CIA v. ACLU: CIA Wins in Court on Waterboarding

Family Security Matters ^ | June 1, 2012 | JIM KOURI

A United States Circuit Court of Appeals panel of judges handed a decisive defeat to the ACLU last week that stated the Central Intelligence Agency doesn't have to release documents regarding its use of waterboarding, or a photograph of the suspected terrorist, Abu Zubaydah, taken around the time that he was subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques."

This was yet another defeat suffered by the American Civil Liberties Union in its anti-anti-terrorism battle with U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

"It's deja vu in America, thanks to the liberal-left. Instead of anti-anti-communists, we now have anti-anti-terrorists attempting to poke holes in U.S. defenses," said former military intelligence officer and civilian police detective Sid Franes.

Keep reading...

See the Letter the DOJ Sent to Florida Demanding It Stop Purging Non-Citizens from Voter Rolls

The Blaze ^ | June 1, 2012 | Jonathon M. Seidl



On Thursday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) demanded the state of Florida stop its efforts to purge non-citizens from its voting rolls. A letter sent to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner alleges the process violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1993 National Voter Registration Act.
The major charge of the letter reads:

Talking Points Memo (TPM) breaks it down:

The Justice Department sent a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner Thursday evening demanding the state cease purging its voting rolls because the process it is using has not been cleared under the Voting Rights Act, TPM has learned.
DOJ also said that Florida’s voter roll purge violated the National Voter Registration Act, which stipulates that voter roll maintenance should have ceased 90 days before an election, which given Florida’s August 14 primary, meant May 16.

The Miami Herald further explains that “Under the Voting Rights Act, Florida needs federal approval before it makes changes to voting because five Florida counties – Monroe, Hillsborough, Collier, Hardee and Hendry – had minority-voting troubles decades ago.” It also notes what has been done so far:

So far, Florida has flagged 2,700 potential noncitizen voters and sent the list to county elections supervisors, who have found the data and methodology to be flawed and problematic. The list of potential noncitizen voters – many of whom have turned out to be lawful citizens and voters – disproportionately hits minorities, especially Hispanics.
About 58 percent of those flagged as potential noncitizens are Hispanics, Florida’s largest ethnic immigrant population, a Miami Herald analysis found. Hispanics make up 13 percent of the overall 11.3 million active registered voters.
Independent voters and Democrats are the most likely to face being purged from the rolls. Republicans and non-Hispanic whites are the least likely.

“We are firmly committed to doing the right thing and preventing ineligible voters from being able to cast a ballot,” said Chris Cate, spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Detzner, responded to the Herald.
TPM Docs: DOJ Demands Florida Stop Voter Purge

Anti-Job Lobbying Job Catching Up with Obama

Townhall.com ^ | June 2, 2012 | John Ransom



This is getting ridiculous.

Now would be a really good time for Obama to re-think the Keystone Pipeline. And Dodd-Frank. And Obamacare. And ANYTHING the EPA rules against outside of its own cafeteria.
Maybe lobbying and regulating against measures that would create jobs isn’t the right message a presidential reelection aspirant wants to project to the American people.
It occurs to me that maybe- I’m reaching here- the American people value the… um… jobs that would come along with the pipeline.
About 200,000-300,000 jobs would be created by the $7 billion pipeline project according to various estimate, including the estimates from Trans Canada, the compny that wants for build the pipline. A few jobs in the energy field tend to produce lots of other jobs. See: Dakota, South.
Because on Friday any president looking to be reelected got the worst of possible news outside of the Eurozone
The Bureau of Labor Statistics just reported that the number of jobs that were created last month here in the USzone is roughly half of what economists expected, even in their worst case scenario, raising unemployment faster than people are leaving the job market.
That’s pretty darned fast.
Because up until now the only thing Obama’s done to help alleviate unemployment is to get people to stop looking for work. And as they stop, they help the “official” unemployment rate go down when people are subtracted out of the workforce.
It’s so bad that I half expect Obama and his own Mortimer Snerd, Jay Carney, to say that the real problem with unemployment is that “freakin’ people keep looking for jobs. If they’d just stop and claim to be disabled, unemployment would be solved. It can’t be constitutional for people to be looking for jobs this late in my reelection campaign.”
Reports FoxNews:
The U.S. economy created just 69,000 jobs in May, about half what analysts had forecast, and the unemployment rate spiked higher for the first time in almost a year, rising to 8.2%.
In addition, the government revised lower the number of jobs created in April to 77,000.
Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG LLC, said the worse-than-expected May jobs numbers had caused him to rethink his position on a second U.S. recession. Some encouraging news earlier this year – not least three straight months of 200,000 or more jobs added between December and February – led him to back away from an earlier prediction of a return to recession.
It was in the heady days of December and January when jobs were created that caused Obama to gamble on killing the Keystone jobs, while he proclaimed that finally the recovery is on the way, just as he did in January of 2010 and 2011. Somehow Obama keeps thinking that inflating stock markets are more important than creating jobs. And shame on you for thinking it has to do with the money Obama gets from Wall Street.
So, in March, as the country slid further backward, 56 Senators voted in favor of a plan that would allow the Keystone pipeline to go forward by cancelling the bureaucratic roadblocks put up by the Obama administration and his world-wide bus tour.
Yet, despite the majority vote, Senate rules apparently require a 60-vote supermajority to create jobs in this country. And, according to Democrat Party rules, any vote to create jobs also has to have a massive, wasteful, multi-trillion dollar appropriation attached to it.
This, of course, ruled out Keystone.
"By personally lobbying against the Keystone pipeline, it means the president of the United States is lobbying for sending North American energy to China and lobbying against American jobs," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said at a news conference as reported by CNN:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said Obama is "out of touch" on the issue.
"At a moment when millions are out of work, gas prices are skyrocketing, and the Middle East is in turmoil, we've got a president who's up making phone calls trying to block a pipeline here at home," he said. "It's unbelievable."
Out-of-touch is Obama telling people that his plan to help the economy is getting people to buy $3,000 thingamajigs with $3,000 federal government thingamachecks.
But at least we know what happened to all the stimulus money now.
“If you’ve got $3,000 a year extra,” said Dr. Obama, the Great Law Giver and Economics professor on June 1st, “that helps you pay down your credit cards, that helps you go out and buy some things that your family needs, which is good for business. Maybe somebody will be replacing some thingamajig for their furnace. They’ve been putting that off.”
I know I’ve put off replacing my thingamajigs. Mostly because I don’t know what they are. But you can be sure whatever they are, their manufacturers and manufacturers’ representatives are writing big campaign thingamachecks right back to Obama.
So, I’m currently trying to replace the brain cells that I lost having to listening to Obama’s drooling, misinformed, misanthropic views of the world. But even for a thingamajig president disconnected from the rest of us humans, lobbying against jobs is not just “out-of-touch.”It’s ridiculous.

