Shine A Light
Organized labor spends about four times as much on politics and lobbying as generally thought, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, a finding that shines a light on an aspect of labor's political activity that has often been overlooked...The hours spent by union employees working on political matters were equivalent in 2010 to a shadow army much larger than President Barack Obama's current re-election staff, data analyzed by the Journal show. (WSJ, 7/10/2012)
Must read article that expands upon a point made by Ann Coulter in a recent column. Who knew that Democrats had a secret army working on their behalf? An army that expects its efforts to be rewarded with the spoils from the public till.
Restoration
Some Democratic-led states are increasing taxes, saying that it is more important to try to restore the services that were cut — and some of the 657,000 state and local government jobs lost — during the downturn. (NYT, 7/10/2012)
And, yes it is true, those jobs equate to union dues paid to Democrats.
As The Crow Flies
Mr. Holder's wallowing in a Jim Crow metaphor to score political points is a discredit to his department, to the rule of law, and to the nonracist country that 45 years after the Voting Rights Act made him its chief law enforcement officer.(WSJ, 7/10/2012)
Of course, the real reason that Holder is ginning up the voter ID issue is to increase African American voter turnout in the face of an "enthusiasm gap" faced by Obama this time around.
Extremities
Some of the weather extremes bedeviling people around the world have become far more likely because of human-induced global warming, researchers reported on Tuesday. Yet they ruled it out as a cause of last year’s devastating floods in Thailand, one of the most striking weather events of recent years.
...
The findings, especially the specific numbers attached to some extreme events, represent an increased effort by scientists to respond to a public clamor for information about what is happening to the earth’s climate. Studies seeking to discern any human influence on weather extremes have usually taken years, but in this case, researchers around the world managed to study six events from 2011 and publish the results in six months.
Some of the researchers acknowledged that given the haste of the work, the conclusions must be regarded as tentative. (NYT, 7/10/2012)
You have to read this bit of pseudo-science to believe it. Man-made global warming caused THIS event, but not THAT event. And because the public is just dying to know they rushed to get us an answer....which may not be accurate.
Overwhelmed
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney drew jeers from black voters Wednesday as he criticized President Barack Obama and pledged to repeal the Democrats' health care overhaul.
Romney told the annual meeting of the NAACP that backing him over the Democratic incumbent, who won their overwhelming support in 2008, is in the best interest of their families. He acknowledged his Republican Party doesn't have a perfect record on race relations, but pledged during a sometimes rocky speech that, if elected, he would work with black leaders to put the country back to work. (NYPost.com, 7/11/2012)
Good for Romney! A weaker politician would have stood in front of the NAACP and pandered. Romney said what he believed and took the heat.
Open Doors
Two years after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision opened the door for corporate spending on elections, relatively little money has flowed from company treasuries into “super PACs,” which can accept unlimited contributions but must also disclose donors. Instead, there is growing evidence that large corporations are trying to influence campaigns by donating money to tax-exempt organizations that can spend millions of dollars without being subject to the disclosure requirements that apply to candidates, parties and PACs. (NYT, 7/7/2012)
"Groups Shield Political Gifts of Businesses" screams the New York Times headline. Twelve paragraphs into the story the Obama re-election team author working for the Times briefly mentions political spending by unions...and then promptly pivots back to political spending by businesses.
Black And Blue
A woman in a blue chiffon dress poked her head out of a black Range Rover here on Sunday afternoon and yelled to an aide to Mitt Romney. “Is there a V.I.P. entrance? We are V.I.P.” (NYT, 7/8/2012)
The New York Times writes an entire 'news' article mocking Mitt Romney, his Hamptons fund-raiser and his donors. Meanwhile, the candidate with whom they coordinate their news coverage dines with George Clooney, Sarah Jessica Parker and Wall Street hedge fund managers. It's sad really, because the Times no longer even attempts to hide their bias.
Pivotal
The president then pivoted to longer-term economic trends, which he said have deepened inequality and put at risk the future of the middle class. Lengthening the frame of reference allows Mr. Obama to argue that the problems of today are not principally his fault, but the result of a Republican philosophy practiced by the Bush administration and advocated by Mr. Obama’s challenger, Mitt Romney. (NYT, 7/6/2012)
"Lengthening the frame of reference." What could that possibly mean? Oh, of course, blame Bush!
Remaining
The economy remains the most important issue to voters. Health care is second, government ethics and corruption third. Just 31% give the president good ratings for handling the economy. That’s down from 41% at the beginning of May. (Rassmussenreports.com, 7/7/2012)
Forget the polls that show Obama ahead by three or four points. They are instruments of the Obama re-election effort. (Sample question: if it could be proved conclusively that Mitt Romney was the Antichrist, who would you vote for? a) Barack Obama or b) The Antichrist) RedStateVT believes that Obama faces an enormous uphill struggle to win. Here is why:
1) Carville was right...it IS about the economy and the numbers above are a disaster for Obama.
