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NBC has launched an internal probe after running an edited version of the 911 call from George Zimmerman -- the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin -- that made Zimmerman sound racist.
"We have launched an internal investigation into the editorial process surrounding this particular story," the network said in a statement to the Washington Post on Monday.
NBC's "Today" show ran the edited audio of George Zimmerman's phone call to a police dispatcher in which Zimmerman says: "'This guy looks like he's up to no good … he looks black."
But the audio recording in its entirety reveals that Zimmerman did not volunteer the information that Martin was black. Instead, Zimmerman was answering a question from a police dispatcher about the race of the "suspicious person" whom Zimmerman was speaking about.
A transcript of the complete 911 call shows that Zimmerman said, "This guy looks like he's up to no good. Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about."
The 911 officer responded saying, "OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?"
"He looks black," Zimmerman said.
The abridged conversation between Zimmerman and the dispatcher that NBC ran on March 27 has been blasted by media watchdog groups as misleading. Critics have said the edited version was made to suggest that Zimmerman targeted Martin because he was black -- an accusation by many that is still under investigation.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/02/nbc-launches-internal-probe-over-edited-11-call-in-trayvon-martin-shooting/#ixzz1qzAUCIAyNBC has launched an internal probe after running an edited version of the 911 call... more
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Updated at 2:45 p.m. ET: The man who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, setting off a nationwide outpouring of anger, told police that Martin knocked him down with a single punch and slammed his head into the sidewalk several times — an account that police said witnesses have corroborated, according to The Orlando Sentinel.
George Zimmerman, 28, has gone into hiding from the public, and his account of what happened one month ago hadn't previously emerged as demands for his arrest grew louder.
The Orlando Sentinel reported Monday that police said Zimmerman has described and re-enacted the events this way:
Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain, was walking back to his SUV when Martin approached him from behind. The two exchanged words, and Martin decked him with a Witnesses said they heard someone cry out in distress, some of them telling NBC News and other news organizations that it was Martin. But police told the Sentinel their evidence indicated it was Zimmerman.
One witness told police he saw Martin pounding Zimmerman on the ground. This witness was certain it was Zimmerman who was crying for help, the Sentinel reported.
When police arrived less than two minutes later, Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose, and he had a swollen lip and bloody lacerations to the back of his head, the newspaper reported. Police said Zimmerman wasn't badly injured and didn’t seek treatment until the next day.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/26/10868250-police-report-details-alleged-attack-on-zimmermanUpdated at 2:45 p.m. ET: The man who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin,... more
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Last Friday, March 16, President Barack Obama may have quietly placed the United States on a war preparedness footing, perhaps in anticipation of an outbreak of war between Israel, the West, and Iran. A newly-propounded Executive Order, titled "National Defense Resources Preparedness," renews and updates the president's power to take control of all civil energy supplies, including oil and natural gas, control and restrict all civil transportation, which is almost 97 percent dependent upon oil; and even provides the option to re-enable a draft in order to achieve both the military and non-military demands of the country, according to a simple reading of the text. The Executive Order was published on the White House website.
The timing of the Order -- with little fanfare -- could not be explained. Opinions among the very first bloggers on the purpose of the unexpected Executive Order run the gamut from the confused to the absurd. None focus on the obvious sudden need for such a pronouncement: oil and its potential for imminent interruption.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edwin-black/obama-national-defense-resources-preparedness_b_1359715.htmlLast Friday, March 16, President Barack Obama may have quietly placed the United... more
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Rush Limbaugh today called a women's health advocate and Georgetown Law student a "slut." The Huffington Post transcribed Limbaugh's comments on Sandra Fluke, who'd spoken to a Democratic panel on the benefits of birth control: "[Fluke] testifies she's having so much sex she can't afford her own birth control pills, and she wants President Obama to provide them, or the Pope. ... What does it say about the college co-ed Susan [sic] Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex. What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute." Limbaugh then corrected himself: "So she's not a slut. She's round-heeled." Round-heeled, for the record, means "slut."
http://now.msn.com/now/0229-limbaugh-calls-woman-a-slut.aspxRush Limbaugh today called a women's health advocate and Georgetown Law student a... more
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Barack Obama is fighting wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Libya. He is spending more on the US military than any previous president. If he serves for eight years as president, he will spend over $8 trillion on defence, including the hidden costs of the war economy. Fifty per cent of all US tax dollars is spent on the US military. America spends more on defence than the combined total military budget of every other country in the world. SEE the brilliant film Lifting the Veil on Obama and capitalist "democracy": http://bit.ly/hH2BCHBarack Obama is fighting wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Libya. He is spending... more
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According to polls — Pew Research Center, the National Science Foundation — and studies such as Arthur Brooks’s Gross National Happiness, conservative Americans are happier than liberal Americans.
Liberals respond this way: “If we’re unhappier, it’s because we are more upset than conservatives over the plight of those less fortunate than ourselves.”
But common sense and data suggest other explanations.