Jobs numbers remind Obama that he must do more than just attack (How about resign?)

Washington Post ^ | 6-2-2012 | Dan Balz



Friday’s dismal jobs report and some unexpected words from Bill Clinton delivered a bracing reminder to President Obama and his advisers that the election remains primarily a referendum on his record and that their path to victory may lie less in trying to discredit Republican Mitt Romney and more in winning a battle of ideas with their Republican rival.

The latest report — just 69,000 jobs were added last month — was far worse than forecasters had predicted and undermined the administration’s contention that the economy is truly on a path to recovery.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...

---

(Editorial)

For the month of May, the jobless rate jumped to 8.2%, a mediocre number of jobs were added, hourly earnings barely moved, hours worked fell, consumer confidence cratered. On Friday, the Dow gave back all its gains on the year. Welcome to another Summer of Recovery! Acknowledging the grimness of the situation, Obama promptly blamed Bush. But he had an idea. He said a good way to restore the economy to robust health was for people to start "replacing some thingamajig for their furnace" in June. Another good way to fix the economy is to replace some thingamajig in the White House in November.
After blaming ATM machines, Japanese earthquakes, the Arab Spring and the Irish Spring for his lousy economy, Obama has zeroed in on the real underlying cause: Outdated furnace thingamajigs. But, cheer up, things could be worse! In a speech Friday, Obama congratulated his administration for having turned the economy around, from worse to bad.
Alan Krueger, Obama's head honcho at the Council of Economic Advisers, issued a statement recognizing the grimness of the situation and promptly blamed Bush. "Problems in the job market were long in the making and will not be solved overnight," he reassured Americans. He complained that "we are still fighting back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," otherwise known as "Obamanomics."
Obama is also blaming his lousy economy on Europe, the same Europe that Obama wants America to emulate.
The media were stunned and shocked that the "economists" they rely on every month for routinely unreliable predictions got it wrong again. It was all so "unexpected."
"The unemployment rate unexpectedly increased ..." -- San Francisco Chronicle
"The jobless rate unexpectedly rose to 8.2 ..." -- BusinessWeek
"Employers [added] a less-than-expected 69,000 jobs in the month [of May] ..." -- Reuters
To paraphrase Rummy, if you're the media, there are expected expecteds; there are things we expect to expect. We also know there are expected unexpecteds; that is, we expect there are some things we don't expect. But there are also unexpected unexpecteds; that is, there are some things we don't expect to unexpect. And if you're confused by all this, congratulations! You are now an "expert"! The key is to perfect your skill at making erroneous predictions. "Expert" Mark Zandi, the architect of Obama's failed "Stimulus," has honed making unreliable predictions to a science. He expected 165,000 payroll jobs for May, the jobless rate to fall to 8% and major upward revisions for March and April. (Weaken your grasp of how things are and you, too, can be a Mark Zandi!)
With bad news on the economy surfacing daily, expect from Obama & Co ever wackier ideas. His lunatic followers think (a) the failed Stimulus failed because it wasn't costly enough, (b) interest rates are still too high (they want QE3) and (c) Obama deserves reelection. If consumer confidence is in the toilet, it's because Obama hasn't explained how awesome he is.
Obama himself is an epic failed experiment to see if a dimwitted ACORN Chicago community organizer lacking a business background could turn an economy around by fooling with Health care for the better part of his first two years in office and if depriving businesses of income would encourage hiring. After nearly four years of stultifying Obamanomics, the American economy has been turned into a giant no-fly zone for business. Had enough?

