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Latest Articles: Opinions/Editorials
The silver lining behind the NY 26 cloud
Post Date: 2011-05-27 17:36:27 by CZ82
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The silver lining behind the NY 26 cloud Steve McCann The mainstream media and the Democrats have been positively giddy this week over the results of the special election in House District 26 in Western New York. Beyond the obvious issues of the impact of a faux Tea Party candidate who spent nearly $3 million of his own money on the campaign and the actual minimal impact of the Medicare issue, the real story is: this is an almost non-story but one that benefits the Republicans in the longer run. The results of the 2010 Census will cause New York to lose 2 Congressional seats. As the Times Union (Albany N.Y.) points out: The 2010 Census map released Thursday suggests western New York ...
A Generational Divide?
Post Date: 2011-05-27 06:23:33 by CZ82
9 Comments
A Generational Divide? By Jeffrey Folks In Running on Empty, Peter G. Peterson excoriates the "we-first" attitude of retiring baby boomers. Having read Peterson's take on boomer retirement, one is left with the impression that boomers are selfishly intent on bankrupting future generations and driving America into permanent decline to boot. Happily, Peterson concludes, there is a solution: higher taxes and reduced benefits. This is what Peterson calls "real leadership." Breaking promises and raising taxes may seem like "leadership" to some, but in fact it is just another effort to excuse and facilitate irresponsible spending by future administrations. ...
NY 26: Democrats should thank Paul Ryan [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-05-24 23:58:48 by go65
67 Comments
There is no way for Republicans to spin away Democrat Kathy Hochul’s victory in New York’s deeply red 26th congressional district. This is a big setback for Paul Ryan’s budget and a warning for Republican incumbents everywhere. This is simply not a district a Republican should have lost. Conservative overreach has clearly woken up Democrats and has gone down badly with independents. The GOP can’t claim that Republican Jane Corwin lost because of a vote split with Tea Party candidate Jack Davis. With 87 percent of the precincts in, Hochul had 48 percent to Corwin’s 42 percent. Davis got just 9 percent, and the Green Party candidate picked up 1 percent. Let’s ...
Crime and Punishment Peels Kennedy From Conservatives
Post Date: 2011-05-24 21:54:06 by Ferret Mike
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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion forcing California to cut its inmate population sharpened his divide with conservative colleagues over what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Backed by the court's four liberals, Justice Kennedy has delivered a series of opinions since 2005 that have abolished the death penalty for minors and for adult criminals who left their victims alive. A Kennedy ruling also required that juvenile offenders be given an opportunity to seek parole unless their crimes included murder. And on Monday, the Reagan appointee wrote the decision prohibiting California from housing inmates in prisons incapable of providing with them ...
KISS' Gene Simmons: Obama "Has No F***ing Idea What The World Is Like"
Post Date: 2011-05-22 23:41:50 by Hondo68
22 Comments
"When you grow up you find out that life isn’t the way you imagined it, and President Obama means well. I think he’s actually a good guy. He has no f***ing idea what the world is like because he doesn’t have to live there," KISS vocalist and guitarist told CNBC. "The most pathetic body on the face of the planet." Simmons called the U.N. a "paper tiger" that allows dictators to spread propaganda. (H/T Newsbusters)
Pastors Respond to Cameron Diaz's Marriage Is Dying Remarks
Post Date: 2011-05-22 22:54:01 by Ferret Mike
4 Comments
Marriage is a “dying institution,” actress Cameron Diaz asserts. Psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow agrees with her and to a certain extent, so do pastors. “We go through our lives, day by day, striving to walk the walk, live like Christ, worship, pray and praise and do the right thing, yet in all honesty, our marriages are failing,” said the Revs. Mike and Trisha Fox of Marriage for Today and authors of Marriage for Today: A Practical Guide for Couples. Diaz’s views on marriage were revealed in the June issue of Maxim magazine. The 38-year-old actress said, “I don’t think we should live our lives in relationships based off old traditions that don’t suit ...
