Internal Conflicts

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson treated readers to another knee-slapper yesterday. This time the subject was the immigration issue. Here are excerpts.

The Justice Department did not ask her (Judge Susan Bolton) to address the other big problem with the law, which is that it amounts to a prescription for racial profiling on a scale not seen in this country since the days of Jim Crow laws in the South.

Wow…that sounds a bit over-the-top, but then the master of subtlety and nuance goes on – just a few lines later – to say the following:

We'll hear no such subtlety or nuance from Republicans this fall, though.

And then finally:

…the estimated 11 million people here without documents, the vast majority of whom are law-abiding and productive.

Help us understand how entering the country illegally and not paying taxes qualifies as law-abiding!

Kid Gloves
The full trial against Mr. Rangel will get underway in September, unless the lawmaker and the ethics committee strike a deal to avoid it. The only acceptable arrangement would be one in which Mr. Rangel admits wrongdoing. (Washington Post, 7/30/10)

In a hard-hitting editorial, the Washington Post demands that Charlie Rangel……admit wrongdoing. How about this? He resigns.

It Gets Even Better
Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, will face charges of misusing her office and is expected to contest the claims in a House trial, the second powerful House Democrat to opt for such a public airing in recent days, Congressional officials said Friday.

The expected trial, coming just after the start of a similar proceeding on Thursday for Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, would be a modern-day precedent for the House, Congressional officials said. At no time in at least the last two decades have two sitting House members faced a public hearing detailing allegations against them. (NYT, 7/31/10)

It may have been slow to get started, but this "Nancy Pelosi Drain the Swamp Project” is really picking up speed.

It's Their Party

Dems We Love
Rather than being a unifier, Mr. Obama has divided America on the basis of race, class and partisanship. Moreover, his cynical approach to governance has encouraged his allies to pursue a similar strategy of racially divisive politics on his behalf. (Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen, WSJ, 7/28/10)

Fat Cat Party
While Wall Street giving is down, Democrats are still outpacing Republicans. Overall, Wall Street has given $4.26 million to the DNC in the current cycle. Financial executives have donated just $870,000 to the Republican National Committee so far, less than 1% of the total raised. (WSJ, 7/29/10)

Walking It Back
President Barack Obama, mindful of business complaints about his administration, plans to review regulatory decisions to see whether there are "things that can be done in a more sensible way," his top aide said. (WSJ, 7/23/10)

Leahy Stonewalls
Senator Patrick Leahy is pouring cold water on a request by GOP Senators for public hearings into the Black Panther voter intimidation case, a move that will anger conservatives who were hoping for a public airing of the issue to prove the Obama administration is riddled with anti-white discrimination. (Greg Sargent, Washington Post, 7/29/10)

WHO SAID IT?

"..the charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats. . . . Having one's opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness."

a) Conservative Karl Rove
b) Conservative Ann Coulter
c) Conservative Charles Krauthammer
d) RedStateVT
e) Former Head of the Civil Rights Commission, Mary Frances Berry



If you guessed, e) you are today’s winner!

** Quote from Our Divisive President, Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen, WSJ, 7/28/10

Heavy Seas

Sen. John Kerry tried to sail, but he couldn't hide. The Massachusetts senator, after an uproar in his home state over the decision to dock his new $7 million yacht in tax-free Rhode Island, told his state's tax collector Tuesday that he would "promptly" pay all Massachusetts taxes on the yacht…The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee has been dogged by charges of tax evasion since last week, when the Boston Herald first reported about his decision to dock the 76-foot sloop Isabel in Newport, R.I. Doing so spared Kerry a $437,500 one-time sales tax charge in Massachusetts, as well as about $70,000 in annual excise taxes. (Foxnews.com, 7/28/10)

No doubt readers are tired of the incessant coverage of Admiral John Kerry’s little boat tax controversy. What? You hadn’t heard?

Truly Awful People
Hollywood director Oliver Stone – who previously tried to rewrite history with his ultra-left conspiracy work of fiction “JFK” is at it again. But this time he’s not accusing the American government of murdering its own president. Instead, he’s simply trying to stop the “Jewish domination of the media,” so that the film industry can put Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “in context,” as an “easy scapegoat,” and “a product of a series of actions,” in his upcoming 10-hour Showtime docudrama, “The Secret History of America.” This past weekend Stone told the Sunday Times in England: “We can’t judge people as only bad or good . . . Hitler was a Frankenstein, but there was also a Dr. Frankenstein. German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support.” (Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, Foxnews.com, 7/27/10)

Here’s one we really hadn’t heard.