For one thing, conservatives on the same socioeconomic level as liberals give more charity and volunteer more time than do liberals. And as regards the suffering of non-Americans, for at least half a century conservatives have been far more willing to sacrifice American treasure and American blood (often their own) for other nations’ liberty.
Both of these facts refute the liberals-are-more-concerned-about-others explanation for liberal unhappiness.
So, let’s look at other explanations.
Perhaps we are posing the question backwards when we ask why liberals are less happy than conservatives. The question implies that liberalism causes unhappiness. And while this is true, it may be equally correct to say that unhappy people are more likely to adopt leftist positions.
Take black Americans, for example. It makes perfect sense that a black American who is essentially happy is going to be less attracted to the Left. Anyone who has interacted with black conservatives rarely encounters an angry, unhappy person.
Why?
Because the liberal view on race is that America is a racist society. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, a black American must abandon liberalism in order to be a happy individual. It is very hard, if not impossible, to be a happy person while believing that society is out to hurt you. So, the unhappy black person will gravitate to liberalism and liberalism will in turn make him more unhappy by reinforcing his view that he is a victim.
The unhappy gravitate toward the Left for a second reason. Life is hard for liberals and life is hard for conservatives. But conservatives assume that life will always be hard. Liberals, on the other hand, have utopian dreams. At his brother Robert’s funeral, the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy recalled his brother saying: “Some men see things as they are and say, ‘Why?’ I dream things that never were and say, ‘Why not?’”
Utopians will always be less happy than those who know that suffering is inherent to human existence. The utopian compares America to utopia and finds it terribly wanting. The conservative compares America to every other civilization that has ever existed and walks around wondering how he got so lucky as to be born or naturalized an American.
Third, imagine two Americans living in essentially identical socioeconomic conditions. They earn $45,000 a year, they have the same amount of debt on their homes, and both have the same number of dependents. One seeks governmental assistance wherever possible; the other eschews any governmental help. Which one is likely to be the liberal and which one is likely to be the happier individual?
This is not a question only an oracle can answer. The one who yearns for governmental help is the one who is likely to be both liberal and less happy. Conservatism, which demands self-reliance, makes one happier. The more a man or woman feels like captain of his or her ship (as poor as that ship may be), the happier he or she will be.
A fourth explanation for greater unhappiness among liberals is that the more people allow feelings to govern them, the less happy they will be. And the further left one goes, the more importance one attaches to feelings.
It is liberal educators and liberal parents who have clamored for protecting young people from the pain of losing games. The liberal world came up with the idea of giving trophies to kids who lose; they don’t want their children feeling bad. Conservatives, on the other hand, teach their kids how to lose well. They are less worried about their children feeling bad.
A couple of years ago, I gave a speech on happiness to the students and faculty of a prestigious high school in the Los Angeles area. The subject was the need to act happy even when one isn’t feeling happy — because it is unfair to others to inflict our bad moods on them and because we will never be happy if we allow our feelings to dictate our happiness.
From what I experienced that day and learned later, liberal students and faculty generally loathed my speech; conservative students generally loved it (there were no conservative faculty to speak of). Why? Because conservatives are far more likely to be comfortable with the idea that feelings are not as important as behavior.
Those who know that feelings must not govern us, but that we must govern our feelings, are far more likely to be happy people.
The upshot of all this? There is an amazingly simple way to defeat the Left: Raise children who are grateful to be American, who don’t complain, who can handle losing, and who are guided by values, not feelings. In other words, teach them how to be happy adults.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/253768/why-unhappy-people-become-liberals-dennis-prager?pg=2According to polls — Pew Research Center, the National Science Foundation... more
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Newt Gingrich's proposal to put poor children to work because, he says, they're not learning the "work habit" in public housing projects has been condemned by critics as worthy of a Dickens novel.
Those who followed the GOP presidential candidate's tumultuous legislative career in Washington say Gingrich's latest foray into child welfare is not an anomaly.
As House Speaker in the mid-1990s, Gingrich proposed banning welfare benefits for children born to unmarried young women and using the funds to build orphanages for youngsters whose parents were failing them.
But many of his critics, including some child advocates, say that both Gingrich's work and orphanage proposals have merit. It's the way he presents them that raises hackles.
"To me, this is vintage Newt," Ron Haskins, co-director of the Brookings Center on Children and Families, says of Gingrich's jobs-for-kids plan.
"He has a good point, but he says it in a way that many people find offensive," says Haskins, a former Republican congressional staff member and author of Work Over Welfare: The Inside Story of the 1996 Welfare Reform Law.
There is strong data that shows the lifelong benefits of learning the work ethic at an early age, Haskins says, from better pay to personal stability.
The nation's federal Fair Labor Standards Act sets 14 as the minimum age for most non-agricultural work, though states can pass stricter laws.
The federal act allows youngsters of any age to "deliver newspapers; perform in radio, television, movie or theatrical productions; work in businesses owned by their parents with the exception of mining, manufacturing or hazardous job." They can also babysit , perform "minor chores" around a private home, and "gather evergreens and make evergreen wreaths."
