Who Gets Rich In The Obama Economy

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Today’s Daily Caller posted an article about President Obama’s speech in Las Vegas calling for a plan to boost the American use of natural gas. I’m sure it is only a coincidence that George Soros will benefit greatly if the plan is put into action.

The Daily Caller reports:

Westport Innovations, a recent purchase by Soros, would benefit from the windfall of policies that pursue the use of natural gas for transportation. The company, whose shares have been projected to explode if Congress were to approve the Natural Gas Act, makes natural gas engines for heavy-duty trucks.

“Soros’s investment funds have pumped about $122 million into WPST, and he’s added to his control as recently as December and March, when he picked up over a million shares, bringing his total to 5.5 million shares,” reported BigGovernment.

“If Westport reaps the predicted windfall, one of the chief beneficiaries will be George Soros, a major Obama donor and supporter. Soros’s hedge fund holds.

There have been a lot of investments in ‘green energy’ by political leaders who felt that they could put policies in place that would reward them rather than be in the best interests of America. We need to remember that specific legislation was passed before Solyndra declared bankruptcy that put the American taxpayer on the hook for the loss rather than the investors in the company. We also need to remember that in the bankruptcy of Chrysler, the interests of the unions were protected over the interests of the Preferred Stockholders, which is against bankruptcy law.

Crony capitalism seems to be one of the strongest traits of the Obama Administration. When November comes, we need to end both crony capitalism and the Obama Administration.

 

 
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Another Foreign Policy Blunder

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Hot Air posted an article today about the status of the oil exploration that the Obama Administration loaned Brazil’s oil company Petrobras $2 billion to support.

President Obama stated at the time the money was given to Brazil:

“We want to work with you. We want to help with technology and support to develop these oil reserves safely, and, when you’re ready to start selling, we want to be one of your best customers.”

At the same time the President was giving the $2 billion for Brazilian oil exploration, he was drastically slowing down leasing and permitting in the US and whining about “subsides” to US oil corporations. It was okay to subsidize Brazilian companies doing oil exploration, but for some reason it was not okay to subsidize American oil companies.

The article points out:

The country’s state-controlled oil company, Petrobras, expects to pump 4.9 million barrels a day from the country’s oil fields by 2020, with 40 percent of that coming from the seabed. One and a half million barrels will be bound for export markets.

The United States wants it, but China is getting it.

Less than a month after President Obama visited Brazil in March to make a pitch for oil, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was off to Beijing to sign oil contracts with two huge state-owned Chinese companies.

This is not good news. When America has a weak President, bad things happen.

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Facts Are Such Inconvenient Things

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One of the highlights of the President’s State of the Union speech was his stating a plan to open 38 million acres for oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and a contest for natural gas technology.

Erik Milito, upstream director for the American Petroleum Institute (API), was not particularly impressed by the plan.

An article posted today at UPI.com:

Milito noted the lease sale outlined by the Obama administration was originally included in a program that became effective in 2007. Obama’s critics said the White House was in essence trying to generate political capital based on decisions made by the previous administration.

The API said Obama’s lease announcements left more than 85 percent of offshore areas off limits to energy explorers.

This is another reason voters have to pay close attention to anything said by any politician running for office this year. There will be a lot of misinformation floating out over the airwaves and in print in your local and national newspapers. It’s up to us to be our own fact-checkers!

 

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Remembering A Great Comedy Series

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Admittedly the role models were questionable at best, but Welcome Back Kotter was one of my children’s favorite shows when they were growing up. It was a fun show and the actors on it were extremely talented and always seemed to enjoy what they were doing.

NJ.com reported today that Robert Hegyes, who played Juan Epstein on the show, died this morning in Metuchen,, New Jersey. He was 60.

The article reports:

He graduated from Rowan University (then Glassboro State College) with a bachelor’s degree in speech/theater and secondary education — Rowan spokesman Joe Cardona called him a “great friend” of the school, noting that he sported a Rowan shirt while co-starring as Det. Esposito on “Cagney and Lacey” — and quickly found work in New York, co-starring Off-Broadway in “Naomi Court” and in the Broadway drama “Don’t Call Back.” He was then cast as Epstein, a role he played for “Kotter”‘s four-season run on ABC.