Options

Barack Obama, an unemotional man, will wind down the war in Afghanistan -- not just because he wants to but because he has to. (Richard Cohen, Washington Post, 7/27/10)

What exactly does “wind down” mean? Sounds to us like: surrender. Here’s another option…..

Reconciliation with the Taliban from a position of weakness -- granting the Taliban control over portions of the country -- bears a close resemblance to surrender.

This is the realistic alternative: Win first, then negotiate. (Michael Gerson, Washington Post, 7/27/10)

Clueless
"People will wait and see how that plays out," Pelosi said. "The committee has made its announcement and [outlined] its timetable, and I think that we just have to wait to see how that plays out. Because none of us, not any of us except those on the committee, has any knowledge of" what the charges are. (Washington Post, 7/27/10)

This is Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House or Representatives, and by all accounts a powerful person. And she apparently doesn’t know what Charlie Rangel did. After it has been pretty well documented in numerous news reports. This is the same Pelosi who said that we had to wait until the health care bill was passed to find out what was in it. Is she just not paying attention...or worse?

Really Special Interests
President Obama on Monday sought political advantage from the expected defeat of a campaign finance measure that he has championed by pre-emptively attacking its Republican opponents for “nothing less than a vote to allow corporate and special-interest takeovers of our elections.” (NYT, 7/27/10)

Obama added: “The fact that I was one of the largest recipients of money from Goldman Sachs and BP does not make me a hypocrite.”

Promises, Promises

Perhaps the only consistent thing about Britain’s socialized health care system is that it is in a perpetual state of flux, its structure constantly changing as governments search for the elusive formula that will deliver the best care for the cheapest price while costs and demand escalate.

The plan would also shrink the bureaucratic apparatus, in keeping with the government’s goal to effect $30 billion in “efficiency savings” in the health budget by 2014 and to reduce administrative costs by 45 percent. Tens of thousands of jobs would be lost because layers of bureaucracy would be abolished.

The government has promised that the new plan will not affect patient care and that the health care budget will not be cut. But some experts say those assertions are misleading. The previous government, controlled by the Labour Party, poured money into the health service — the budget is now about three times what it was when Labour took over, in 1997 — but the increases have stopped. The government has said the budget will continue to rise in real terms for the next five years, but it is unlikely that the increases will keep up with the rising costs of care and the demands of an aging population. (New York Times, 7/25/10, selective excerpts)

Wonder if the Brits were also promised better health care at a lower cost……

Do as I say
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Sunday disputed claims that allowing a portion of the Bush tax cuts to expire will choke economic growth, saying the government needs to do the "responsible" thing and show the world it is capable of tackling the deficit. (FoxNews.com, 7/25/10)

Geithner has not yet said whether he plans to pay his taxes this year or wait to see if he gets caught.

Quote of the Day
Progressives lament the harshness and corruption of the private sector, capitalistic economy – insurance companies denying coverage or charging too much for their product are common grievances – yet they naively assume that as long as politicians and government bureaucrats control things, greedy and self-serving behaviors will disappear, and the “collective good” will reign supreme. (Austin Hill, Townhall.com, 7/25/10)

Who You Calling Racist?

After the Shirley Sherrod episode, there's no longer any need to mince words: A cynical right-wing propaganda machine is peddling the poisonous fiction that when African Americans or other minorities reach positions of power, they seek some kind of revenge against whites.

A few of the purveyors of this bigoted nonsense might actually believe it. Most of them, however, are merely seeking political gain by inviting white voters to question the motives and good faith of the nation's first African American president. This is really about tearing Barack Obama down. (Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, 7/22/10)

So let’s review. Someone gives Andrew Breitbart an edited video, the Obama White House fires Sherrod, the NAACP denounces her and this is all the fault of the “cynical right-wing propaganda machine.” Does Robinson want to deflect attention away from the Journolist scandal?

Trillion Here, Trillion There
The federal budget deficit, which hit a record $1.4 trillion last year, will exceed that figure in 2010 and 2011, according to a White House forecast released Friday. The $1.47 trillion budget gap predicted for 2010 represents a slight improvement over the administration's February forecast, but the outlook for 2011 has darkened considerably, primarily due to a drop in expected tax receipts. (Washington Post, 7/23/10)

The White House added: “obviously we need to increase taxes to make up for the drop in expected tax receipts and, besides, this whole problem is due to George Bush.”

