Hate to Burst Your
Bubble; U.S. Government Is To Blame, By Donald Lambro
WASHINGTON -- The Democratic-run investigative panel’s 600-page report
on what caused the financial crisis was promptly thrown onto a dusty
shelf, where most congressional inquiries are soon forgotten, late last
month. From the beginning, the report’s conclusions were tilted,
placing much, if not most, of the blame on Wall Street, greedy lenders
in the private sector and the lack of adequate federal regulation.
Notably, it played down the government’s central role... read more
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Wall Street Journal... Eek! A
Male!
Treating all men as potential predators doesn’t make our kids safer. By
Lenore Skenazy - Last week, the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts,
Timothy Murray, noticed smoke coming out of a minivan in his hometown
of Worcester. He raced over and pulled out two small children, moments
before the van’s tire exploded into flames. At which point,
according... read more
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Family Events... Why Manners
Matter, By Marybeth Hicks
Question: My husband and I are not sure what to do about adults who
insist that our children call them by their first names, and who allow
their children to do the same with us. We’d prefer to be “Mr. and Mrs.”
and we insist that our children call adults by their proper title. It
seems like a lot of adults think it’s cool to be casual, even with
kids, and get offended or upset when we coach... read more
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Townhall...
So Much for Tolerance
- By Ken Connor
One of the hallmarks of contemporary Liberalism is an embrace of
multiculturalism. A truly progressive society, so the thinking goes, is
one in which people from all walks of life – all racial, ethnic,
religious, and cultural backgrounds – can coexist harmoniously, even
though they have radically different world views and conflicting
notions about how to order themselves in society. Inculcating a spirit
of multiculturalism in our children has become a top priority in
America’s schools... read more
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Townhall...
A Killer Agency
- By Walter E. Williams
Sam Kazman’s “Drug Approvals and Deadly Delays” article in the
Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (Winter 2010), tells a
story about how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s policies have
led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. Let’s look at how
it happens. During the FDA’s drug approval process, it confronts the
possibility of two errors. If the FDA approves a drug that turns out to
have unanticipated, dangerous side effects, people will suffer... read more
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Human Events... Another tribute
to Ronald Reagan, Mondays with Tony Lee - By Tony
Lee
When I was three years old in 1984, I was hoisted on my dad’s shoulders
at Mile Square Park in Orange County, Ca. The event? It was
the reelection kickoff event for what would be Ronald Reagan’s historic
campaign that saw him win 49 states. Ronald Reagan has a special place
in my heart. Yesterday (Sunday Feb. 6), Nancy Reagan and the Reagan
Library... read more
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Human
Events... House GOP’s
Spending Cut Less Than Expected - By Emily Miller
02/09/2011 - House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.) is
filing a budget limit this week that would cut government spending by
$32 billion starting March 5. The Appropriations Committee will use the
new spending levels to determine specific government department cuts
and write a new Continuing Resolution (CR) bill that will come to the
floor for a vote next week. The CR would be the largest one-time
discretionary spending cut in history. However, the... read more
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Townhall... Green Jobs Are Not
Evergreen Jobs - By Debra J. Saunders
After receiving at least $43 million in aid from the state of
Massachusetts, Evergreen Solar announced last month that it would be
closing its manufacturing plant in Devens, Mass., laying off its 800
workers and moving its manufacturing operations to China. Warning:
These are the “green jobs” that President Obama has touted as part of
his “winning the future” agenda... read more
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Townhall... The “Judicial
Activism” Ploy - By Thomas Sowell
Now that two different federal courts have declared ObamaCare
unconstitutional, the administration’s answer is to call the courts
guilty of “judicial activism.” Barack Obama has a rhetorical solution
for every problem. Remember the repeated claims of “shovel-ready”
projects that needed only federal stimulus money to get started? Last
year the President quietly admitted that there were... read more
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The
Hill... Now comes hard part
for Boehner as run of Republican unity ends - By Russell
Berman
Now comes the hard part for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). In the first
month of the 112th Congress, the new House Republican majority voted
unanimously to repeal President Obama’s healthcare law, cut
congressional budgets and set the stage for spending showdowns that
will dominate the spring. But that run of GOP unity is about to end.