Mr. Hegyes was part of a cast of characters that gave us a lot of laughs during the four-season run of Welcome Back Kotter. He represents a type of free-flowing comedy that we don’t seem to have on television at the present time. He will be missed.

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One More Short Note On The State Of The Union Speech

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We all heard about the excessive tax burden of Warren Buffett’s Secretary (who makes more than $200,000 per year), but my sympathy for this lady is running a little thin. I am glad she makes what she makes, but the fact that she is overtaxed has nothing to do with what Mr. Buffett pays in taxes–it has to do with the fact that the government is overspent.

Yesterday The Smoking Gun pointed out that this poor overtaxed lady just bought  a second home in Arizona, complete with a swimming pool and a “professional PGA putting green,” according to real estate records.

The article reports:

The principal Bosanek residence is in Bellevue, Nebraska, several miles from Buffett’s corporate headquarters in Omaha. The couple’s 2568-square-foot home, built in 2000, also has four bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths. But the modest property, which Sarpy County assessors last year valued at $217,716, offers no outdoor amenities for swimmers or golfers.

All  of us are overtaxed. Mr. Buffett is not undertaxed. The government is overspent.

 

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Something That Wasn’t Mentioned In The State Of The Union Speech

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I haven’t written anything about the State of the Union speech because I thought it was a political exercise. This is the ‘silly season’ and truth is a rare commodity in political speeches right now (not that it is always there in other times). However, the Wall Street Journal posted an editorial today that makes some very good points.

This is the chart from the editorial:1buffettrule

As you can see, the federal tax rate on long-term capital gains has varied a lot over the years. The article points out the fallacy of the “Buffett Rule” that President Obama is proposing which would make wealthy Americans give more of their money to the government. The Congressional Budget Office reports that the effective income tax rate of the richest 1% is actually about 29.5%. That is the rate you come up with when you include all federal taxes–such as the distribution of corporate taxes. That is about twice the 15.1% rate paid by middle-class families.

Investment income has already been taxed once. There is no reason to tax it again unless you are trying to redistribute wealth.

The article points out:

As the nearby chart shows, the rate has never since risen above 28%, and the last time it moved that high was in 1986 as part of the Reagan-Rostenkowski tax reform that also cut the top marginal income tax rate to 28% from 50%. With income-tax rates so low, a differential was arguably less necessary—though it’s worth noting that capital gains revenues fell dramatically after that rate increase.

A decade later Bill Clinton agreed to cut the rate back to 20% as part of the balanced-budget deal with Newt Gingrich. Capital gains revenues soared, helping to balance the federal budget. Nearly every study estimates that the revenue-maximizing tax rate from the capital gains tax is between 15% and 28%. Doug Holtz-Eakin, the former director of the Congressional Budget Office, says that a 30% tax rate “is almost surely above the rate that maximizes tax revenues.” So it’s likely the Buffett trick would lose revenue for the government.

So if we are in a time of federal deficits, why would you change the tax code in a way that would lose revenue for the government? Unless you are using the tax code to redistribute wealth, it makes no sense.

 

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It’s Getting Hard To Figure Out Who Is Playing Fair

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Sometimes I get very frustrated when I look at news stories and try to figure out who is telling the truth. During the ‘silly season’ which we are currently in, it is sometimes difficult to sort out truth from fiction.

Today’s Daily Caller reported that Media Matters for America (MMFA), a supposedly non-partisan organization which is tax-exempt, is lobbying Congress for support in opposing the Keystone Pipeline.

The article reports:

In an email distributed to the offices of both Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican Sen. James Inhofe on Wednesday — and obtained by The Daily Caller — Media Matters employee Emilee Pierce sought to “flag” a liberal study by the organization released Thursday in an effort to manipulate coverage of the Keystone pipeline.

The email, addressed to Boxer staffer Mary Kerr and Inhofe staffer Matt Dempsey, sought to “flag that MMFA will be putting out a major, quantitative report on media coverage of KXL tomorrow [Thursday] morning.”