You Love RedStateVT

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
What was particularly pathetic about the scheme to smear Mr. Obama's critics was labeling them as racists. The accusation has been made so frequently in recent years, without evidence to back it up, that it has little effect. It's now the last refuge of liberal scoundrels. (Fred Barnes, WSJ, 7/23/10)

RedStateVT would add that calling everyone you disagree with a racist provides cover to those who really are racist.

Even the Rich
Two more Senate Democrats called for extending tax cuts for all earners—including those with the highest incomes—in what appears to be a breakdown of the party's consensus on the how to handle the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts. (WSJ, 7/23/10)

RedStateVT notes that the closer the November elections get, the more Dems seem to back off on their agenda. Case in point above, as well as, the recent Dem decision to shelve cap and trade…for now, anyway.

Reasons to Believe
A House investigative panel has found “substantial reason to believe” that Representative Charles B. Rangel violated a range of ethics rules, dealing a serious blow to Mr. Rangel, a Harlem Democrat, in the twilight of his political career. The finding means that he must face a public trial before the House ethics committee… (NYT, 7/23/10)

RedStateVT was just wondering why we had not heard about the Charlie Rangel scandals in quite a while. Our cynical side would say Pelosi could not afford to have the scandal in the news during the contentious debates on health care and financial reform, hence it was buried. However, something had to be done before the November elections otherwise Republicans would make it a campaign issue. Therefore, the hope is to get it over with during the summer doldrums when it might get less attention. RedStateVT plans gavel-to-gavel coverage.

Permanent Underclass

Sure, Mr. Obama's ostensible purpose was to lobby Congress for the eighth extension of jobless benefits since the recession began, to a record 99 weeks, or nearly two years. And he whacked Senate Republicans for blocking the extension, though Republicans are merely asking that the extension be offset by cuts in other federal spending.

But Mr. Obama was nonetheless obliged to concede that, 18 months after his $862 billion stimulus, there are still five job seekers for every job opening and that 2.5 million Americans will soon run out of unemployment benefits. What happens when the 99 weeks of benefits run out? Will the President demand that they be extended to three years, or four? (WSJ, 7/21/10)

A few words on extending unemployment benefits. We are sympathetic to anyone who has lost their job and is struggling to make ends meet. Here is the Democrat solution: continually pass extensions of benefits creating a permanent class of unemployed, beholden to government… and to Dems. Here is the Republican solution: spur economic development by lowering taxes and regulatory hurdles enabling business to grow…and hire more workers. The distinction could not be clearer.

Worse Not Better

If you want a preview of President Obama's health-care "reform," take a look at Massachusetts. In 2006, it enacted a "reform" that became a model for Obama. What's happened since isn't encouraging. The state did the easy part: expanding state-subsidized insurance coverage. It evaded the hard part: controlling costs and ensuring that spending improves people's health. Unfortunately, Obama has done the same.

Obama dodged the tough issues in favor of grandstanding. Imitating Patrick, he's already denouncing insurers’ rates, as if that would solve the spending problem. What's occurring in Massachusetts is the plausible future: Unchecked health spending shapes government priorities and inflates budget deficits and taxes, with small health gains. And they call this "reform"? (Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, 7/19/10)


Republicans argued during the health debate that the IRS would have to hire hundreds of new agents and staff to enforce ObamaCare. They were brushed off by Democrats and the press corps as if they believed the President was born on the moon. The IRS says it hasn't figured out how much extra money and manpower it will need but admits that both numbers are greater than zero. (WSJ, 7/19/10)

Obama and the Dems are constantly reminding us that we will like the health care reform bill once we begin to see it take effect. We don't think so!

Joe's Back!

Overwhelmed
“The truth of the matter is, there is an overwhelming consensus that we’re not losing jobs, we’re creating jobs.” (Vice President Joe Biden)

Guilty
The FEC also found that the Biden campaign received at least $106,000 in donations that were over the limit, and the campaign was ordered to pay the U.S. Treasury more than $85,000 for stale-dated checks. The Biden campaign also failed to disclose more than $3.7 million in payments and roughly $870,000 in debts. (FoxNews.com, 7/17/10)

RedStateVT is sure that the public is now growing tired of all the coverage of the Biden campaign finance scandal. What? You haven’t heard? Now we wonder, if John McCain had been fined…..