The Sebelius and Dowd Heresy

Real Clear Religion ^ | 6/1/12 | Father Robert Barron



Last week, two prominent Catholic women -- Kathleen Sebelius in an address to the graduates of Georgetown University's public policy school, and Maureen Dowd in a column published in the New York Times -- delivered strong statements about the Church's role in civil society. Dowd's column was more or less a screed, while Sebelius's address was relatively measured in tone.
Yet both were marked by some pretty fundamental misunderstandings, which have, sadly, become widespread.
Echoing an army of commentators from the last fifty years, Dowd exults in James Joyce's characterization of the Catholic Church (drawn, it appears, from the pages of Finnegans Wake) as "here comes everybody." The word "catholic" itself, she explains, means "all-embracing" and "inclusive;" hence it is desperately sad that the Church, which is meant to be broad-minded and welcoming, has become so constricting. Whether it is disciplining liberal nuns or harassing pro-choice Catholic commencement speakers, the Church has abandoned the better angels of its nature and become intolerant.
She concludes, "Absolute intolerance is always a sign of uncertainty and panic. Why do you have to hunt down everyone unless you're weak? But what is the quality of a belief that exists simply because it's enforced?" Not only is this narrow-minded aggression un-Catholic; it's downright un-patriotic; "This is America. We don't hunt heresies here. We welcome them,"she writes.
The problem here is a fundamental confusion between inclusiveness in regard to people and inclusiveness in regard to ideas. The church is indeed all-embracing in the measure that it wants to gather all people to itself. The Bernini colonnade that reaches out like welcoming arms in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is meant to carry precisely this symbolic valence. But the Church has never had such an attitude toward all ideologies and points of view. It has recognized, from the beginning, that certain doctrines are repugnant to its own essential nature, or contradictory to the revelation upon which the Church is constructed. This is precisely why, for the past two millennia, theologians, bishops, Popes, and councils have consistently and strenuously battled heresies concerning central Catholic dogmas. They have understood that the adoption of these errors would fatally compromise the integrity of the Church.
Truth be told, any community must, if it is to survive, have a similar "intolerance." The Abraham Lincoln Society would legitimately oppose the proposal that its members ignore Lincoln and concentrate on the study of Winston Churchill; the USGA would find repugnant the suggestion that Pebble Beach be turned into a collection of baseball diamonds; and the United States of America indeed aggressively excludes those committed to the eradication of fundamental American principles.
The Catholic Church is not a Voltairean debating society; it is a community that stands for some very definite things, which implies, necessarily, that it sets its back against very definite things. A church that simply "welcomed" heresies would, overnight, cease to be itself.
We find another very common error in Secretary Sebelius's address to Georgetown. Deftly side-stepping the issue that has generated such controversy, the HHS demand that Catholic institutions provide insurance for procedures that Catholic morality finds objectionable. Sebelius cited John F. Kennedy's memorable 1960 address to Protestant ministers in Houston. Kennedy dreamed of an American "in which no religious body seeks to impose its will, either directly or indirectly, on the general populace." Over and again, from every quarter, one hears this call echoed today. But when you really think about it, you realize that it is so much nonsense.
What is so easily forgotten is that any law, any political movement, indeed any persuasive speech involves, in one way or another, the imposition of someone's will. In the mid-nineteenth century, William Lloyd Garrison and John Brown were certainly endeavoring to impose their wills regarding the abolition of slavery on the rest of the country. In 1862, with the publication of the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln was most assuredly attempting to impose his will on many of his recalcitrant countrymen.
Publicly protesting Jim Crow laws, marching through the streets of Selma and Montgomery, speaking in the cadences of Isaiah and Amos on the steps of Lincoln's Memorial in Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King was certainly trying to impose his vision on an America that was by no means entirely ready for it. Indeed, just a year after the "I Have a Dream Speech," King was delighted with the passage of strict civil rights legislation, which gave teeth to the proposals that he had long been making.
Now in all the examples that I've given, explicit legal moves were motivated by solidly religious conviction. If you doubt me in regard to Lincoln, I would recommend a careful re-reading of his Second Inaugural Address.
The point is this: none of it would have legitimately taken place in the America imagined by John F. Kennedy, an America in which no religious individual or institution tried to impose its will either directly or indirectly.
What many have sensed in the recent moves of the Obama administration is precisely an attempt to push religion, qua religion, out of the public conversation. Individuals, groups; and institutions are continually trying, for various reasons and to varying degrees of success, to impose their wills on people.
Fine. That's how it works. What isn't fair is to claim, arbitrarily, that religious individuals and institutions can't join in the process.
Father Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry, Word on Fire, and the Rector/President of Mundelein Seminary. 

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,

'If Ford had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'
In response to Bill's comments, Ford issued a press release stating:

If Ford had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash.........Twice a day.

2.. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3... Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Someone would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.
I love the next one!!!
7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.

PS - I 'd like to add that when all else fails, you could call 'customer service' in some foreign country and be instructed in some foreign language how to fix your car yourself!!!!
Please share this with your friends who love - but sometimes hate - their computer!

Liberal Jews Turn on Obama

The Weekly Standard ^ | 6/1/12 | William Kristol



Have pro-Israel liberals—at least some of the intelligent ones—finally had enough of President Obama's incompetence and dithering with respect to Israel and the Middle East?

Apparently. First, there was the extraordinary column by well-known journalist Ari Shavit, a man of the left, in Israel's newspaper of the left, Haaretz, last Thursday. Here are the highlights (but by all means read the whole thing here):

(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...

The six ways homosexual activists manipulate public opinion

Life Site News ^ | May 31, 2012 | BRIAN CLOWES



May 31, 2012 (HLIWorldWatch.org) - Anyone who is concerned about the influence of the homosexual agenda on reshaping traditional values must become intimately familiar with the major tactics that homophiles commonly employ in order to anticipate them and respond in charity and truth. Homophile strategists are very adept at manipulating public opinion with an arsenal of six tactics that are based upon deceptions and half‑truths:

• Exploit the “victim” status;
• Use the sympathetic media;
• Confuse and neutralize the churches;
• Slander and stereotype Christians;
• Bait and switch (hide their true nature); and
• Intimidation.

One reason these tactics have worked so well is that homophile activists have succeeded in marketing a harmless and friendly image of their movement. They have lulled people into thinking that the wider society will not be adversely affected by their radical social agenda. Homosexual strategists have, in many cases, toned down their extreme rhetoric and have cloaked their agenda in soothing language. Over time, however, many have begun to think of themselves and others as “homophobes” or “haters” if they oppose any aspect of the homosexual rights agenda — or, incredibly, even if they question it in their own minds.