“The study will be similar to our [Environmental Protection Agency] counting study (http://mediamatters.org/research/201106070010) — and will drill home the point the media bought right into Big Oil’s desired frame on KXL,” the email reads, “focusing largely on the (inflated) number of jobs that could be created, without paying due attention to the many other important issues at stake. (Ranchers’ land, spills, climate change, etc.)”

“We are hoping for a big media splash,  but — more importantly — we’re hoping that allies will be able to leverage it to gain favorable coverage,” Pierce continued.

Media Matters for America on its website describes itself as:

Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.

This is not correcting conservative misinformation–this is putting out their own misinformation in concert with members of Congress who should know better. Their tax-exempt status should be investigated.

 

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A Letter From Iran

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Michael Yon is one of my favorite reporters. His website is MichaelYon-online.

This is a brief summary of some of his work:

I first traveled to Iraq in December 2004, but the prime impetus to go occurred almost nine months earlier, after two friends were killed in two days in Iraq–one in Falluja, the other in Samara. In April, 2004, I attended both their funerals, also days apart, one in Colorado, the other in Florida. I met many veterans of the war on terror, some of whom encouraged me to go to Iraq or Afghanistan, and write the truth.

One childhood friend in particular—Rodney Morris—regularly called and emailed me, asking me to come over to Iraq, where he was then known as Lieutenant Colonel Morris. My initial reaction was, “Are you crazy!? I am a writer, not a war correspondent.” I thought there was nothing I could offer, and being intimately familiar with the effects of bombs and bullets, and having no wish to be burned alive or shot down, I repeatedly declined. But those two funerals, coming so close upon each other, got me thinking.

In a decision that entailed shelving serious investments in labor and time, I put current projects on hold and packed off for Iraq. When 2004 turned into 2005, I was in Baquba, near Baghdad. At that time, heading into Iraq’s historical first elections, there was daily fighting in Baquba. It was definitely newsworthy, but I was not sponsored by or affiliated with any media organizations. In fact, I had barely heard of the word “Blog,” when about three weeks into January 2005, I blogged my own first dispatch from Baquba.

Today Michael posted the following letter from a young woman in Iran. This is his dispatch:

A young Iranian woman has written to me off and on for a couple of years.  Yesterday she sent a note.

I responded in part with a few questions:

What do young Iranians think about our government and about the Iranian government?  Also, do you think there will be war?

She replied immediately.  I corrected some minor grammar:

“To make the long story short people in Iran, not just youth, hate the government and want to move out of the country as soon as they can.  My sister [deleted] is moving to [deleted] with her husband this July and then when my mother gets retired, me, my younger sister [deleted] and my parents will sell our house and move to live with them.  My father isn’t convinced yet but all he needs is time, I’m sure he will choose to come with us.

“I am a patriot and I will remain one no matter where I am, but lets face it. Things are bad and getting worse as every day goes by. I have plans for my future and do not want to stay in a country where my skills and capabilities are most likely going to waste.

“The Iranians do not hate you nor do they hate ur government.  This is all the media.  The people have nothing to do with the media Michael.  No one is against you here except for those on the government’s side.  Unfortunately they’re not few, they’re actually many, but they won’t last forever. Someday this is all gonna turn upside down.  Sometimes I ask myself do I wanna be here for the next revolution?  I dunno …

We need to remember that although Iran is currently ruled by evil people, the people of the country are not all evil. My heart goes out to this lady and my sympathy goes out to her for what she has been through. The best answer for Iran would be for the people of overthrow the current government, but I suspect the government has done away with anyone with the potential to lead such a revolution. The country is not evil–the government of the country is.

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Some Further Information To Add To The Pile

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As I have stated, I am not supporting any particular Republican candidate right now. I am, however, concerned about the circular firing squad the Republican candidates seem to be forming. The debates seem to be saving the Democrats a lot of time and effort when it comes to future opposition research.

On February 9, 1999, Brent Bozell posted a column at Creators Syndicate about the charges against Newt Gingrich.

The column states:

The judgment is in. After three and a half years of investigation, the IRS has cleared Newt Gingrich and his allied nonprofit groups of any violation of the tax laws in the controversy over his television history course “Renewing American Civilization.”