2) More than half of the country opposes Obamacare and neither his victory at the Supreme Court nor all the wonderful goodies that the health care law will supposedly bring will change that.*
3) Obama has lost the independents who elected him in 2008. The mid-term elections, Scott Brown and Wisconsin are all harbingers.
4) The basis of Obama's attacks on Romney, class warfare ("He's a rich guy") have been tried before against George Bush and they did not work.
*White House officials have repeatedly underestimated opposition to the health care law. They predicted that public support for the law would grow as people learned more about it. They minimized lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the requirement for most Americans to carry health insurance. They predicted that states would embrace the opportunity to insure more of their residents by expanding Medicaid and creating insurance exchanges, but a number of states have balked. (NYT, 7/7/2012)
Truthful
In truth, Chrysler and General Motors did go bankrupt. What the Obama administration did (and this actually began during George W. Bush's lame-duck period) was to intervene in the normal bankruptcy process so as to advantage political interest groups, most notably the United Auto Workers, at the expense of taxpayers and corporate bondholders. (James Taranto, WSJ, 7/6/2012)
Outstanding point by Taranto!
Paint By Numbers
Teachers unions, however, have painted themselves into a corner by insisting that spending is the best predictor of educational performance — increase financial inputs and cognitive outputs will rise. In the past 50 years, real per pupil spending nationwide has tripled and the number of pupils per teacher has declined by a third, yet educational attainments have fallen. Abundant data demonstrate that the vast majority of differences in schools’ performances can be explained by qualities of the families from which the children come to school: the amount of homework done at home, the quantity and quality of reading material in the home, the amount of television watched in the home and, the most important variable, the number of parents in the home. In Chicago, 84 percent of African American children and 57 percent of Hispanic children are born to unmarried women. (George Will, Washington Post, 7/4/2012)
A(nother) stunning indictment of Teachers unions and, quite frankly, the Liberal mindset. Such mindset which always insists that their solutions would work if only we would "double-down" on them. Poverty...more welfare. Economic malaise...more stimulus. Failing schools...more money to teachers.
And also a reminder of what happens when traditional family values (you remember, the things that have sustained civilization for thousands of years) are eroded.
Set Them Free
In just five months, the Obama administration has freed schools in more than half the nation from central provisions of the No Child Left Behind education law, raising the question of whether the decade-old federal program has been essentially nullified. (NYT, 7/6/2012)
Recall who was a primary sponsor of No Child Left Behind? Why it was "the Lion of the Senate." None other than Ted Kennedy! A fact that the New York Times conveniently ignores.
Waived
The waivers appear to follow an increasingly deliberate pattern by the administration to circumvent lawmakers, as it did last month when it granted hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants a reprieve from deportation. The administration has also unveiled policies to prevent drug shortages, raise fuel economy standards and cut refinancing fees for federally insured mortgages. (NYT, 7/6/2012)
Are Liberals outraged at Obama's power grabs? No, likely not, as long as they advance their objectives.
Foreigner
While the visit could distract from the Republicans’ main line of attack against Mr. Obama, the economy, it is an opportunity for Mr. Romney, who as a former governor has little foreign policy experience, to play the statesman. (NYT, 7/2/2012)
The New York Times repeats a line that they first used about Bill Clinton when he ran for president: 'as a former governor, he has little foreign policy experience.' Oh, wait, they never said that!
Here's a question. Who do you think would be better on foreign policy: a former governor who was also a CEO and ran the Olympics or a former community organizer?
Felines
President Barack Obama called Wall Street executives "fat cats," criticized their bonuses and tried to raise their taxes. The financial-services industry, in turn, has directed a stream of complaints toward the administration, fueling perceptions of a rift between the president and a key 2008 donor group.
But, defying expectations, the securities and investment industry has remained an important part of the Obama fundraising effort. Mr. Obama and the Democratic National Committee raised more than $14 million from the securities and investment industry through the end of April, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Mr. Obama's campaign alone raised $361,000 from the industry in May. (WSJ, 7/2/2012)
As RedStateVT has told you repeatedly, far from being the geniuses that they would have you believe, Wall Streeters are among the least intelligent people on the planet.
No Question
As more than one conservative has pointed out, the integrity of liberal justices who reliably line up for whatever outcome is desired by the Democratic Party goes unquestioned. Indeed, the definition of integrity assumes one direction. (William McGurn, WSJ, 7/2/2012)
Well put.....