Not Exactly
The right pronounces him (Obama) a "socialist" because of his sympathy for regulation, his belief that the rich should pay higher taxes and his occasional criticisms of Wall Street and the oil industry. (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 7/19/10)

The right pronounces Obama a socialist because he has clearly indicated in words and actions that he favors redistributing wealth and because of his unrelenting criticisms of business, from health insurers to oil companies to financial services.

Obama Lied, People Cried

When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.” (NYT, 7/16/10)

Another in what will be an unending series of “walkbacks” (a.k.a. lies exposed) about the health care reform bill.

Hide the Toilet
This isn't smart. In a country that's among the world's highest greenhouse-gas emitters, air conditioning is one of the worst power-guzzlers. The energy required to air-condition American homes and retail spaces has doubled since the early 1990s. Turning buildings into refrigerators burns fossil fuels, which emits greenhouse gases, which raises global temperatures, which creates a need for -- you guessed it -- more air-conditioning. (Stan Cox, Washington Post, 7/11/10)

If there is a modern convenience, liberals are against it. Besides air conditioning, Cox is also against stoves and clothes dryers. And he recommends planting crops on your roof.

Eat the Rich

The economic recovery has been helped in large part by the spending of the most affluent. Now, even the rich appear to be tightening their belts.

But the Top 5 percent in income earners — those households earning $210,000 or more — account for about one-third of consumer outlays, including spending on goods and services, interest payments on consumer debt and cash gifts, according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by Moody’s Analytics. That means the purchasing decisions of the rich have an outsize effect on economic data.

Sam Pizzigati, associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning research center, cautions against simply boosting the spending power of the rich through tax cuts or other measures. “Otherwise, we find ourselves in an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ world,” he said, “and the solution to the hard times that the economy is going through is to help the people that are not going through hard times.” (NYT, 7/17/10)

Liberals must be fuming about this one. Those selfish rich people are derailing the economic recovery because they are not spending enough. Another reason, they’ll say, why wealth must be redistributed. If everyone has the same, then no one group can have undue influence. Of course, one reason the wealthy may not be spending is that they fear taxes are going up. The Times makes certain that they debunk that by quoting “a left-leaning research center” only.

Nice Try

The NAACP is doing what conservatives have done for decades in demanding that liberals and progressives separate themselves from left-wing extremists who trashed America, burned flags and praised foreign dictators. The racists are the Tea Party's flag-burners. It's fair to ask the democratic left to condemn extremism. It's fair to ask the same of the democratic right. (Note the small "d.")

Guilt by association is wrong, but it's legitimate to insist that those who believe in democracy and freedom take forceful steps to disassociate themselves from people in their movement who peddle racism, intolerance and fear. That's what the NAACP is asking. (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 7/15/10)

The NAACP wants the Tea Party to denounce those “in their movement” who are racist in the same way that conservatives demand that liberals denounce flag burners and Castro-loving leftists. First of all, there is no credible evidence of racism within the Tea Party. Andrew Breitbart famously offered $100,000 to anyone who could prove that black congressmen were called racist names during the health care vote. Breitbart still has his money. Second, we have never heard anyone on the left do what Dionne is asking the Tea Party to do. Until Sean Penn gets criticized, we ain’t buying this nonsense.


Lashing and Venting and Accusing and Undermining
House Democrats are lashing out at the White House, venting long-suppressed anger over what they see as President Obama’s 's lukewarm efforts to help them win reelection -- and accusing administration officials of undermining the party's chances of retaining the majority in November's midterm elections. (Washington Post, 7/15/10)

Not Working

President Obama and Senate Democrats have decided to press ahead in the next two weeks with a scaled-back energy bill that limits carbon pollution by power plants but not by other industries in an effort to salvage the legislation before midterm elections.

Mr. Reid also presented it as a way to further stimulate the economy, saying, “This as I’ve indicated is a huge jobs bill.” (NYT, 7/15/10)

Having finally realized that the American public is more concerned about jobs than any of their crackpot ideas, Obama and the Dems have devised a strategy. Suddenly all of their initiatives are about jobs. Health care? It’s a job-creating engine! Appeasing Muslims? Jobs! Energy? Jobs! Financial reform? Jobs! Closing Gitmo? Jobs!