So after having run countless news reports highlighting the accusations that ultimately forced Gingrich to pay a $300,000 fine, did the media correct the record with a decent airing of the decision? Are you ready? ABC, CBS, and NBC devoted exactly zero seconds to Newt Gingrich’s vindication. Only CNN’s Brooks Jackson filed a decent TV report, on the early-evening show “Inside Politics.”

No wonder no one knows that he was cleared of the charges. It seems to me that if the truth ever comes out, those who are still claiming that Newt is guilty of something will look worse than Newt!

The column goes on to detail some of the press coverage of the events and contrasts them with other situations involving Democrats. The bias is obvious. We need to understand that the press is no longer maintaining any semblance of impartial reporting. When the facts get in the way, they simply fail to report them.

 

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Cheers For The Second Amendment

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The Daytona Beach News-Journal posted a story today about a 64-year-old grandmother who stopped a car thief in his tracks. Karen Granville stated that she was up late because her cat woke her up. She was watching the Bravo channel when she heard a police helicopter hovering over her house. She saw the suspect, Roderick Willis, run into her backyard and attempt to climb over her fence. The quick-thinking lady grabbed her .38 Special revolver and followed him.

The article quotes her statement:

“My adrenaline was just flowing at 100 mph,” she said. “I just said, ‘Stop right there (expletive), or you’re going to be dead where you stand.”

Granville held the man at gunpoint until police arrived.

This is my kind of grandmother!

The article further reports:

This is the second time in less than two weeks older city residents have armed themselves to stop would-be criminals.

Charles Robbins, 82, shot and killed 24-year-old Tyler Orshoski after the man apparently tried to break into his home Jan. 11.

Police Chief Mike Chitwood said he doesn’t encourage vigilante justice but said people have the right to protect themselves or their property.

Part of the problem might be found in another part of the article:

Willis was charged with fleeing and eluding law enforcement, driving with a suspended license, use of a vehicle to commit a felony, possession of marijuana, possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute. He was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on Tuesday and released after posting $7,500 bail.

Willis, who could not reached by phone Tuesday night, spent time in jail last year for fleeing officers, court records show.

Volusia County sheriff’s officials say the Dodge Charger belonged to Hertz Rental Car Co. and was turned over to the company. Willis was not charged with vehicle theft.

One does wonder why he was not charged with vehicle theft and why the bail was so low. No wonder the citizens are arming themselves.

 

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Another Inconvenient Truth

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Yesterday Real Clear Politics posted an article containing a quote from Nancy Pelosi regarding Newt Gingrich:

“There is something I know. The Republicans, if they choose to nominate him that’s their prerogative. I don’t even think that’s going to happen.”

Aside from the blackmail and veiled threat aspect of this statement, there are a few other aspects that need to be examined.

Newt has responded to Ms. Pelosi before:

“First of all, I want to thank Speaker Pelosi for what I regard as an early Christmas gift,” he said at a press conference in New York.

“Well, if she suggested that she’s going to use material that she developed when she was on the ethics committee, that is a fundamental violation of the rules of the House and I would hope that members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it,” he continued. “I think it shows you how capriciously political that committee was when she was on it.”

Byron York posted an article at the Washington Examiner yesterday detailing what happened in the House investigation of Newt Gingrich in the 1990′s. Please follow the link to the article and read the details. The bottom line is that this was a political witch hunt driven by a man who had lost an election to Newt Gingrich (Ben Jones) and had a bone to pick. I also think that part of the problem was that Newt was a threat to both the Republican and Democrat establishment and neither one liked the changes he was making. I have not yet made up my mind who I am supporting in the Republican Primaries, but the fact that Newt is a threat to the Washington establishment works for him rather than against him in my book.

This is a quote from the Byron York article that describes the events that led to the end of Newt’s term as Speaker of the House:

Two days before Election Day 1994, with defeat in sight, Jones hand-delivered a complaint to the House ethics committee (the complaint was printed on “Ben Jones for Congress” stationery). Jones asked the committee to investigate the college course, alleging that Gingrich “fabricated a ‘college course’ intended, in fact, to meet certain political, not educational, objectives.” Three weeks later, Jones sent the committee 450 pages of supporting documents obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act.