Generals and attorneys often wish that their opponents would write a book. Interestingly, leaders of the “homosexual rights” movement did exactly that. Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen clearly laid out this agenda in the marching orders of the movement, After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear & Hatred of Gays in the 90s.[1] This volume is an absolute treasure chest of information for those pro-family stalwarts who are actively engaged against the homosexual rights agenda.

By far the most popular homophile tactic is the claim to victim status, which is a very powerful, almost paralyzing, weapon that gives them a distinct advantage in the public square. Kirk and Madsen summarize the potent effectiveness of the victim status:

In any campaign to win over the public, gays must be portrayed as victims in need of protection so that straights will be inclined by reflex to adopt the role of protector. … The purpose of victim imagery is to make straights feel very uncomfortable; that is, to jam with shame the self-righteous pride that would ordinarily accompany and reward their antigay belligerence, and to lay groundwork for the process of conversion by helping straights identify with gays and sympathize with their underdog status. … the public should be persuaded that gays are victims of circumstance, that they no more chose their sexual orientation than they did, say, their height, skin color, talents, or limitations. … gays should be portrayed as victims of prejudice.

Does this sound familiar? It does if one pays attention to any mainstream media coverage of these controversial issues as they play out in law and society. But the victim status requires a story to back it up. Thus, perhaps the most common lament of the garden-variety homophile revolves around the alleged “tidal wave of anti-gay” hate crimes.

An analysis of FBI statistics on hate crimes committed against homosexuals during the time period 2000-2008 shows that the probability of any individual homosexual being the victim of a hate crime during his or her entire life span is slightly more than one percent.[2] Interestingly, “gays” are more likely to commit hate crimes against “straights” than “straights” are to commit hate crimes against “gays.” According to the FBI, there are 3.98 hate crimes committed by each million heterosexuals annually against homosexuals, and there are 4.44 hate crimes committed by each million homosexuals annually against heterosexuals.[3]

Violence against homosexuals by others gets all the press, but it is interesting to note that the great majority of anti-”gay” violence is committed by other “gays.” The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) is the leading tracker of violence against “gays” in the United States. According to the NCAVP’s statistics on anti-”gay” violence, 83 percent of all violence committed against “gays” is carried out by other “gays” in domestic situations. This does not even count “gay-on-gay” violence committed outside the home.[4]

This confusion is now pervasive in society, and questioning the agenda is simply not to be tolerated – especially among America’s youth.

For example, the classical notion that universities should be “arenas for the free exchange of ideas” has been completely discarded in the United States. More than three-fourths of U.S. colleges and universities now possess codes of conduct that ban behavior and speech based upon, including many other things, “homophobia.” The danger that these codes represent to academic freedom far outweighs their usefulness. This has already been amply demonstrated, as many colleges have severely punished students for merely desiring to debate the topic of homosexuality.

The squashing of dissenting views on homosexuality in the classroom has been going on for decades now. In 1991, a student at the University of Michigan announced his intention to establish a counseling program to help homosexuals leave their lifestyle. He was dragged before a panel of university administrators, unanimously found guilty of “sexual harassment,” and was thrown out of the university.[5] In 2000, the Student Judiciary of Tufts University voted officially to “derecognize” the Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF) club for taking into account, for purposes of selecting leaders, the beliefs of a member whose views of Scripture and homosexuality were opposed to their own.[6] The TCF was stripped of funding, not permitted to use the Tufts name, not permitted to meet in any room that required a reservation, and not allowed to advertise or announce any of their events or meetings. In 2011, a Fort Worth, Texas high school student was suspended from school for reportedly saying, “I’m a Christian, and I don’t think being gay is right,” during a class discussion.[7] And teachers don’t have it any easier. In 2010 a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was accused of “hate speech” and relieved of his teaching duties for teaching Catholic doctrine on homosexuality in his Introduction to Catholicism class.[8]

Political science professor Jean Betheke Elshtain, while highlighting the dangers presented by codes against racism, also points out the difficulties associated with all punitive codes of this nature: “My hunch is that, over the long haul, the upshot of such endeavors [college speech codes] will not be a purified, racist-free, collective student consciousness, but a simmering backlog of resentment at being labeled as a racist, even if one has never committed a racist act or uttered a racist slur.”[9]

No one should attempt to deny homosexuals their basic human rights; which are the same basic rights that we all have as being sons and daughters of God. But it has gotten to the point where we have to fight to preserve our own basic rights — the rights to free speech, religion, assembly, and teaching our own children our values – in order to protect our own families and institutions.

Those who promote homosexuality are forcibly tearing away more and more of the rights of Christians, and the situation is rapidly deteriorating. Who could have possibly imagined just a few years ago that companies would start firing people for writing pro-family articles on their own time, or business owners would be sued for refusing to participate in homosexual union ceremonies?

Now is the time to draw the line, to stand and defend our families and our rights without apology in the public square.

[1] Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen. After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear & Hatred of Gays in the 90s [New York City: Plume Books], 1989.

[2] Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) annual report entitled “Hate Crime Statistics.” Table 1, “Incidents, Offenses, Victims, and Known Offenders by Bias Motivation.” http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm.

[3] Ibid.

[4] The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP). Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Domestic Violence: 2003 Supplement.

[5] Paul Weyrich. “Politically Correct Fascism on Our Campuses.” New Dimensions Magazine, June 1991, page 44.

[6] Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. “Victory At Tufts; Evangelical Christian Group Regains Recognition.” May 16, 2000. http://thefire.org/article/137.html.

[7] “Student’s Homosexuality Comment Leads To Suspension.” CBSDFW.com, September 21, 2011. http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/09/21/students-homosexuality-comments-lead-to-suspension-first-amendment-discussion/.