Holland, Mich., where Mr. Obama visits Thursday, has seen a big infusion of cash from the president's economic stimulus plan: hundreds of millions of dollars for new automotive battery plants, tens of millions for schools, as well as millions more for housing, small businesses, university research and transportation. Yet many in the region of 260,000 people, struggling with 12% unemployment, are skeptical the federal spending has made an impact. (WSJ, 7/15/10)

What’s wrong with this picture? Millions of dollars spent and 12% unemployment.

Please Note

This Much is Uncertain
The timing of Dodd-Frank could hardly be worse for the fragile recovery. A new survey by the Vistage consulting group of small and midsize company CEOs finds that "uncertainty" about the economy is by far the most significant business issue they face. Of the more than 1,600 CEOs surveyed, 87% said the federal government doesn't understand the challenges confronting American companies. Believe it or not, Mr. Frank has already promised a follow-up bill to fix the mistakes Congress is making in this one. (WSJ, 7/14/10)

Create an atmosphere of uncertainty and businesses will not invest or hire.

A Simple Lesson About Taxes
Vermont’s border towns are benefiting from a tax increase on cigarettes in New York state. The state tax on a pack of cigarettes in New York is $4.35. In Vermont, it’s $2.24… (BFP, 7/14/10)

Raise taxes and people will go to places that have lower taxes.

Getting Out of Town
When President Obama sat among local officials at a snack bar in Pensacola, Florida last month, he emphasized that the Sunshine State's beaches were "open for business" and vowed to do everything his administration could to help those in the region. Well, maybe not everything. When the president and his family go away later this week for a mini-vacation, they'll be traveling almost 2,000 miles away from the oil spill, escaping the heat in Washington for the cooler weather up north at Mount Desert Island, Maine. (FoxNews.com, 7/13/10)

Stop the Presses!

As the co-anchor of "America's Newsroom," (Bill) Hemmer is supposed to kick off the straight-news stretch of Fox's daytime schedule at 9 a.m. But the bookings on the two-hour program, and sometimes the story selection, tilt markedly to the right. (Howard Kurtz, Washington Post, 7/12/10)

In a startling journalistic coup, Howard Kurtz has discovered that Fox News might lean to the right. Now if we only knew Katie Couric’s political inclinations. Maybe we can convince Kurtz to investigate.

Employer of Last Resort
If Democrats don't want to go the tax cuts route, they could try for direct employment. Over the next few months, the jobs related to the 2010 Census will continue to expire, leading to 700,000 more people losing work. That was always anticipated: Census jobs are temporary jobs. But those were also real jobs, and their expiration will mean real unemployment. Something like George Miller's Local Jobs for America Act -- which earmarks $100 billion not just to fund state and local budget shortfalls but also to directly employ people -- could make up some of the gap. (Ezra Klein, Washington Post, 7/13/10)

Journalist Ezra Klein has come up with a series of brilliant ideas to improve the economy by November. RedStateVT is not sure what the significance of November is, but we’ll go with it. Our favorite was the one above – when in doubt, the government can hire more people! (Klein also suggests – we think with a straight face – that the $787 billion stimulus was too small).

Low Down
Public confidence in President Obama has hit a new low, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. Four months before midterm elections that will define the second half of his term, nearly six in 10 voters say they lack faith in the president to make the right decisions for the country, and a clear majority once again disapproves of how he is dealing with the economy. (Washington Post, 7/13/10)

On the good news front, Obama’s numbers in the Muslim world are on the increase with one in ten Muslims now approving of the job he is doing.

Too Late

In a private meeting with White House officials this weekend, Democratic governors voiced deep anxiety about the Obama administration’s suit against Arizona’s new immigration law, worrying that it could cost a vulnerable Democratic Party in the fall elections. (NYT, 7/12/10)

The White House has asked business leaders to identify specific regulations that they believe are obstacles to job-creating private investment. As part of a broad policy review, administration officials asked business leaders to identify specific rules that could be streamlined, although the administration hasn't yet proposed revisions for any of the rules at issue. The administration is grappling with 9.5% unemployment in a congressional election year. (WSJ, 7/12/10)

So Dems are now starting to get worried about the November elections.

The Other Guys
White House senior adviser David Axelrod blamed the lack of bipartisanship in Washington on Republicans in Congress.