During the welfare overhaul debate in the 1990s, Gingrich in his push to "end welfare as we know it," sought to create state-run orphanages arguing that many children would be better off there than with dysfunctional parents.
During interviews, he talked about babies in dumpsters. Abandoned children. A "little four-year-old who was thrown off a balcony in Chicago [who] would have been a heck of a lot better off at Boys Town."
Richard McKenzie, an economics professor at the University of California Irvine, however, says he was inspired by the orphanage debate.
"I grew up in an orphanage, and before the media storm erupted over his proposal, I had never gone public about my upbringing," he said.
McKenzie ended up writing a column for the Wall Street Journal defending orphanages as imperfect but, as he says, "a damn sight better than what I had."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/12/07/143258836/gingrichs-proposals-on-child-labor-stir-attacks-but-raise-real-issuesNewt Gingrich's proposal to put poor children to work because, he says,... more
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At a time when Washington continues to struggle to trim deficits that approach $1.5 trillion annually, Republican-led states, along with a few Democratic officials, continue to take the tough steps necessary to balance their state
budgets without tax increases. Here are a few of those states and the policies they have put in place to achieve these impressive results:
In Virginia, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell stood firm against tax increases last year and balanced his state’s two-year budget. Virginia taxpayers were rewarded when Mr. McDonnell recently announced a surplus of $311 million for the fiscal year just completed because of higher-than-expected tax receipts. It’s questionable whether the surplus would have materialized had he raised taxes last year, as many were demanding.
In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal and the first Republican legislative majority since Reconstruction passed a $25 billion budget that closed a $1.5 billion hole without tax increases. Mr. Jindal also realized his goal of not reducing funds for kindergarten through 12th grade and higher education, though those programs would absorb inflationary costs. The budget establishes Coordinated Care Networks, which outsource to the private sector the job of matching Medicaid beneficiaries with physicians and other providers. Most impressively, for the first time, the Louisiana budget contains no “member amendments” - otherwise known as earmarks - for projects in districts of powerful members.
Missouri’s Republican-dominated legislature adopted a 2012 state spending plan of $23.2 billion - $500 million lower than last year. This figure includes an additional $170 million of cuts implemented by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, making Missouri an example of bipartisan cooperation in spending restraint. Such cooperation is enhanced by Missouri’s requirement, similar to the law in many states, that the governor submit a balanced budget and that no deficit be carried over to the next fiscal year.
At least two states saw no such bipartisan cooperation, yet in both cases, small-government forces triumphed. In North Carolina, the first Republican legislative majority since the 19th century enacted a balanced-budget plan that closed a $2.5 billion deficit (12 percent of the total budget) and allowed “temporary” sales and income tax increases enacted by the Democratic majority in 2009 to expire. Led by House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, Republicans cut spending about 4 percent in total, which was possible because state spending had doubled in the previous decade. Education spending reductions were paired with programs to strengthen classrooms and teaching. Classroom sizes were reduced, and a performance pay model for teachers and other state employees was established. The cap on charter schools in the state was eliminated. The budget also included substantial Medicaid savings by consolidating programs and creating greater efficiencies.
Liberal Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the budget, which was overridden promptly in both houses, with all Republicans and a few courageous Democrats voting to override.
In Minnesota, the Republican majority faced off against the very liberal Gov. Mark Dayton. Mr. Dayton, of course, proposed to increase taxes on the “wealthy.” The Legislature stood firm against any tax increases, resulting in a shutdown of state government for nearly three weeks. The final agreement closed a $5 billion deficit without raising taxes, and at least one tax, a 2 percent provider tax added to every patient bill in Minnesota, was phased out.
The Minnesota budget creates a Sunset Advisory Commission to review state agencies and programs, with the aim of enhancing program efficiencies. The budget also contains significant structural reforms that can substantially moderate state spending in the out years. On kindergarten-through-12th-grade education, state allocations to school districts will be based at least in part on student performance. Teacher evaluations were strengthened, and local school districts will not be penalized for not signing new agreements with their teachers unions at the beginning of the year.
In health care, the MinnesotaCare program was redesigned to provide vouchers to participants to purchase health insurance on the private market, a plan remarkably similar to Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan. The number of participants in the program is small, but over time, the results should tell us much about how enhanced consumer choice can improve health care affordability and quality.
The downsizing and rationalization of government continues at the state level because Republicans in charge - and some Democrats - are seizing the moment and putting forth real and constructive ideas on how government can be made less costly and more efficient. It’s a mindset more prevalent at the state level because constitutional and statutory provisions require legislators and governors at least to think about alternative strategies to balance their budgets. Compare that with a federal budget process and Washington culture that looks for every new and creative way to spend taxpayer dollars without any consideration of ultimate costs.
The irony is that it is Washington that is constantly telling the states how to handle their business affairs. Based on this year’s results, the states have much to teach Washington
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jul/29/republican-states-balancing-their-budgets/At a time when Washington continues to struggle to trim deficits that approach $1.5... more
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ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -
Private investigator TJ Ward said presidential hopeful Herman Cain was not lying at a news conference on Tuesday in Phoenix.