[8] Adam Cassandra. “University Reinstates Professor Terminated for Teaching Catholic Doctrine on Homosexuality.” CNSNews.com, August 1, 2010. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/university-reinstates-professor-terminated-teaching-catholic-doctrine-homosexuality.

[9] Stephen Goode. “Efforts to Deal With Diversity Can Go Astray.” Insight Magazine, September 10, 1990, pages 15 to 19.

On Jobs, Obama is Running from Reality

RedState ^ | 6/1/2012 | Rance Priebus



Today’s extremely troubling jobs report is yet another sad reminder that President Obama’s policies simply are not working—and that we need a president who understands the economy.
Last night on CNN former President Bill Clinton praised Mitt Romney’s “sterling” career in the private sector. This morning Steny Hoyer echoed that sentiment, underscoring the importance of the private sector in growing our economy. While Mitt Romney’s sterling record demonstrates that he knows what it takes to fix our economy, today’s jobs report shows that President Obama’s record is irreparably tarnished.
In short, President Obama has failed to live up to the promise of his candidacy. In 2009, he and his team promised an unemployment rate below 6 percent by 2012. We’re far from it.
And now, President Obama talks about the economy as though he has not been president for the last three years.
“It is absolutely critical,” he said Wednesday, to make sure the economy is “moving full speed ahead.”
Yes, it is. But Obama has spent the last three years holding us back. The president yells, “Forward!” even as he moves backward.
For the weak economy, we can thank Obama’s weak leadership. Instead of pursuing policies that would help job creators put Americans back to work, he’s burdened them with ObamaCare, regulations, and continued threats of higher taxes.
But don’t take my word for it.
Listen to former Congressman Artur Davis, a 2008 Obama National Co-Chair who this week left the Democrat Party: “I have regularly criticized an agenda that would punish businesses and job creators with more taxes just as they are trying to thrive again.”
Not only has President Obama presided over a devastating economy, but he also refuses to hold himself accountable for it. In 2009, however, he was singing a different tune. If he didn’t have the economy fixed “in three years,” he promised, his presidency would be a “one-term proposition.”
It’s been three years, but instead of accepting responsibility, the president casts blame elsewhere—ATMs, earthquakes, airport kiosks, and “bad luck,” among other scapegoats.
In May, he issued Congress a “to-do list,” his latest attempt to distract from his own incomplete task: job creation. And today, the president is in Minnesota to talk about the post-it size list.
While he will go to the trouble of traveling to Minnesota to speak about this political prop, he apparently has not gone to the trouble of looping in members of his own party on Capitol Hill. Democrat Senators Mary Landrieu, Bob Casey, and Carl Levin admitted to Roll Call they don’t even know what’s on it.
If he has not taken the time to inform his friends at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, President Obama must not be too serious about his little list.
No, he’s more concerned about another to-do list: his list of campaign fundraisers. Today, he will attend six of them. He has already attended far more fundraisers for his re-election than his predecessors, 147 in total.
Even as he passes the buck, Obama is happy to rake in the bucks. The promises for his first term ignored, he’s thinking exclusively about a second term.
But unemployed Americans are still worried about the present. As today’s jobs report makes clear, far too many Americans are out of work, without enough work, or giving up on looking for work altogether.
President Obama is working hard to keep his job. It’s just a shame he’s not working as hard to ensure unemployed Americans can find jobs for themselves.

Panicky Ed Schultz Predicts: If Romney Wins, There'll 'Never Be a Democratic President Again'

NewsBusters ^ | 5/31/2012 | Jack Coleman



In a related development, the Republican National Committee is extending heartfelt thanks to Ed Schultz for his help with their get-out-the-vote efforts. Further confirmation that the June 5 recall election in Wisconsin has liberals more spooked than usual was provided yesterday courtesy of radio host and MSNBC flamethrower Ed Schultz.

Departing from trademark bluster, Schultz warned that victory for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker could foreshadow President Obama's defeat in the fall -- and a permanent GOP lock on the presidency

(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...

The Language of Deception

Flopping Aces ^ | 06-01-12 | Paul Acosta




Ex KGB defector and university professor Yuri Bezmenov once said, “It is worth noting that the stated goal of the communist dialect is to nudge people from the truth a little bit at a time, until they are so convinced of false realities, that they are no longer capable of discerning the truth even when they see it in front of their own eyes.”
The left’s Orwellian usage of language is so scientifically deceptive, that most of us have friends or family members, who although otherwise reasonable, have been so profoundly nudged from the truth, that no amount of evidence in the world will ever dislodge them from their false realities.
As masters of deception, the left knows how to lure many well intentioned individuals by professing to seek a more humane world, where many of our Judeo/Christian values will be realized.
My father used to say “the left uses great truths, to implement great lies”.
Through the manipulative use of language, the left invokes sentiments that are impossible for well-intentioned human beings to oppose, if not aware of the context in which they are used. Who can possibly be against change, equality, liberty, freedom, justice, fairness, growth, compassion and compromise? These words summon positive feelings in most of us, and it is precisely why they are systematically invoked to nudge us from the truth. A quick analysis of the context in which these words are exploited, should help to illustrate this point.
When the left talks about change, they are talking about structural changes, the centralization of resources, the usurping of private property, the reorganization of most aspects of societies, and the placing of all reins of power in the hands of small groups of self-professed master minds. These alleged elitists believe themselves more capable of making better decisions on behalf of all of us, than we ourselves could if left to our own devices. This is essential in understanding who they are.
Change does not mean personal or societal development, unlike religion; they do not seek to conquer men’s hearts. Their ends justify their means, and so they are content with enforcing their objectives through coercion, which is why their road to Utopia, like the proverbial apple of Paradise, leads to Hell on earth instead.
The left’s most important tenet, the one upon which their entire philosophy revolves, is aimed at destroying the disparity of wealth within a society. Therefore when they talk about equality, they are not talking about the principles upon which our great nation was founded, such as equal rights and opportunities for everyone alike, it is not enough that we may be created equal, to them we must also have equality of results, regardless of effort, contribution or ability. What better example than the Affirmative Action law, to illustrate their approach to resolving society’s ills? The legalization of prejudice is their solution to prejudice itself. They are perfectly comfortable promoting individuals based on their race and or origin, as opposed to their achievements, or the content of their character, as Dr. King had once hoped.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...