Axelrod chalked up the administration's failure to close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo largely to congressional resistance.

Gibbs also defended the administration's role in the slow economic recovery. In a shot at the previous administration, he said he "is not here to unfurl the Mission Accomplished banner" on the economic recovery. (Washington Post, 7/12/10)

Administration officials went on the Sunday talk shows yesterday. Key take-away? No matter what the issue....it’s not their fault.

Taxing

Increasing the federal tax by 25 cents per gallon would raise $305 billion for highway construction and deficit reduction over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And initially, at least, a gallon of regular would still cost less than three bucks. Any increase should probably be phased in so as not to remove abruptly what has turned into a de facto economic stimulus program. But drivers could offset the increase through minimal conservation. Motorists hate taxes, of course, and politicians regularly bow to their resistance. But the truth is that few measures would generate more public benefits in return for less sacrifice. (Washington Post, 7/8/10)

Liberals always have the same answer to any issue or any problem. Tax it. And, of course, there is no end to the things that they would discover to spend the additional revenue on.

The Horror!
We strongly disagreed with the reasoning that led the court to find an individual right to bear arms in the Second Amendment, ending handgun bans in Washington, D.C., in 2008 and everywhere else last month. Nonetheless, the law of the land is now that people have a constitutional right to a gun in their home for self-defense. (New York Times editorial page, 7/11/10)

Imagine that. Law-abiding citizens are afforded the "right to a gun in their home for self-defense." What will those right-wingers want next?

Tick Tock

President Obama got serious this week about the ticking time bomb in his new health-care legislation -- the lack of any clear plan to reduce costs and improve quality. What he did was install someone who can use our behemoth Medicare and Medicaid programs as laboratories for change -- so that reform doesn't bankrupt the country. (David Ignatius, Washington Post, 7/9/10)

In the continuing assault on his self-professed aspirations to change the way business is done in Washington, President Obama makes a recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Yes, President Bush made recess appointments as well, but then again, it was Obama who was going to be different, was going to be transparent, blah, blah, blah…

What really got our eye, however, was this (unintended?) admission that the previous talk of the untold savings to be realized by eliminating waste in the system was just more rhetoric. Obama and the Dems never had a clue as to how or what to do! Not to worry, however, the good doctor is headed to the laboratory to begin experimenting. Comforted?

Goodbye Harry
President Obama wrapped up a two-day campaign swing on Friday with a full-throated defense of his economic policies and a warm-hearted embrace for the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, a onetime boxer who is counting on the president to help him fight his way through a tough re-election race. (NYT, 7/10/10)

We already know what happens when President Obama campaigns for someone…..

Economics 101

The flaw in their logic is that when it comes to higher unemployment benefits or any other stimulus spending, the resources given to the unemployed have to be taken from someone else. There isn't a "tooth fairy," or as my former colleague Milton Friedman repeated time and again, "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch." The government doesn't create resources. It redistributes them. For everyone who is given something there is someone who has that something taken away. While the unemployed may spend more as a result of higher unemployment benefits, those people from whom the resources are taken will spend less. In an economy, the income effects from a transfer payment always sum to zero. Quite simply, there is no stimulus from higher unemployment benefits.
(Arthur Laffer, Wall Street Journal, 7/8/10)

Standing on a sparkling clean factory floor, with a fleet of battery-powered trucks behind him, President Obama on Thursday confronted a challenge: how to reconcile the grim reality of 9.5 percent unemployment with the necessity of defending his economic policies in a midterm election year. He resolved it by blaming Republicans — and crediting himself. (NYT, 7/9/10)

To The Point
Obama hasn't ramped up the war in Afghanistan based on a careful calculation of America's strategic objectives. He did it because he was trapped by his own rhetorical game of bashing the Iraq war while pretending to be a hawk on Afghanistan. (Ann Coulter, 7/7/10)

If Ann Coulter could be convinced to write a daily – instead of weekly – column, there would be little need for RedStateVT or others to blog. Her analysis is never less than brilliant.

Lost in Space

…the three things Obama wants him (Charles Bolden) to do as the head of NASA:

"One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering,"

Not one of those has anything to do with the “S” in NASA unless the “S” suddenly stands for stupid. (Dan Gainor, FoxNews.com, 7/8/10)

The abject absurdity of the Obama administration grows daily!