For Democrats, It's All About Tax Hikes
Post Date: 2011-05-22 09:34:01 by CZ82
21 Comments
Editorial: For Democrats, It's All About Tax Hikes Posted 05/20/2011 06:46 PM ET Politics: If nothing else, last week made it abundantly clear where Democrats stand on today's most pressing issues, and the picture isn't pretty. In case you missed it, the Democrats floated a plan for a millionaire surtax in an attempt to, as the Hill put it, "force Republicans to accept other tax increases." They tried to hike taxes on oil companies by more than $2 billion a year, because the industry is currently making big profits; and mounted a nationwide campaign to scare seniors away from Rep. Paul Ryan's Medicare reform — including a new ad that depicts Ryan tossing a ...
Obama and the Dilemmas of US Middle East Policy
Post Date: 2011-05-20 10:08:17 by go65
1 Comments
President Obama’s major policy address on the Middle East got many things right. He pointed to al- Qaeda and terrorism, which targets civilians, as a dead end. He sided rhetorically with the grassroots movements for greater democracy in the region. He condemned outright the longstanding regimes, like that of Hosni Mubarak, that had been US allies, which ruled through sordid police states. He pledged US support for democracy movements. He avoided hypocrisy by condemning US allies such as the king of Bahrain and President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen for repressing their own movements. He acknowledged the importance of ending the Palestinian people’s long sojourn in the wilderness of ...
Obama Cried, Kids Died
Post Date: 2011-05-19 06:57:11 by CZ82
2 Comments
Obama Cried, Kids Died by Ann Coulter "Humanitarian" seems to be the Democrats' new word for "absolutely no national interest." The Democrats were not so interested in a "humanitarian" intervention against a much more brutal dictator in Iraq. But, of course, taking out Saddam Hussein, a state sponsor of terrorism who harbored one of the perpetrators of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, would make Americans safer. Democrats are furious whenever American boys (girls and gays) are put in harm's way -- unless the troops are on a mission that has nothing whatsoever to do with defending the United States. Obama ignored the murder, imprisonment ...
To Liberals, Every Woman Looks Like a Hotel Maid
Post Date: 2011-05-19 06:46:29 by CZ82
5 Comments
To Liberals, Every Woman Looks Like a Hotel Maid by Ann Coulter, 05/18/2011 I suppose we'll know the truth when the DNA testing comes back, but close observers of privileged liberal men are not shocked by the accusations against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the socialist head of the International Monetary Fund. (And you thought you were getting screwed by your banker!) Only in Hollywood movies are handsome lacrosse players from nice families seen as likely rapists. In real life, they look more like the 5-foot-2-inch Roman Polanski or pudgy, unathletic Bill Clinton -- or the homunculus 5-foot-2-inch Strauss-Kahn. But, it is argued, how could Strauss-Kahn possibly think he could get away ...
The Tea Party's Defining Choice
Post Date: 2011-05-18 09:33:42 by go65
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Will the right-leaning movement elevate an effective small government reformer or a bombastic rhetorician in 2012? In a New York Times piece on the primary challenge that GOP Senator Richard Lugar faces, this passage struck me: "Mr. Lugar is trying to run on moderation in an immoderate time. He is betting that the Tea Party call of alarm and partisanship is drowning out a majority that prefers Republicans who specialize in reason and reaching across the aisle." The tea party movement is defined in that sentence by the ferocity of its rhetoric rather than the substance of its small government agenda. Insofar as there are a lot of tea party voters who earnestly care about the ...
What Rand Paul could teach Ron Paul
Post Date: 2011-05-17 19:29:14 by A K A Stone
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Rep. Ron Paul (R- Texas) found himself in an unusual position at the South Carolina GOP presidential debate. According to most polls, Paul was the frontrunner of the five candidates on stage. Though some big names were missing, it signals how far Paul has come in four years. Consider that Paul registers more national support than former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is already running, and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who may soon enter. Pawlenty and Daniels are widely considered to have a chance at winning the GOP nomination. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is barely ahead of Paul in the Real Clear Politics polling average. With Donald Trump and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee ...