Obama Job Approval: "What? Are You Nuts?"

Townhall.com ^ | June 1, 2012 | Fritz Pfister



The nation is adrift between two confidences. Confidence in what the Obama administration wants you to believe, reported as truth by their sycophants in the media, and reality.
For example on May 20 when the Consumer Sentiment index was released by Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan the media was happier than wood peckers in a lumber yard.
Headlines screamed ‘confidence is back’ as found at Bloomberg: Consumer Sentiment Climbs To Highest Since 2007. Across the nation the purported good news was blathered by every liberal talking head playing news reporter.
Quoting Bloomberg: “ A record number of households said they’d heard better news on the jobs outlook, which combined with cheaper gasoline and an improving housing market may help sustain consumer spending and shield the economy from Europe’s debt crisis.”
Then reality set in like a sucker punch at a peace rally when the real consumer confidence number was reported. Quoting The Washington Times: “The nation’s top indicator of consumer confidence took an unexpected tumble in May, suffering its biggest one-month drop since October and hitting a four-month low.“
What did they say was the reason? Slower hiring, difficulty finding a job, and the European crisis.
What’s the difference between a consumer sentiment poll and a consumer confidence poll?
Consumer sentiment polling is like polling on Obama likability. Why yes, he’s a likeable fellow.
Consumer confidence polling is like polling on Obama’s job performance. What? Are you nuts? A good job?
Good timing for the Obama administration with the report coming out just before the Memorial Day weekend. Haven’t heard much from the liberal press since the holiday ended? Why? According to the liberal media you were off on vacation because gas prices were low.
Another Bloomberg story today presents a fantastic example of America’s two sets of confidence. Reporting on the banking crisis in Spain quote: “Its banks are largely paralyzed amid concerns about heavy losses on real estate loans that, by various estimates, could require as much as 120 billion euros ($150 billion) in fresh capital to offset.”
This made me think, Thank God America has a capitalist economy where taxpayers won’t be on the hook for any industry failures. Ours is a free market risk reward system allowing individuals and businesses the freedom to succeed or fail based upon their merits.
Bam it hit me, we are Europe under Obama, but it’s not all his fault. You have to give credit to George W. Bush for taking Paulson’s hook, line, and sinker; the world will go into depression within 24 hours if we don’t bail out my Wall Street buddies, kill my Wall Street opponents, and force banks to do something they don’t want, and pass TARP.
The door was opened wide for the ‘never let a crisis go to waste’ leftist radicals, and government invaded the private sector like a ship full of sailors hitting shore for the first time in six months. Unleashing Dodd Frank with too big to fail supplanting risk reward, the very essence of our national economic system. All in the name of saving ourselves from our own freedoms.
Welcome aboard the U.S.S. America where the Captain and the crew were granted permission to go off course. Now we find ourselves in uncharted waters, and they’re deep, $16 trillion dollars deep, and getting deeper.
When Americans are asked to have confidence by believing; unemployment is the lowest in three years, when we know it’s due to people no longer counted; gas is low, when we are paying 110% more than when Obama took office; Obama isn’t a big spender, when we know he is; when we’re told the economy is headed in the right direction, when we aren’t living it; that inflation is tame, when we buy groceries; foreclosures are at a three year low, when we see short sales at record highs; that the housing market has hit bottom and is rebounding, when we see for sale signs everywhere we look; we end up with two confidences.
Where will people place their confidence? In too big to fail, or in risk reward? In a government orchestrated taxpayer funded bail out economy, or a free enterprise economy? In what Obama says, or in reality?
We’ll find out on November 6 when people make their choice at the polls. The only one that counts. A decision whether we will head into more dangerous waters or sail back to the safety of the American way.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of Fritz Pfister or identified sources, and not necessarily those of RE/MAX Professionals of Springfield or RE/MAX International.

Analysis: If bad job news persists, advantage shifts to Romney

Los Angeles Times ^ | June 1, 2012 | by Paul West



Another month or two of downbeat jobs reports like Friday's, and the 2012 electoral advantage will shift to Mitt Romney. At the moment, the election is still a coin flip. But even before the latest evidence of slowing job growth, President Obama was no better than a 50-50 pick to win reelection (as noted Democratic pollster Peter Hart put it recently). And with economic storm clouds building, it’s easy to imagine that Obama could be the underdog before too long.

“If the May report is a harbinger of what's coming, Romney’s message that ‘We can do better, but Obama can't’ will really resonate,” said Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution, a White House advisor in the Clinton administration.

A top White House economic advisor acknowledged that more needs to be done to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Depression of the 1930s.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...