That was the beginning of the investigation. Stunned by their loss of control of the House — a loss engineered by Gingrich — House Democrats began pushing a variety of ethics complaints against the new Speaker. Jones’ complaint was just what they were looking for.

At some point Americans have to grow up and do their own research. To accept blindly the charges being leveled at Newt Gingrich is naive at best and dangerous to the electoral process at worst. In recent years, the media has been working in concert with the Democrat Party on the politics of personal destruction. They have been very successful. If we the public continue to allow that to happen, a lot of good candidates will decide not to run for office. We need to remember that when President Obama won his election for the Senator from Illinois he did it by exposing highly personal irrelevant information on his major opponents in order to drive them out of the race. That has been his strategy in the past, we need to prevent him from using that strategy in the future. It is our job as voters to be careful what we believe and to refuse to accept blindly what we are told is the truth.,

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How Many Jobs Have Been Lost During The Obama Administration Because Of Crony Capitalism ?

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The link for this article is The Examiner. The article was originally at Bloomberg.com, linked to by the Drudge Report, but Bloomberg took it down. I’m sure there is a story behind that.

President Obama has said ‘no’ to the Keystone Pipeline. It is very possible that Canada will build a different pipeline across Canada to sell the oil to China. There is also another possibility. A railroad, coincidentally owned by Warren Buffet, can transport the oil for $3 a barrel more. Either way, the American consumer is the loser.

President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone Pipeline made no sense–unions supported the pipeline, and it would have created many jobs. Now it seems to make sense.

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In Search Of An Honest Election

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Today’s Daily Caller is reporting that Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler has charged that the Obama Justice Department is using selective enforcement of parts of the federal Motor Voter law to advance a political agenda.

The article reports:

The Obama DOJ filed suit against Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration in July 2011, claiming that the state failed to provide eligible voters with sufficient opportunities to register. Under Section 7 of the Motor Voter law that President Bill Clinton signed in 1993, state health and social service agencies are required to offer voter registration forms to all eligible adults.

Project Vote, an affiliate of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has filed a separate Motor Voter suit against Louisiana, in partnership with the NAACP.

The lawsuits do not deal with the enforcement of Section 8 of the law, which requires that the states keep voter rolls up to date by purging the names of deceased and ineligible voters in order to reduce the opportunity for voter fraud. Unfortunately, that has not been done in most states, and dead people routinely vote in elections. (See rightwinggranny.com)

Until Section 8 is enforced, the Motor Voter law will be an obstacle to honest elections.

 

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It’s Been One Thousand Days

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John Hinderaker at Power LIne reminds us today that it has been 1,000 days since the United States Senate passed a budget. This is a violation of federal law.

The article reports:

Since the Democrats last passed a budget, just three months into the Obama administration, the federal government has spent $9.4 trillion and added $4.1 trillion to the national debt. The current fiscal year will be the fourth in a row in which the Obama administration racks up a $1 trillion-plus deficit.

If the Senate Democrats can’t do their job (as required by federal law), they need to be replaced. The claims that the Democrats have not passed a budget because the Republicans would filibuster it are false–under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, budgets pass the Senate by a simple majority and cannot be filibustered. As usual, yesterday President Obama announced that he will not meet the statutory deadline to submit his budget to Congress–again. The last budget he submitted to the Senate was voted down 97-0. I think he (and the Senate) can do better than that.

Meanwhile, the out-of-control spending continues.

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This Should Have Been Done A Long Time Ago

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Yesterday the Washington Post reported that a former CIA Officer is being charged with repeatedly leaking classified information. After leaving the CIA in 2004, John Kiriakou worked as a Senate aide, working as an investigator on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a year before leaving in 2010.

The article reported:

Kiriakou made a media splash in 2007 when he appeared on ABC News describing the use of waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaida, also known as Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein.

He also revealed the name of the CIA’s interrogator of Mohammed.in a piece he wrote for the New York Times in 2008.