Specifics
Today, specifically, the youngest potential voters are more likely than their older peers to think it is important to protect individual liberties from government, the Harvard data suggest, and less likely to think it is important to tackle things like climate change, health care or immigration. (NYT, 7/1/2012)
There is hope for the younger generation after all!
Maneuvers
Public sector unions have such an image problem that some Democratic politicians are maneuvering to maintain their distance, even though union war chests and foot soldiers are often pivotal to their victories. (NYT, 6/21/2012)
So it is true after all. Union workers and union dues fuel the Democrat Party....which, in turn, rewards them with ever more generous salaries and benefits funded by the taxpayer.
Vital Signs
President Barack Obama has attacked Gov. Mitt Romney's record in the private equity industry as CEO of Bain Capital. But ten years ago, as he struggled to raise funds for his long-shot U.S. Senate campaign, then-State Senator Obama decided to embrace the private equity industry and its wealthy Chicago political donors. At one point, Obama even sponsored a resolution in the Illinois Senate calling calling private equity firms like Bain "the best opportunity for long-term economic vitality" and for "the creation of jobs." (Breitbart.com, 7/2/2012)
Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers are just going to have a field day running the ads showing Obama speaking out of both sides of his mouth on executive privilege, health care taxes, venture capital, campaign finance, the unemployment rate and a whole host of other things.
RedStateVT Dissects the "Goodies" in Obamacare
Proponents of Obamacare talk often about how people will like it better once they come to understand what is in it. In particular, they mention several provisions that they say should prove very popular. RedStateVT will analyze and explain several of these provisions; aka the "goodies."
First, Obamacare requires that insurers provide various things (check-ups, screenings) for FREE. Who doesn't love FREE? But as RedStateVT has explained in the past, sadly, there is no such thing as FREE. Doctors are not providing these services pro bono and insurers are not absorbing the cost. Who pays? Why you, the consumer. How can this be given that Obama told us that they were free? (He also told us the insurance mandate was not a tax, but we'll leave that one aside for now.) It is quite simple really. The insurance company will raise your premium to pay for the cost. So consumers will bypass their insurance deductible for these goodies, but pay for them via higher premiums. As usual, Mom and Dad were right when they said that nothing in life is FREE.
Second, let's look at that wonderful provision of Obamacare that allows children to stay on their parents' insurance plan until age 26. Cynically we might say that given how Obama has mismanaged the economy this is a mercy clause for kids who - notwithstanding a college degree - cannot find a job. In reality, of course, it is merely a way for Obama to ensure that insurance premiums are collected for these kids - who being young and healthy might otherwise forgo buying insurance. Unless they rebill the added premiums to Junior, however, it is probably going to be Mom and Dad who pick up this expense. So just when the young 'uns are done with college and ready to leave the nest - much to the relief of their parents - Obama gives them reason to hang around longer on the family payroll. Parents should be outraged. We are.
Finally, we will take a quick look at another goodie - the "No Pre-existing Conditions" provision. As with much of Obamacare, it is a canard. For responsible people who have maintained health insurance coverage there is no reason to fear not being covered due to a pre-existing condition. When moving from group coverage to group coverage or group coverage to COBRA or COBRA back to group, or COBRA to individual, pre-existing conditions exclusions do not apply. The only requirement is that you maintained health insurance coverage. This eliminates the problem of people letting their coverage lapse and then signing up when they become ill. So now, because insurers cannot turn away people who sought coverage only when they became ill, insurers will raise rates and EVERYONE will pay more.
Sadly
No wonder Roberts looked so sad when he entered the chamber Thursday. He also knows that the palm fronds usually precede the crucifixion and it’s only a matter of time before his worshipers become his tormentors yet again. (Kathleen Parker, Washington Post, 6/29/2012)
It took all of three days for the New York Times to go after the savior of Obamacare, Justice Roberts (see below). And why not? He has proven that he can be gamed.
Yet, while they upheld the law’s mandate for individuals to buy insurance under Congress’s taxing power, the chief justice joined the four other conservatives to reject that provision under the Constitution’s commerce clause.
That rejection underscores the aggressiveness of the majority’s conservatism and marks a stunning departure from the long-established legal consensus that Congress has broad power to regulate the economy. (NYT editorial, 6/30/2012)
Chief Justice Roberts may have thought that he could buy off the Liberal media with his tortured decision on Obamacare, but not so. Instead, Liberals now believe they have him on the run and their strategy of relentless public pressure will continue.
While they are at it, NYT editors also take the time to remind us that the Court is made up of five conservatives and four "moderates." We thought they employed a fact-checker....
Six full terms after Justice Samuel Alito Jr. joined the court, the five in the majority have redefined judicial conservatism. The contrast in style and philosophy with the moderate minority is pronounced... (NYT editorial, 6/30/2012)