Cain denied making any sexual actions towards Sharon Bialek and vowed to take a polygraph test if necessary to prove his innocence.
Cain has not taken a polygraph but Ward said he does have software that does something better.
Ward said the $15,000 software can detect lies in people's voices.
CBS Atlanta's Mike Paluska played Cain's speech for Ward into the software and watched as it analyzed Cain's every word.
If he is hiding something this thing would have spiked way down here," said Ward. "He is being truthful, totally truthful. He is a man with integrity and he talked directly about not knowing any incident he is accused of."
The software analyzes the stress level and other factors in your voice. During the speech, when Cain denied the claims, the lie detector read "low risk." According to Ward, that means Cain is telling the truth.
During the section of Bialek's news conference where she says, "He suddenly reached over put his hand on my leg under my skirt and reached for my genitals he also grabbed my head brought it towards his crotch."
During the analysis of that section the software said "high risk statement." Ward said that means she is not telling the truth about what happened.
"I don't think she is fabricating her meetings," said Ward. But, she is fabricating what transpired."
Ward said nearly 70 law enforcement agencies nationwide use the voice software, including the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office.
Ward said the technology is a scientific measure that law enforcement use as a tool to tell when someone is lying and that it has a 95 percent success rate.
After listening to Cain's speech and analyzing it, Ward said there is no doubt, Cain is innocent.
"When he directly talks about the allegations against him there is no high risk," said Ward. "It is low risk, which tells me he is being truthful in his conversations to the public."
Copyright 2011 WGCL-TV. All rights reserved.
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/16002149/investigator-herman-cain-innocent-of-se...ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -
Private investigator TJ Ward said presidential hopeful... more
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I appeared on CNN to discuss President Obama's appointment of a tax cheating Goldman Sachs lobbyist to a top Treasury office - after pledging not to hire lobbyists in his administration. It was the second major lobbyist Obama has hired. For more details, see here: http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11152
Occupy Protesters Down on Obama, Survey Finds
By MARJORIE CONNELLY
Zuccotti Park in New York’s financial district is decked out with posters and signs for the wide array of political viewpoints of the Occupy Wall Street protesters. The six-week-old movement has several Web sites to promote various perspectives. But just who are these protesters? What is their political ideology? Do they have jobs?
Costas Panagopoulos, a professor of political science at Fordham University, recently conducted a survey of the Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York.
Dr. Panagopoulos described the protesters as “disgruntled Democrats.” Sixty percent of those surveyed said they voted for Barack Obama in 2008, and about three-quarters now disapprove of Mr. Obama’s performance as president. A quarter said they were Democrats, but 39 percent said they did not identify with any political party. Eleven percent identified as Socialists, another 11 percent said they were members of the Green Party, 2 percent were Republicans and 12 percent say they identified as something else.
Questionnaires handed out by Dr. Panagopoulos’s team of 15 interviewers throughout the park were completed by 301 adults from Oct. 14 to Oct. 18. “I followed the academic protocols that colleagues of mine adopted in the past to survey demonstrations,” he said.
In the survey, 80 percent described themselves as liberal; half of those said they were extremely liberal.
Most protesters surveyed had serious misgivings about the federal government: 52 percent said the government in Washington could be trusted to do what was right only some of the time, and another 42 percent said it could never be trusted. Similarly, almost all — 97 percent — disapprove of how Congress is doing its job.
Three in 10 of the Occupy Wall Street protesters picked unemployment as the most important problem facing the country, by far the top response. Ten percent said health care, followed by the federal deficit and government spending (9 percent) and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (9 percent).
Although most elected Democrats have offered only guarded support of the movement, more than two-thirds of those surveyed say the protest is likely to have an effect on the views of Democratic politicians. “They have ambitious expectations of the Democrats,” Dr. Panagopoulos said. “And are likely to be disappointed if their optimism is misplaced.” Most think the protests are less likely to change the opinions of Republican politicians.
Two-thirds of the survey respondents have attended college, and 25 percent are currently students. Thirty percent have full-time jobs and 18 percent are employed part-time. Forty percent are members of a union household. (Nationally, in a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, 58 percent of the general public have attended college and 62 percent are employed, either full-time or part-time.)
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/protesters-at-occupy-wall-street-disapprove-of-obama-a-survey-finds/I appeared on CNN to discuss President Obama's appointment of a tax cheating... more
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One factor favoring President Obama's re-election, according to a recent article by political scientist Alan Lichtman, is the absence of scandal in his administration.
Lichtman may have spoken too soon.
The reason can be capsulized in a single word: Solyndra.
That's the name of a company that manufactured solar panels in Fremont, Calif. (which voted 71 percent for Obama in 2008).
Solyndra was the first company to receive a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy as part of the 2009 stimulus package. This wasn't small potatoes. The loan guarantee was for $535 million.