Chevy Volt May Sales Dismal - Ad Spending Ineffective

National Legal & Policy Center ^ | June 1, 2012 | Mark Modica



General Motors reported that Chevy Volt sales for May came in at a paltry 1,680. To put this in perspective, GM sold 29,579 Chevy Malibus during the month. The funny thing is, I do not recall seeing as many TV ads for the Malibu as I have for the Volt. While GM's ad strategy (which has seen the company discontinuing advertising on Facebook and the Super Bowl) has received much attention, auto journalists and analysts do not seem to want to question the reason why GM is spending such a disproportionate amount of money advertising a vehicle that is losing money for the company and its shareholders.
GM did not think that spending $10 million annually on Facebook was leading to enough additional sales to justify the expense. Based on the amount of ads I see on the Volt, I would guess that the company is spending at least that much per month on advertising for the Volt. The ad cost per Volt sold must be in the thousands of dollars. Why is GM continuing to be so free with marketing dollars for the Volt as it makes a commitment to improve efficiency of its advertising budget and why isn't anyone questioning the move?
The decision by GM to continue to hype the Volt despite the low demand can not be based on economics. I am aware that Volt owners seem to love their cars, good for them. But let's face it, the car did not live up to the hype and sales rates are no where near enough to meet GM's goal of selling 45,000 this year in the US. The fact remains that the Volt is representative of the Obama Administration's commitment to green energy initiatives that have cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Shareholders of GM deserve to know if the company has its priorities straight as share price continues to suffer and the company appears to have political motivations by focusing on a "green" vehicle that is costing both taxpayers and shareholders money.
GM continues to function as Government Motors with odd priorities and shady deals that seem to award cronies like CFO Dan Amman's wife at advertising agency, Mother New York. Shareholders should be concerned that GM seems to have an agenda that does not place profits ahead of politics. And the continuing dismal sales of the Chevy Volt warrant congressional debate regarding the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars to promote vehicles and technologies that the majority of Americans do not seem to want or can not afford. The Chevy Volt, not unlike the Obama green energy initiatives, is more and more appearing to be a misguided and costly idea. Neither is helping with the country's economic, environmental, or energy issues.
Mark Modica is an NLPC Associate Fellow.

Obama Wants Americans to Buy a Thingamajig! (at least the "JIG" part)

Weekly Standard ^ | June 1, 2012 | Daniel Halper



In remarks today in Minnesota, President Obama said he hoped people would buy a "thingamajig":
(Video at link)

"I assume there are some folks here who could use $3,000 a year," Obama said. "Let's get that done right now. That means they're -- you know, if you got $3,000 a year extra, that helps you pay down your credit cards. That helps you go out and buy some things that your family needs. Which is good for business. 

Maybe somebody will be replacing some thingamajig for their furnace."

(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...

Bad Numbers, At the Worst Time (Latest employment report is very discouraging)

National Review ^ | 06/01/2012 | James Sherk



Today’s employment report is very discouraging. Analysts had expected employers to create around 150,000 net jobs — a bit more than needed to keep up with population growth. We got fewer than half that many: just 69,000 net new jobs. Updates also showed we created almost 50,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in May and April.

Job growth was weak almost across the board. Most sectors showed little to no improvement, with the main exceptions being healthcare (+33,000), transportation and warehousing (+36,000). Manufacturing edged up slightly (+12,000), as did wholesale trade (+16,000). Government employment fell (-13,000), as did construction (-28,000). The latter may be the result of the warm winter moving the start of construction projects (and thus jobs) forward into December and January.

Traditional indicators of labor market strength also showed little improvement. Employers often increase the hours of their existing workforce or hire temporary workers before committing to new full-time employees. Strong labor demand also raises wages. But in May, average hourly wages increased just $0.02, while weekly hours dropped 0.1 hours and temporary-help jobs barely increased (+9,000). In January, temporary-help employment had increased by four times that amount.
The one silver lining is that unemployment numbers are not as bad as advertised. The household survey showed the unemployment rate increasing by 0.1 points to 8.2 percent. Fortunately, this was driven by a 0.2 percentage point increase in labor-force participation rate, not by job losses.
However, there is less to this improvement than meets the eye. It represents a statistical correction from the April report, which showed the unemployment rate falling by 0.1 points and the labor force participation rate falling by 0.2 percentage points. The household survey has a larger margin of error than the payroll survey and often fluctuates like this. Taken over a longer time frame — smoothing out statistical noise — the household survey also shows few signs of improvement.
This bad report could hardly come at a worse time. With the European economies approaching a crisis, and new GDP estimates showing the economy slowing down, the labor market faces real headwinds. Congress and the administration should think long and hard about the wisdom of hitting employers with the massive tax increases scheduled for the end of the year.
— James Sherk is senior policy analyst in labor economics at the Heritage Foundation.

Obama Has Outspent Last Five Presidents (US News!)

US News and World Report (amazingly) ^ | 06/01/12 | Elizabeth Flock



President Obama has shelled out more in federal spending than the five presidents that came before him.

A new chart by the Comeback America Initiative (CAI), a non-partisan group dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibility by policymakers, shows federal spending by president as a percentage of GDP, and it doesn't reflect well on Obama.
"There has been a dramatic increase in spending under the Obama administration," David Walker, Founder and CEO of CAI, told Whispers. "Most of it is attributable to year one of his presidency and the stimulus... but President Obama has continued to take spending to a new level."
Federal spending was close to 20 percent under the Carter administration, dropped to 18 percent under Clinton, and is currently at an incredible 24 percent of GDP. According to the Congressional Budget Office, federal spending may hover around 22 percent for the next decade.
Federal spending is also higher this year than any year since 1949. The last time spending was higher—in 1946, it was 24.8—the country was just coming down from the exorbitant rates of spending during World War II.
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said he would cut federal spending down to just 17 percent of GDP.

Bill Clinton criticizes Obama’s Bain attacks, praises Romney’s ‘sterling business career’!

news.yahoo.com ^ | 6/1/12 | Holly Bailey



Former President Bill Clinton suggested in a television interview Thursday that he believes President Obama's re-election campaign should stop trashing Mitt Romney's work in the private equity industry.
In an interview with CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight," Clinton, a top Obama surrogate who is set to raise cash with the president next week, directly contradicted Democrats who have attacked Romney's business record, suggesting it does qualify him for president.