The Bridge: In Honor of Malcolm X
Post Date: 2011-05-17 16:17:26 by Ferret Mike
2 Comments
*May 19th is the birth date of El Haaj Malik El-Shabazz, known to us as Malcolm X. Who was Malcolm X? Malcolm X was a number of things to a number of people. To white racists, he was the physical manifestation of the chickens coming home to roost—the sins of the father being visited upon the sons. He was committed to the respect and protection of the Black community and unwavering in the extent to which he was willing to go and to which he was willing to influence millions to go to oppose and stamp out oppression. His mission? In his own words, it was “to bring about the complete independence of people of African descent here in the western hemisphere…and bring about ...
Hugh Hewitt: The GOP Debate and the President's Political Weakness (Exile Cain, Paul, Johnson)
Post Date: 2011-05-15 17:20:15 by go65
4 Comments
Rick Santorum impressed most observers, while Ron Paul did what Ron Paul does and so his supporters cheered wildly. The declared GOP contenders in the first tier (Gingrich, Pawlenty and Romney) are well advised to stay clear of any setting that asks for a "show of hands" on any question, as such questions are the very definition of media-driven narratives. "Waterboarding" as an up-or-down question? Really? But that is the nature of televised events. Theater sneaks in. The GOP doesn't need any theater against President Obama. The issue remains incompetence and economic incoherence at home and fecklessness abroad. Yes, we can still say the president is committed to ...
Republicans Lie and News Media Spread It
Post Date: 2011-05-15 12:17:37 by Ferret Mike
2 Comments
The Audacity of No. The Republican Party has put the country into serious financial jeopardy. Now they blame others. Two Republican wars, two Republican tax cuts mostly to the wealth and a Republican prescription drug benefiting drug companies – and NONE paid for by the party that now sees disaster in deficits. What gall. Of course, one of the leaders of the dire need to deal with the deficit is our own Sen. George Voinovich. His image burnished by the Plain Dealer and Steve Koff recently as so, so concerned about our profligate spending. In a paean of praise, Koff recently credited Voinovich, who ends his career this year, with going out by working to “force Washington to ...
Presbyterian Church U.S.A.: Faith and gay rights
Post Date: 2011-05-15 09:53:45 by Ferret Mike
8 Comments
The Rev. Bear Ride, left, and her spouse, the Rev. Susan Craig, celebrate with Brian Symonds, who hopes to become the first openly gay person ordained by the Pacific Presbytery. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times / May 10, 2011) Last week, a majority of the 173 presbyteries making up the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. voted to amend the church's constitution and allow openly gay and lesbian members to become ordained ministers, elders and deacons. The vote followed decades of debate and more than six months of voting. In taking this action, I believe our church moved a step forward and brought itself closer in line with Christ's all-embracing love. But it's not a step all ...
Could Democrats Retake the House?
Post Date: 2011-05-13 16:03:09 by Ferret Mike
4 Comments
Six months after suffering a shellacking in November’s midterm elections, Democrats believe they can pick up the 25 seats they need to snatch back the House. Mapping out a path to 2012 may be a fool’s errand this far out. But political momentum and the topography of the electoral landscape suggest that they have a shot at retaking the lower chamber. In 2010, Republicans vaulted with historic gains on a promise to impose fiscal discipline. So far, their 2012 budget blueprint doesn’t appear to include the kind of austerity most voters had in mind. Acrimonious town halls during last month’s spring recess displayed constituents’ unease over Representative Paul ...
Former CIA Interrogator: Painstaking Intelligence Work, Not Torture, Responsible For Bin Laden Capture
Post Date: 2011-05-12 20:37:58 by Ferret Mike
34 Comments
Shortly after President Obama announced that U.S. military forces killed Osama bin Laden, right-wing torture apologists seized the opportunity, stating, without any definitive evidence whatsoever, that information gleaned from torturing Al Qaeda detainees led to bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan. While reliable sources, such as Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said this week that the information did not come from torture (or to use the Bush administration’s term “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”), at this point it is at best unclear how this information was obtained. What if a tiny piece of information that led to bin Laden came from torture ...