Boehner faces a defining moment in his Speakership as he and his
lieutenants navigate a trio of major bills... read more
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Redstate…
How Obama Can Double
His Budget Cuts By Doing His Job
Posted by Ben Domenech - Monday, February 7th - Earlier today, Moe Lane
documented the monumental (cough) $775 Million budget cut the White
House has recommended. This figure struck me as an interesting one when
compared with a certain report the Obama Administration has been
dodging since November — Ernst & Young’s comprehensive examination
of the Dept. of Health and Human Services’ budgetary lapses... read more
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Townhall... If We Want to
Promote Freedom, How About Starting at Home? - By Star
Parker
Watching the wave of unrest in the Middle East, there are lessons
to consider regarding how we view the world and how we manage our lives
here at home. I’d call it getting perspective on what you can control
and what you can’t. It should be pretty clear that the upheavals in
Tunisia and Egypt came as complete surprises. No one predicted them. Is
this because no one was paying attention? Of course not... read more
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Redstate... TSA Gives Unions
Right to Bargain & Take Dues From Airport Gropers
Posted by LaborUnionReport - Friday, February 4th - Not that there was
ever any doubt where this would be heading, but John Pistole has
decided to grant unions the right to negotiate and collect more than
$27 million per year in union dues from the roughly 45,000 staffers at
the Transportation Safety Administration. Back in November, TSA boss
John Pistole granted the TSA... read more
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Townhall... America the
Conservative? - By Steve Chapman
If you want proof that America is a conservative country, Ronald Reagan
provides it. Once seen as a reactionary nincompoop, he’s probably the
most respected president of the last 50 years. Highways and buildings
bear his name. Republicans compete to see who can lavish the most
praise on him. It’s not really surprising that Barack Obama has paid
tribute to Reagan on the approach... read more
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Reason
Foundation... Ten
Arguments Against a Government Guarantee for Housing Finance
Why there should not be a government role—explicit or implicit—in
guaranteeing housing finance - Anthony Randazzo - February 4, 2011 -
There is a growing belief among mortgage investors, industry groups and
some policymakers in Washington that some type of explicit government
guarantees for mortgage lending will be necessary to undergird a new
housing finance system in America. Yet whether by the sale of insurance
on mortgage-backed securities or a public utility... read more
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Reason Foundation... He Loves
the Mandate, He Loves It Not.
The Obama administration’s individual mandate flip-flops, By Peter
Suderman - February 2, 2011 - There’s an old game played by love-struck
teenagers trying to figure out what the object of their affection
thinks of them. Take a flower and pull the petals off one-by-one. For
each petal, alternate between saying “she loves me” and “she loves me
not.” Whichever refrains corresponds with the final petal supposedly...
read more
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Townhall... Ohio Mother is
Modern Day Rosa Parks - By Kyle Olson
Perhaps you’ve heard about Kelley Williams-Bolar, the Ohio mother
who was recently tried and convicted for falsifying residency records
so her daughters could attend a better school where they would receive
a quality education. The “better school” hired a private investigator
to prove that Williams-Bolar’s children lived outside the district. As
a result, she received a 10-day jail sentence... read more
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Redstate...
Obama Administration
Covering Up Abortion Data
What are they trying to hide? - Posted by Erick Erickson - Thursday,
February 3rd - Let’s be clear: promoting science isn’t just about
providing resources – it is also about protecting free and open
inquiry. It is about letting scientists … do their jobs, free from
manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when
it’s inconvenient – especially when it’s inconvenient. It is about
ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed... read more
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Daily Events... Tuesdays with Jason
Mattera - Working with
the Muslim Brotherhood
Hey, you’d think that Barack Hussein Obama’s middle name would’ve come
in handy in the Arab world by now, huh? Nope. It turns out
that even an Obama speech can’t curb Egypt being set ablaze. And
that’s a blow to the brother’s confidence, no doubt. Obama’s ego aside,
how surprised would you be if I told you that the White House is
cozying up to the idea of Egypt being run by Muslim... read more
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Family Events... Managing the
Media Monster in Your Home, By Marybeth Hicks
Each week, we pose a question and ask for your answers! After all, no
one gives better advice than moms in the trenches. Question: Our
neighbors have a great family and are terrific folks, but the media
supervision in their home is pretty lax. I’m concerned that my son is
exposed to violent games and movies when playing there that we don’t
allow in our home. Should I confront the parents? What else... read more
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Redstate
slams Reps... How The
Stupid Party Gets Its Name - Posted by Erick Erickson
Thursday, February 3rd - Today was another fine example of how the
Republican Party gets labeled as the stupid party. Senator Dick Durbin
hinted two days ago that the Senate Democrats would be unified in their
opposition to repeal Obamacare except for one or two. In other words,
the GOP had the opportunity to get Democrats to jump ship. But
Democrats have signaled that they want to “fix” Obamacare, not repeal
it. So the GOP gladly obliged. Without any obstruction... read more
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Redstate...