Obstruct This
President Obama, who vowed in his State of the Union address to double American exports over the next five years, said on Wednesday that he would renew his efforts to renegotiate long-stalled free trade agreements with Panama and Colombia and persuade Congress to adopt them. The two trade pacts, and a third one with South Korea, were negotiated by the administration of former President George W. Bush, but all three have languished in Congress because of deep opposition from Democrats. (NYT, 7/8/10)

Silly us, we thought it was Republicans who were the obstructionists!

Independents’ Day
A majority of independent voters are unhappy with the Obama administration and just over half intend to use their vote in November to put a check on the president and the Democratic Congress, according to a Fox News poll. (FoxNews.com, 7/8/10)

The countdown to November is on!

Diversions

“Arizonans are understandably frustrated with illegal immigration,” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said. “But diverting federal resources away from dangerous aliens such as terrorism suspects and aliens with criminal records will impact the entire country’s safety.” (NYT, 7/7/10)

Given the great success we have had so far in stopping the Ft. Hood shooter, Underwear Bomber and Times Square Bomber……

Keyword Search
The testimony by Mr. Adams brought new attention to a case that has been used as political ammunition against the Obama administration by some conservative media outlets seeking to flip the script on portrayals of the Bush administration as having “politicized” the Justice Department…The case became a cause célèbre in the conservative media world, and the Civil Rights Commission opened an investigation. The eight-member panel, which has the power to issue subpoenas and issue reports, is controlled by a six-member conservative bloc appointed during the Bush administration...The Obama administration took office amid widespread allegations that the Bush administration had politicized the civil rights division. Reports by the Government Accountability Office and the Justice Department’s inspector general found that enforcement of certain anti-discrimination laws dropped significantly, and that political appointees systematically steered career jobs to conservatives in violation of civil service laws…And one of its six conservatives, Abigail Thernstrom, wrote an article published Tuesday in National Review dismissing the New Black Panthers incident as “small potatoes” and warning that the commission’s “overblown attack threatens to undermine the credibility” of conservative criticism of the Justice Department, led by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr…But Commissioner Todd Gaziano, who is a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, signaled that the other five members of the conservative bloc intend to press forward. (NYT, 7/7/10)

Want to take a guess at what the biggest issue surrounding the New Black Panther voter intimidation lawsuit is?

Outrage by liberals about polling place shenanigans is a one way street. Just like feminists who only cry foul when a liberal woman makes sexual discrimination claims.

Investigate the Investigators!
An independent British report into the leak of hundreds of emails from one of the world's leading climate research centers has largely vindicated the scientists involved, something many in the field hope will help calm the global uproar dubbed "Climategate." The inquiry by former U.K. civil servant Muir Russell into the scandal at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit found there was no evidence of dishonesty or corruption in the more than 1,000 e-mails that were posted to the Internet late last year… The messages captured researchers speaking in scathing terms about their critics, discussing ways to stonewall skeptics of man-made climate change, and talking about how to freeze opponents out of peer-reviewed journals. (WSJ, 7/7/10)

Trashing critics, stonewalling and freezing out opponents, but no dishonesty or corruption..... Sounds like a new investigation might be needed…into Coverupgate.

Cause and Effect

A revolt among big donors on Wall Street is hurting fundraising for the Democrats' two congressional campaign committees, with contributions from the world's financial capital down 65 percent from two years ago. The drop in support comes from many of the same bankers, hedge fund executives and financial services chief executives who are most upset about the financial regulatory reform bill that House Democrats passed last week with almost no Republican support. The Senate expects to take up the measure this month. (Washington Post, 7/6/10)

Perhaps the geniuses on Wall Street have finally figured out who their friends….aren’t.

Foreign Affairs
Given President Obama's glaring domestic policy missteps, it is understandable that the public has largely been blinded to his foreign policy failings. In fact, these may have been even more damaging to America's future. He fought to reinstate Honduras's pro-Chávez president while stalling Colombia's favored-trade status. He castigated Israel at the United Nations but was silent about Hamas having launched 7,000 rockets from the Gaza Strip. His policy of "engagement" with rogue nations has been met with North Korean nuclear tests, missile launches and the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel, while Iran has accelerated its nuclear program, funded terrorists and armed Hezbollah with long-range missiles. He acceded to Russia's No. 1 foreign policy objective, the abandonment of our Europe-based missile defense program, and obtained nothing whatsoever in return. (Mitt Romney, Washington Post, 7/6/10)