The article further reports:

The Kiriakou investigation appears to have been triggered by a CIA referral to the Justice Department as well as a separate probe into how photographs of CIA operatives ended up in the possession of high-value detainees at Guantanamo Bay in 2009.

Investigators believe that defense attorneys obtained the photos after learning the identities of CIA operatives from a journalist who had been in contact with Kiriakou. The photographs, which included shots taken surreptitiously outside CIA employees’ homes, were shown to the detainees as part of an effort by defense attorneys to identify participants in CIA interrogations and potentially call them as witnesses in terrorism trials.

A interesting piece of information was left out of the story in the Washington Post. Newsbusters reported that between 2009 and last year Kiriakou worked as an investigator for Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The NBC report on this story by Michael Isikoff reported this in the second paragraph.

This man needs to be charged with treason. His actions put CIA operatives and their families in danger. After reading the article, I wondered if Mr. Kiriakou was motivated by idealism or politics. He was undermining President Bush as Commander-in-Chief during a time of war. He didn’t mind breaking the law in order to do that.

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A Total Disregard For Taxpayers’ Money

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The spending in Washington is out of control. Part of the discontent on the part of the American taxpayers is the amount of money being spent, but a good deal of the discontent is how it is wasted with little regard for the hard-working taxpayer.

CBS News San Francisco reported on January 19, 2012, that Solyndra, after filing for bankruptcy, is destroying assets (many of which were paid for by taxpayer money).

The article reports:

At Solyndra’s sprawling complex in Fremont, workers in white jumpsuits were unwrapping brand new glass tubes used in solar panels last week. They are the latest, most cutting-edge solar technology, and they are being thrown into dumpsters.

The article goes on to detail some of the history of the glass tubes. They were not included in the list of Solyndra assets put up for sale at two auctions last year. One buyer said that if he had been able to buy the tubes, he would have. He has been buying solar panels from Solyndra since the bankruptcy and selling them on e-bay.

The article further reports:

Solar scientist Greg Smestad agreed they have value. “As a scientist I said ‘Wow, this needs to be studied,’” he said. Smestad has consulted for the Department of Energy.

He recently bought a Solyndra solar panel to study its technology, which is completely different from traditional panels. “It can accept both the direct sun and also track motion, because it’s a cylinder,” he explained. “The technology is very promising.”

Smestad wrote a letter to the auctioneers, asking if they could donate to Santa Clara University any of the leftover tubes after the Solyndra auctions are completed. “Let one student use this as an inspiration for their career and that will be worth something,” he said. But the auctioneers wrote back saying they couldn’t do that.

This is ridiculous. Solyndra still owes $8 million dollars to the German company that made the tubes. When CBS News contacted them to see if they would have taken the tubes back, CBS was told by the company that they had no idea that the tubes were being destroyed.

Who authorized the destruction? Why was there no effort to get back the taxpayers’ money that was invested into this company? These are questions that need to be answered.

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A Courageous Lady

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The Washington Post posted a story today stating that Representative Gabrielle Giffords has said that she will resign from her Congressional seat this week, more than a year after the attack that severely wounded her and killed six people.

The article quoted her resignation statement given in a video on her website:

“I don’t remember much from that horrible day, but I will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice,” she said, looking directly into the camera. The hair that had been severely cropped after the shooting now framed her face in soft curls. “I have more work to do on my recovery, so to do what is best for Arizona, I will step down this week.”

This is an act of courage. Representative Giffords is doing what is right for the people she represents. She realizes that her focus has to be on her recovery and is stepping aside to allow someone to take her office who will be more able to fulfil the duties of the office. She is putting the needs of the people of Arizona first. Thank you, Representative Giffords, you are setting a wonderful example.

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One Consequence Of Changes In Immigration Law

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Yesterday the Miami Herald reported on the case of Kesler Dufrene, an illegal immigrant from Haiti who was a twice-convicted felon serving a five-year jail term. When Mr. Dufrene’s sentence was up, he was released from prison rather than deported to his native Haiti because the Obama Administration ordered an indefinite halt of deportations to Haiti after the nation’s devastating earthquake. U.S. authorities could not legally detain Dufrene indefinitely. The story does not have a happy ending.