It was, Vice President Biden said, "exactly what the Recovery Act was all about." Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize winner, said it would help "spark a new revolution that will put Americans to work." It was part of the Obama administration's program to create so-called "green jobs," which we were told were the key to future economic growth.
The beauty part is that a loan guarantee doesn't require the federal government to shell out cash unless and until the recipient defaults on the loan. If the company's business plan works out, the loan costs the government virtually nothing.
Obama paid a visit to Solyndra on a trip to California in May 2010. "It is here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter, more prosperous future," he said. Hailing the green jobs loan guarantee program, he went on, "We can see the positive impacts right here at Solyndra."
The White House even prepared a video about the company. The Solyndra personnel sound articulate and intelligent and seem to be really nice guys.
Unfortunately, there were other things going on at Solyndra for those with eyes to see. As my Washington Examiner colleague David Freddoso reported, an audit of the company performed by PriceWaterhouseCoopers two months before Obama's visit noted that the firm had accumulated losses of $558 million in its five years of existence.
The auditor noted that Solyndra "has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders' deficit that, among other factors, raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."
http://www.aei.org/article/104134?gclid=CNjAgYGnrKwCFQRShwod1Cyv-gOne factor favoring President Obama's re-election, according to a recent article... more
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Despite an increasing focus on accusations of sexual harassment leveled against him, businessman Herman Cain tops a Rasmussen Reports poll of likely Republican presidential primary voters released on Thursday.
Cain leads the pack with 26 percent, closely followed by former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts who takes 23 percent. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich stands in third place with 14 percent.
The rest of the field lags behind with single digits. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas places fourth with 8 percent followed by a fellow Republican from the Lone Star State, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, who takes fifth place with 7 percent. Former Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota are knotted in sixth place with 2 percent, followed by former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania with 1 percent. With two months to go before the Iowa caucus, which starts off the procession of states determining the Republican nominee, the poll found the race remains very fluid. Less than a third of Republicans surveyed -- 32 percent -- are sure they will back their current candidate, while 68 percent remain open to backing one of the other candidates.
The poll of 1,000 likely Republican primary voters was conducted on Nov. 2. The margin of error is +/- 3 percent.
Rasmussen Reports released another poll on Thursday finding that President Barack Obama and Romney are in a dead heat in a possible general election match-up. Obama receives 42 percent, while Romney is right behind him with 41 percent. http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/despite-sexual-harassment-claims-herman-cain-leads-gop-2012-primary-field.Despite an increasing focus on accusations of sexual harassment leveled against him,... more
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The American people – always astute given a long enough time horizon – seem to have determined that the decline of the nation’s fortunes are coincident with the ineffectiveness of the Obama Administration. The Obama Administration – perpetually convinced that symbolism is a serviceable substitute for performance – has opted to respond to this disenchantment by boarding whatever populist train happens to be passing at the time.
That’s the most logical explanation for the president’s recent decision to embrace the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, the protests that have taken to streets throughout the nation to prove that there’s a correlation between poor personal hygiene and poor civic hygiene.
The protesters – who don’t think twice (or perhaps even once) about the internal contradiction of tweeting on the evils of capitalism from the finest products produced by Silicon Valley – rage against an amorphous elite, claiming that 99 percent of Americans are victimized by a shadowy one percent, an elite cabal that sets the rules for the world in which the rest of us merely live.
The president is on their side, telling ABC News earlier this week, “I understand the frustrations that are being expressed in those protests." If that’s true, it puts him one step ahead of the demonstrators, who, a month after the protests began, are still trying to determine exactly what they want (one recent cry from the streets of New York has been to “nationalize the Fed,” proving that any noun will do in the language of the left).
Yet how does the most powerful man in the world declare solidarity with an anti-establishment movement? Obama is nothing if not an exemplar of the kind of unearned power and fortune that the “Occupy” crowds ostensibly decry.
He is a graduate of some of the nation’s most elite schools who never seems to have distinguished himself academically. He served as the president of the Harvard Law Review without ever publishing an article under his name. He lectured at the University of Chicago Law School (a tenure that has fed the inflated notion that he is a “constitutional scholar”), though one highly esteemed colleague of his there told me that Obama’s appeal in the classroom was based solely on personality and that students who actually knew the subject matter regarded him as intellectually shallow.
He became a multi-millionaire on the sales of two autobiographies that read as paeans to his own grandeur. And he was elected to the United States Senate and the presidency based almost entirely on his capacity behind a microphone. In short, Obama is the one percent.
Perhaps, though, the president is not quite as out of step with the movement as he appears at first blush. For “Occupy Wall Street’s” real priority seems to be less about afflicting the comfortable than severing the link between their contributions to society and their success.
The protesters have called for higher wages regardless of skill, single-payer health care, free college education and universal debt forgiveness. In essence, they demand that the fruits of a productive society be provided – at the expense of an unidentified third party – for those who refuse to generate that same productivity. In doing so, they show a philosophical congruence with an administration that has repeatedly demeaned the private sector as morally inferior to government work, proposing to subsidize the educations of public-sector workers over entrepreneurs and lambasting those who dream of life in the corner office.