The Business of America

But all think he is, at his core, anti-business. When I asked for specifics, they pointed to the fact that Obama has no business executives in his Cabinet, that he rarely consults with CEOs (except for photo ops), that he has almost no private-sector experience, that he's made clear he thinks government and nonprofit work are superior to the private sector. It all added up to a profound sense of distrust. (Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post, 7/5/10)

What's called "financial reform" has twin motivations: to stabilize financial markets and to punish "Wall Street" for the crisis. So much in the legislation (a consumer protection agency, restrictions on "proprietary" trading by banks) is left to regulators that no one can now know the full outcome. It could be greater stability, overregulation or a scattering of risky activities into lightly regulated institutions. History will judge whether this qualifies as genuine "reform" -- or just revenge. (Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, 7/5/10)

In a hearing on Friday, after the Labor Department reported that employers added a mere 83,000 private-sector jobs in June, Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the top House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee, argued that fiscal discipline was vital to restoring confidence. “Businesses are slow to hire because they fear higher taxes, job-killing regulation and a dysfunctional Washington that is ideologically driven and increasingly anti-business,” he said. (NYT, 7/5/10)

The business of America is not - as President Obama would have us believe - government.

Happy Fourth of July

Thanks to all the brave men and women who sacrifice so that we may enjoy our freedom.

Know Your Enemy
This is not an anger-management therapy group gone rogue. These are people professing a powerful ideology rooted in a radical interpretation of Islam, in whose name they propagandize, proselytize, terrorize and kill. Why is this important? Because the first rule of war is to know your enemy. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 7/4/10)

Well, Duh
And many are questioning whether Obama's lieutenants have figured out that they have not been the messaging geniuses in the White House that they seemed to be in the 2008 campaign. (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 7/4/10)

While Rome Burns

With the government dismissing Census workers, more jobs might have been cut than added in June. And concerns are growing that the recovery could be teetering, with some fresh signs of softer demand this week. A central index of consumer confidence dropped sharply in June, while auto sales declined from the previous month. Pending home sales plunged by 30 percent in May from April as tax credits for home buyers expired. Fretting that global growth is slowing, investors have driven stock indexes in the United States down to their levels of last October, for losses as great as 8 percent for 2010. (NYT, 7/2/10)

Meanwhile...

The president’s decision to elevate the issue reflected more of a political strategy than a legislative one since the White House has no plan to actually push a bill this year through a Congress already consumed by other issues. Instead, Mr. Obama’s focus appeared intended to frame the debate for the approaching election to appeal to Hispanic voters who could be critical in several states as well as other middle-class voters turned off by anti-immigrant discourse while blaming Republicans for opposing a comprehensive overhaul. (NYT, 7/2/10)

Everyone Else Is Doing It

The administration's stimulus program has failed. Growth is slow and unemployment remains high. The president, his friends and advisers talk endlessly about the circumstances they inherited as a way of avoiding responsibility for the 18 months for which they are responsible. But they want new stimulus measures—which is convincing evidence that they too recognize that the earlier measures failed. And so the U.S. was odd-man out at the G-20 meeting over the weekend, continuing to call for more government spending in the face of European resistance. (Allan Meltzer, WSJ, 6/30/10)

If President Obama really wants the rest of the world to like us – apparently one of his foreign policy goals – than shouldn’t he take a cue from them and cut spending?

Fast Food Diplomacy
Still, the emergence of an alleged cell of secret agents reporting back to handlers in Moscow undercut the Obama administration's claim of improved ties with Moscow as part of a "reset" of U.S.-Russia relations. President Barack Obama last week took Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to his favorite hamburger joint, which turned out to be just blocks from the Arlington, Va., apartment building where one of the alleged Russian secret agents lived. (WSJ, 6/30/10)

Will President Obama learn from this episode that the Russians cannot be trusted or will he continue his policy of appeasement?

The Master’s Words
But should his drop continue and the Republicans win the 2010 elections, a groundswell could emerge for Hillary for the 2012 nomination. The Clintons' moves indicate that they are fully aware of this possibility and want to be in a position to exploit it should the opportunity arise. (DickMorris.com, 6/30/10)

Loyal RedStateVT readers will remember that "Hillary for President in 2012" was first suggested a number of weeks ago by The Master.