Barack Obama’s Egypt
Failure: He’s Becoming Carter Faster Than Carter Became Carter
Posted by Erick Erickson - Wednesday, February 2nd - Barack Obama’s
failure in Egypt has nothing to do with Egypt itself descending to
chaos. No American administration has been willing to call Hosni
Mubarak a dictator, which he is. And no administration has sought to
strong arm Mubarak into a succession plan devoid of kleptocratic
relatives. We cannot blame Barack Obama for Egypt collapsing in on
itself. We can however blame Barack Obama... read more
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Townhall... The 40th President
at 100 - By Cal Thomas
On the centenary of Ronald Reagan’s birth, I pause for another
historic event: agreement with President Obama, who says of his
predecessor in USA Today, “Ronald Wilson Reagan was a believer ... he
recognized that each of us has the power -- as individuals and as a
nation -- to shape our own destiny. He had faith in the American
promise; in the importance... read more
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Townhall...
5 Reasons Liberals
Aren’t As Happy as Conservatives, By John Hawkins
Did you know liberals aren’t as happy as conservatives? Of
course, you did. How could you not know it after listening to them
incessantly wail, gripe, whine, and complain about everything? But,
let’s bring....drumroll, please -- the science! First, here’s the Pew
Research comparison between Republicans and Democrats: The survey,
released this week, points out several disparities based on lifestyle,
beliefs and political persuasion: Republicans are happier than
Democrats... read more
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Mandate foes test GOP
principles, By: David Nather
February 2, 2011 - In a different context, the Republican Party might
cheer one of the fundamental tenets of the health care law, a
requirement that all Americans buy health insurance. It’s just the sort
of thing that would fit squarely within the GOP’s bedrock principle of
individual responsibility — ensuring that no one puts a strain on the
system by showing up for costly emergency room visits, then expecting
everyone else to pick up the tab. Instead, Republicans have... read more
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Townhall...
I Can Balance the
Budget, By John Stossel
The Congressional Budget Office says the current year’s budget
deficit will be a record $1.5 trillion. It also says that over the next
decade we’re on track for annual deficits of “only” $768 billion. I
suspect the CBO has hired Rosy Scenario to do the bookkeeping, but
let’s take that number at face value. I’m now going to balance the
budget, with the help of some experts. I’ll begin with things I’m most
eager to cut. Let’s privatize air traffic control. Canada did it,
and... read more
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Redstate... Planned Parenthood
Caught Aiding and Abetting Sex Trafficking of Minors
Tuesday, February 1st - From 2008 to 2009, Planned Parenthood received
$363 million in government grants and contracts — our tax dollars.
During the same time period, they destroyed the lives of 324,008 unborn
babies. As if it could get worse, it does. New footage released just
this morning shows a Planned Parenthood manager in New Jersey coaching
a man and a woman... read more
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Obamacare: D.O.A.
By Dick Morris & Eileen McGann, DickMorris.com on February 1, 2011
How did Obama ever think that his program would pass constitutional
muster? How could he imagine that the Interstate Commerce clause
could cover something that wasn’t interstate (health insurance cannot
be sold over state lines) and wasn’t commerce (failure to buy insurance
is not commerce) would stand up in court? He was so sure that he
would win any constitutional challenge that he arrogantly failed to put
a severability clause in the bill so that it would survive... read more
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