A vibrant society, however, is contingent on the efforts of its productive class. In reality, it is the very private sector so loathed by the “Occupy” protesters – not the endless army of bureaucrats that the Obama Administration hopes to cultivate – that are the “public servants.” It is they who provide the goods and services that their countrymen want at a reasonable price; and if they don’t, they face the penalty of abject failure. It is they who get up early and leave their families behind to provide the medicine, build the universities and pay the wages that the protesters believe they are entitled to as a natural right.
In the end, it will be they who provide the sheer grit and innovation that rights a listing economy – despite the best efforts of an undiscerning president and his sophomoric acolytes in Lower Manhattan. http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/obamas-occupy-wall-street-problem-he-is-the-one-percent/question-2237193/The American people – always astute given a long enough time horizon –... more
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[Apparetly, the public has forgotten that the regime in DC already stole $550 BILLION DOLLARS from the medicare program via the obamacare scheme. Every time I see one of those AARP commercials I have to shake my head in disgust. AARP SUPPORTED THE OBAMACARE SCHEME!!!!! This was done not only to gain favor in the regime, and to line their own pockets with kickbacks. The obama regime promised AARP that, if they convinced their members to support the scheme, AARP would be allowed to offer their own insurance program to suppliment medicare.
PLEASE........ EXPLAIN THIS TO THE SENIORS AND DISABLED IN YOUR LIFE. THEY NEED TO KNOW THE AARP AND THE OBAMA REGIME ARE NOT ON THEIR SIDE.]
Super Committee wants to change the way inflation is calculated by adopting the so-called “Chained CPI” to reduce Cost of Living Allowances (COLAs).
For months we at SSI have warned that the congressional “Super Committee” is hiding in the weeds, waiting to cut Social Security benefits for current retirees—not in ten years, not in five years, not in two years—RIGHT NOW!
According to sources on Capitol Hill with whom we speak regularly, members of the Super Committee are seriously considering jiggering the way inflation is measured to understate inflation even more than it already is so they can cut Social Security benefits for current recipients and blame it on “technical adjustments.” Congress has “technically adjusted” Social Security benefits in half since they learned to play this despicable game back in the 1970s. Now they are at it again.
They intend to do it again by changing the way inflation is calculated so they can cut COLAs now. It’s called the Chained Consumer Price Index (Chained-CPI), and the politicians and bureaucrats are trying to slip it by the American people through the Super Committee backdoor, calling it merely a “technical refinement” of the index used to calculate inflation.
While the politicians and bureaucrats falsely describe adoption of the Chained CPI as nothing more than a “technical adjustment,” it would result in big lifetime losses in benefits for the average Social Security beneficiary. An average earner retiring in 2011 at age 65 would lose more than $6,000 over 15 years if the chained CPI were adopted today, assuming inflation remains mild—which few economists believe will happen. And, cutting benefits isn’t all the Chained CPI would do. Many seniors would end up paying thousands of dollars more in higher income taxes because moving to the Chained CPI also would reduce inflation indexing of the tax brackets.
Lower benefits, higher taxes. It’s the same old, same old attack on old people by the same old politicians and bureaucrats with outrageously large salaries, Cadillac healthcare coverage and cushy retirement plans.
Don’t let Congress put seniors in CPI chains.
Fax Members of Congress and tell them NO CHAINED CPI!
The debt deal President Obama signed into law earlier this year was a convoluted and deceptive scheme meant to trick the public into allowing the government to raise the debt limit again. In this legislation, Congress created a new powerful Super Committee to circumvent the regular legislative process so it can cut deals and protect their friends in secret behind closed doors. The Super Committee must come up $1.2 trillion in deficit-reduction proposals by November 23 or automatic, across-the-board “sequester” cuts will kick in. Those sequester spending reductions would EXCLUDE Social Security.
Tell Congress to take back the legislative process from the Super Committee. Let the automatic, across-the-board sequester kick in, which protects Social Security benefits from cuts.
Congress and President Obama are desperate to prevent the automatic sequester cuts from slicing federal spending other than Social Security across the board. Why is that? Because such reductions, which would protect seniors’ Social Security benefits, would cut deeply into Washington’s sacred cows cherished by the special interests that bankroll the election campaigns of Members of Congress and the president. That is why the Super Committee is conniving to cut Social Security benefits in an underhand fashion through a “technical” change in the CPI Index.
It wasn’t enough that Congress robbed the Social Security Trust Fund for 25 years to pay for everything except Social Security. It wasn’t enough that they didn’t invest the money but instead spent it on everything from paper clips to battleships.