"I think he had a good business career," Clinton told guest host Harvey Weinstein, a movie mogul who is one of Obama's top fundraisers. "There's no question that in terms of getting up and going to the office and, you know, basically performing the essential functions of the office, the man who has been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold."

Adding that he has "friends" in the private equity business," Clinton suggested it was dangerous for Democrats to go after Romney's record at Bain Capital—adding that in private equity, "like everything else you try, you don't always succeed" in saving companies or making them more productive.
"I don't think that we ought to get into the position where we say this is bad work," Clinton said. "This is good work."

Instead, the former president argued that the Obama campaign should turn its focus to the "real issue" of what Romney will do as president and how it stacks up against Obama's record. He told CNN that he believes Obama will win re-election when that comparison is made.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...

After bad jobs report, Obama parties with radicals!

The Daily Caller ^



On the heels of a depressing jobs report, Barack Obama is raising $5 million at fundraisers in Chicago this Friday – including one co-hosted by Marilyn Katz.

So who is Marilyn Katz? According to the New York Times, she’s the person who gave Obama “entry into another activist network: the foot soldiers of the white student and black power movements that helped define Chicago in the 1960s. As a leader of Students for a Democratic Society then, Ms. Katz organized Vietnam War protests, throwing nails in the street to thwart the police.”

The Chicago Tribute also noted that Katz, “once advocated throwing studded nails in front of police cars, back in the SDS days when the group was alleged to have thrown cellophane bags full of human excrement at cops and cans of urine and golf balls impaled with nails.”

This is not to say she hasn’t evolved. As the Tribune added: “Under this Daley, [Katz's] firm, MK Communications, has many city deals, and one involves public relations for the Chicago Police Department’s community policing program. From nails to contracts, the Chicago Way. Apparently, irony was not a ’60s thing.”

Aside from the jobs report, it also seems telling that — with the Wisconsin recall just days away — Obama is spending his time in another Mid-Western state, raising money for his own re-election.

Perhaps party loyalty only goes so far.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...

Has Support for Gays Cost Obama the Black Vote?

Speigel Online International ^ | 5/31/12 | Marc Hujer



By openly supporting gay marriage, US President Barack Obama has offended many of the country's African-Americans, who number among his most loyal supporters. Several of the community's religious leaders have even called on their congregations to withhold the support that will be crucial to his re-election.

(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...

Obamateurism of the Day [Outrageous and sickening]

Hot Air ^ | JUNE 1, 2012 | Ed Morrissey



This was the official White House Photo of the Day for Memorial Day on Monday. No, I am not kidding (via Moonbattery ):

President Barack Obama is reflected in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall as he delivers remarks during the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War commemoration ceremony in Washington, D.C., May 28, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)


Really? The takeaway image of Memorial Day for the Obama White House is the silhouette of non-veteran Obama on a memorial to war dead, complete with glowing halo around his head?


Oooooooooo-keedokee.

(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...

'Amateur' hour inside Obama's Oval Office!

The Lowell Sun ^ | 6/1/2012 | Peter Lucas



This book will make you shudder.

It is Edward Klein's The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House, a devastating picture of a president so far in over his head as to make your own head spin.

And, if you have not already heard, Klein, former editor-in-chief of The New York Times Magazine, takes his title from remarks he attributes to former President Bill Clinton, remarks Clinton made at a private gathering at the Clinton home in Chappaqua, N.Y., in August.

The Clintons were arguing in front of guests over Bill Clinton urging a very reluctant Hillary to challenge the sitting president in 2012 primaries, to unseat the man who defeated her four years earlier, but who had appointed her secretary of state.

Chelsea Clinton sided with her father. "You deserve to be president," Chelsea said to her mother

(Excerpt) Read more at lowellsun.com ...

Never Leave Home Without Your Weapons!

U.S. economy adds a disappointing 69,000 jobs in May

Los Angeles Times ^ | June 1, 2012



U.S. employers created 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year, and the unemployment rate ticked up.


The dismal jobs figures could fan fears that the economy is sputtering.


The unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent in April, the first increase in 11 months.



The Labor Department also says the economy created far fewer jobs in the previous two months than first thought. It revised those figures down to show 49,000 fewer jobs created.


Weak job growth could damage President Barack Obama's reelection prospects. (we can only hope)

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...

Clinton: Romeny Is Qualified For Presidency [video] (Any Doubt Bill Still Hates Barack?)

Daily Caller ^



President Bill Clinton ditched his Democratic talking points Thursday night, telling his TV interviewer that Gov. Mitt Romney’s investment capital work qualifies him for the presidency.

“This is good work… There’s no question that a man who has been a governor and has a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold,” he said on CNN.

Republicans hope that statement could deeply damage Obama’s effort to paint Romney as unqualified and irresponsible, and a short portion of the interview was showcased Friday morning by emails from the Republican National Committee.

Clinton and Obama have been rivals since 2007, when Obama challenged and eventually defeated Hillary Clinton in the hard-fought Democratic primaries leading up the 2008 election. Without Obama, Bill Clinton would likely be in the White House as first spouse to President Hillary Clinton. (RELATED: Clinton gives Obama faint praise)
In the CNN interview, Clinton provided some support for Obama’s argument that the 2012 election is a choice between the programs pushed by Romney and Obama, and not a referendum on the current president.
A referendum-style election could be problematic for Obama because the nation has suffered through record debts and deficits, record unemployment and sharp political divisions during his time in the White House.
For voters, Clinton said, “the real issue ought to be what has Governor Romney advocated in the campaign that he will do as president, what has President Obama done and what does he propose to do.”
“That’s the most relevant thing.”