Torture apologists stain triumph over bin Laden
Post Date: 2011-05-12 18:44:42 by Ferret Mike
3 Comments
The killing of Osama bin Laden after a fierce firefight in his Abbottabad compound is a great victory for our military and intelligence forces and for our civilian leadership. But the handwringing about whether it looked as though bin Laden was reaching for a gun or suicide belt, as if this were some who-is-the fastest-gun-in-the-West movie, and about whether we violated Pakistani sovereignty by going in after him is risible. As the code of war that Abraham Lincoln promulgated in 1863 — the first anywhere — made clear: “military necessity admits of all direct destruction of life or limb of armed enemies .41;.41;. it allows of the capturing of .41;.41;. every enemy of ...
SlutWalk may be coming to Milwaukee
Post Date: 2011-05-11 07:17:09 by Ferret Mike
1 Comments
Toronto was the first site for a SlutWalk march to protest an officer’s comment that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized." A similar march may be coming to Milwaukee. Event follows path to discussion about rape If you want to get people's attention, call your event SlutWalk Milwaukee. "People hear the word and say, 'You're doing what?'34;" said Michele Stander-Reimer, who is organizing the walk here. Then they're ready to have a conversation about sexual violence and how victims are still being blamed because of the way they dress, or because they drank too much or had previous sexual partners. The ...
If You Are Unemployed, Should You Move Somewhere Else In Order To Find A Job?
Post Date: 2011-05-09 23:47:44 by A K A Stone
3 Comments
It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Unfortunately, millions of Americans find themselves slowly going insane as they apply for hundreds upon hundreds of jobs and yet never get hired. It is incredibly difficult to get a good job in most areas of the United States today. So if you are unemployed, and there are no jobs in your area, should you move somewhere else in an attempt to find work? That is a very hard question. Of course if what you are currently doing right now is not working it is only natural to want to change course, but sadly unemployment is absolutely rampant all over the United States. Today, ...
The Obama – Osama bin Laden Lie
Post Date: 2011-05-08 23:38:23 by A K A Stone
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>www.extremumspiritum.com/images/2009/12/obama-osama.jpg"> I truly believe Osama Bin Laden is dead. But not recently dead. Based on evidence I believe that Osama Bin Laden has been dead for several years and that the government has concocted the recent kill story to tie up loose ends. The U.S. government needed to make the world believe that Bin Laden was still alive to give them an excuse to stay in Afghanistan and Pakistan to continue what ever corrupt agenda the U.S. government has. Now that the U.S. government no longer needs Osama Bin Laden as an excuse to be in (or stay in) Afghanistan and Pakistan they have decided it is a good time to kill him off. Not really kill him ...
Rand vs. Rubio
Post Date: 2011-05-08 19:19:39 by A K A Stone
3 Comments
The Tea Party scored its two biggest triumphs last year with the election of Sens. Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. Both were discouraged from running by leaders of their own party. Both had to overcome the determined opposition of the Republican establishment to make it through their primaries in the first place. Paul and Rubio were both uncharacteristically honest about the need for entitlement reform, going so far as to contemplate means-testing Social Security even though they needed the votes of senior citizens. Paul was running in Kentucky, where about 60 percent of the registered voters are Democrats. Rubio stood for election in Florida, a retirement mecca. Both won in November by ...
Analysis: Reimagining Obama after gutsy raid
Post Date: 2011-05-07 09:15:07 by Ferret Mike
5 Comments
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was just a firehouse chat with the guys of Engine 54 in lower Manhattan. But President Barack Obama delivered a message he hopes will also hit home with every American in this week of national catharsis: "You're always going to have a president and an administration who's got your back." In the denouement to the daring raid that brought down Osama bin Laden, the president has in effect been reintroduced to the nation. While taking care to strike the right tone — trying to savor the success of the dramatic covert operation without appearing to gloat — Obama has offered himself as a decisive leader willing to take bold risks. He's ...
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