It wasn’t enough when the federal government and Wall Street conspired to turn our financial markets into a giant casino. It wasn’t enough that when the casino went bust the banks got bailed out. It wasn’t enough when the Fed printed trillions of dollars of new money out of thin air to “purchase” the banks’ bad assets in the name of “financial stability.” It wasn’t enough that this flood of new money eventually will result in much higher inflation. No, that wasn’t enough for the Washington-Wall-Street Axis of Avarice. Now they intend to sell out seniors by using the very inflation they created to feather their own nests and bail out their cronies to cut Social Security benefits under the smoke screen of “technical adjustments.”
http://twg2a.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/obama-regime-bailed-out-the-banks-and-wall-street-seniors-and-disabled-got-sold-out/[Apparetly, the public has forgotten that the regime in DC already stole $550 BILLION... more
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Elitist Occupy Wall Street protestors view their law breaking disruptive protests as far superior to the peaceful tidy Tea Party.
The Tea Party rallies consist of concerned grandparents and small business owners. The Occupy Wall Street protests brag about how they have warrants out for their arrest and sell pot and heroine to other mob members.
The Left seems to think Obama is good at public policy and has devised a way of protesting Obama without protesting Obama and in fact still politically supporting him. A direct protest of Obama’s policies that the left is unhappy with would make them feel silly when they inevitably went back to support and vote for him in the coming election year, but this way the target is not Obama but the private sector. “Blame the banks, not Obama [or any other Liberal politician]“.
Leftists came up with the talking point to smear the Tea Party protests as being “Astro-turf” rather than grass roots, but never came through with any evidence of such. Though, while there has been no evidence to support the smear that the grass roots Tea Party movement was in fact Corporate manufactured, Occupy Wall Street on the other hand has been posting ads on Craigslist for paid protestors) and indeed organizers had admitted to paying some protestors before then.
The Unions are certainly on board. And Occupy Wall Street has the support of Iran as well: “A revolution and a comprehensive movement against corruption in the U.S. is in the making. The last phase will be the collapse of the Western capitalist system.”
Occupy Wall Street is a protest of “corporate greed” and has no clear goal.
The Tea Party is a group protesting big government and immediately became an effort to elect Constitutionalists to positions in politics.
Paul Krugman (and other NY Times editorial board members) claims the Plutocracy is in a Panic even though the Occupy Wall Street protestors are mostly well behaved – certainly better behaved than those Tea Party brutes…
Spoiler Alert: Krugman is not even close to being accurate.
The Tea Party has proved to consistently be a peaceful gathering in its manifestations across the country that cooperates with police and local authorities and cleans up after themselves when they are done (See the pictures of the Tea Party rally aftermath to the filth left behind after Obama’s Inauguration).
The “Anarchists for big government” that are the Occupy Wall Street protests have consistently been disruptive gatherings in its manifestations across the country that defies the police and local authorities, creating a terrible mess in their wake.
Commissioner Ray Kelly had some strong words for “Occupy Wall Street” protesters Thursday, blaming participants for starting skirmishes which led to more than 20 arrests on Wednesday.
“What they did is they counted. They actually had a countdown — 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 — they grouped together, they joined arms and they charged the police. They attacked the police. They wanted to get into Wall Street, they wanted to occupy Wall Street,” Kelly told reporters.
Police arrested 28 people Wednesday — mostly for disorderly conduct. There was at least one arrest for assaulting a police officer and police said one protester even knocked an officer off his scooter.
http://intorightfield.com/occupy-violence-vs-tea-party-peace/Elitist Occupy Wall Street protestors view their law breaking disruptive protests as... more
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Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain, long considered a second-tier Republican presidential candidate before his recent surge in the polls, now enjoys a slight lead over President Barack Obama according to Rasmussen Reports.
In the poll, Cain leads President Obama in a head-to-head contest 43 percent to 41 percent. All other Republican candidates included in recent Rasmussen surveys trail President Obama, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is viewed by many to be the GOP’s most electable option in 2012.
Cain leads Obama among men but trails narrowly among women, the poll finds. Obama wins the youth vote, but Cain beats Obama among respondents over 40, and has a 16-point lead among those over 65.
Cain’s popularity among independents is what gives him the edge against Obama. Only 72 percent of Republicans would vote for Cain, as opposed to 82 percent of Democrats who support Obama. However, Cain has a sizable 19-point lead among voters not affiliated with either party.
“Cain now has the chance to make the case for why he should be the challenger to Mitt Romney,” said Rasmussen Reports President Scott Rasmussen in a statement released with the poll. “Many others have auditioned for the role and fallen flat, and it remains to be seen whether Cain’s fate will be similar.”
The survey was conducted October 14 �“ 15. The margin of error for the poll is +/- 3 percentage points.
http://news.yahoo.com/poll-herman-cain-now-leads-obama-174426567.htmlFormer Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain, long considered a second-tier... more
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In 2008, the majority of Americans saw President Barack Obama as a rock-star who could do no wrong. Today, they pretty much disapprove of everything he does. While the disenchantment with Hope and Change is destroying Obama's favor among voters, stress cracks between Obama and fellow Democrats threaten to collapse the party from within.
Obama has lost support in every demographic in his base; the youth, Jews, Unions, Hispanics and African-Americans. Not even the death of Osama bin Laden could breathe lasting life into his approval rating. The majority now blame him for the economic mess.
Congressional Democrats have publicly criticized Obama's jobs bill. The Hill reports Democrat Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is giving the president "the silent treatment."
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are simply fed up.
Just like in 2010, incumbent Democrats are avoiding Obama like the plague. Democrats in Virginia's state legislature even told Obama to stay away from their districts.
In early October, Michael Goodwin described in the New York Post a picture of "an isolated man trapped in a collapsing presidency" whose only happiness can be found "on the campaign trail, where the adoration of the crowd lifts his spirits."
But even that respite is starting to evade him.
At his May 2008 campaign rally in Tampa, Fla., it was standing room only in St. Pete Times Forum -- a venue that seats 21,500. For a June fundraiser in Miami only 980 people were willing to purchase tickets for the 2,200-seat Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts.
In 2008, thousands came to see candidate Obama at the Mellon Center in Pittsburgh. After three years of his presidency only 300 cared to hear him speak at a South Side union hall.
Where Democrats in 2008 were "fired up," even the idea of voting in 2012 leaves them depressed.
Even the president admitted: "It's not as cool to be an Obama supporter as it was in 2008, with the posters and all that stuff."
Rasmussen and Zogby have Herman Cain leading Obama by two points.
Evolving Strategies shows Cain, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry could beat him.
Asked about the power of the GOP field of candidates, CNN reported Vice President Joe Biden saying; "It's strong enough to beat both of us."
A month ago, Politico reported Democrat strategist James Carville offering a single word of advice for the struggling president: "Panic."
Considering the steady disintegration of Obama and the entire Democrat party since then, perhaps next time Carville will be inspired to offer two words of counsel -- give up.
http://news.yahoo.com/steady-disintegration-obama-democrat-party-185900355.htmlIn 2008, the majority of Americans saw President Barack Obama as a rock-star who could... more
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The extreme funk that settled over the country during the summer has eased slightly, but Americans remain gloomy about the economy and more than half say President Barack Obama does not inspire confidence about a recovery.
A sizable majority - more than 7 in 10 - believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and, in a new high, 43 percent describe the nation's economy as "very poor," according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. Among those surveyed, less than 40 percent say Obama's proposed remedies for high unemployment would increase jobs significantly.
The pessimism is not a good sign for the nation's recovery hopes and presents a more urgent challenge for Obama as he mounts his re-election bid.
About 4 in 10 think unemployment will rise in the coming year; just 23 percent expect it to decrease. And few expect the government to be able to help. Only 41 percent say the government can do much to create jobs, and less than 40 percent say the main elements of Obama's jobs proposal would increase employment significantly.
What's more, expectations for the coming year have not improved, with 41 percent believing the economy will remain the same, 27 percent saying it will get worse and 30 percent saying it will improve.
http://www.wten.com/story/15742329/ap-gfk-poll-hope-weak-for-economy-obama-remediesWASHINGTON (AP) - The extreme funk that settled over the country during the summer has... more
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The solution to the nation's jobs crisis: suspend congressional elections?
That was the proposal put forward by North Carolina's governor, who was trying to make a point at a Rotary Club event that political considerations are hindering efforts in Washington to tackle unemployment and economic stagnation.
"I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover," Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat, said, according to a report by the Raleigh News & Observer. "You want people who don't worry about the next election. "http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/27/north-carolina-governor-suggests-susp...The solution to the nation's jobs crisis: suspend congressional elections?... more
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WASHINGTON — In a fiery summons to an important voting bloc, President Barack Obama told blacks on Saturday to quit crying and complaining and "put on your marching shoes" to follow him into battle for jobs and opportunity.
And though he didn't say it directly, for a second term, too.
Obama's speech to the annual awards dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus was his answer to increasingly vocal griping from black leaders that he's been giving away too much in talks with Republicans -- and not doing enough to fight black unemployment, which is nearly double the national average at 16.7 percent.
"It gets folks discouraged. I know. I listen to some of y'all," Obama told an audience of some 3,000 in a darkened Washington convention center.
But he said blacks need to have faith in the future -- and understand that the fight won't be won if they don't rally to his side.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/25/obama-to-congressional-bl_n_979708.html
"CBC member Maxine Waters reacts to Obama: We're not complaining
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., a member of the Congressional Black Caucus who's been critical this year of President Obama's response to the high unemployment within the black community, said she found it "curious" that Mr. Obama this weekend told black leaders to "stop complaining."
"I don't know who he was talking to because we're certainly not complaining," Waters said on CBS' "The Early Show."
Waters said she doesn't think the president would speak like that to other minority communities.
"I found that language a bit curious because the president spoke to the Hispanic Caucus, and certainly they're pushing him on immigration... he certainly didn't tell them to stop complaining," she said. "And he would never say that to the gay and lesbian community, who really pushed him on Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20111619-503544.htmlWASHINGTON — In a fiery summons to an important voting bloc, President Barack... more
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