The article reports:

Instead, when Dufrene’s state prison term was up, Miami immigration authorities in October 2010 released him from custody. Two months later, North Miami police say, he slaughtered three people, including a 15-year-old girl in a murder case that remains as baffling today as it did the afternoon the bodies were discovered.
DNA on a rifle found inside the house and cellphone tracking technology later linked Dufrene to the Jan. 2, 2011, slayings.

Eighteen days after the murders, Mr. Dufrene shot and killed himself when he was cornered by Manatee County sheriff’s deputies in Bradenton after an unrelated break-in and shooting there.

It seems to me that a mistake was made somewhere along the line that resulted in the unnecessary death of three people. We need sanity in our immigration policy. If you are here illegally and you commit a crime, you should be sent home–regardless of where home is.

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President Obama And The Family

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President Obama has a traditional American family-wife, children, dog, etc., but his politics do not seem to support what is reflected in his own lifestyle.

John Hinderaker at Power LIne posted an article yesterday about the relationship between the Obama Administration and the family. The article was triggered by President Obama’s proclamation commemorating the 39th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. The President stated:

As we mark the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we must remember that this Supreme Court decision not only protects a woman’s health and reproductive freedom, but also affirms a broader principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters.

“..that government should not intrude on private family matters.” Sounds good, but let’s look at the record. Michelle Obama has declared war on childhood obesity. Your child’s weight is now a public matter (something the government can intrude in). It may be a valid issue, but is it a government issue? Pediatricians can now question children (without a parent in the room) to see if the parents own a gun.

USA Today reported on May 13, 2011:

The American Academy of Pediatrics‘ position on firearm-related injuries states “the absence of guns from children’s homes and communities is the most reliable and effective measure to prevent firearm-related injuries” to them.

Timothy Wheeler, a retired surgeon in Upland, Calif., founder and director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, cites the position statement as proof that pediatricians want to ban firearms. Pediatric residents “think it’s normal to ask about guns in the home,” he says. “They don’t understand that it is an ethical boundary violation.”

Sounds rather intrusive to me. The article at Power Line further points out:

The subject of Obama’s declaration was abortion. But suppose your teenage daughter can get an abortion without your even finding out about it: is that a government intrusion on “private family matters?” Sure, but one that liberals like Obama favor.

The article at Power Line cites a few more examples of government intrusion–our choice of light bulbs, being forced to purchase health insurance, etc. Some power companies are now setting electric rates to penalize people who use a lot of electricity and to control the amount of electricity you use. They are also teaching your children psuedo-science in school in regard to global warming.

Government intrusion in our everyday lives should be an issue in the 2012 election; I don’t know that it will. I do know that the Obama Administration will spin the issue at every possible opportunity. We need to learn to distinguish between truth and spin.

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It Really Doesn’t Pay To Cover-Up Bad Stuff

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Today’s Washington Times is reporting that Arizona is launching its own investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, the government gun running operation that Congress has been trying to investigate for more than a year.

The article reports:

Speaker Andy Tobin created the committee, and charged it with looking at whether the program broke any state laws — raising the possibility of state penalties against those responsible for the operation.

It’s a turnaround from the rest of the immigration issue, where the federal government has sued to block the state’s own set of laws.

The committee is due to report back on March 30.

The article reminds us:

On Friday the chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona told a House committee he will decline to answer their questions next week, citing his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

The official’s lawyer, in a letter to the committee, said his client is innocent but is “ensnared by the unfortunate circumstances in which he now stands between two branches of government.”

At some point we need to remind people that they don’t have these problems if they follow the law. I am hopeful that the pleading of the Fifth Amendment along with the Arizona committee will result in a serious enough investigation to expose whatever the facts are in this matter. If laws were broken, people need to face the consequences. 

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No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

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The five people who actually still watch MSNBC saw something last week that was totally obscene. On Monday the Washington Examiner reported on an MSNBC commentary on the fact that Mitt Romney gave an unemployed black woman $50. The woman approached the candidate and told him that she was unemployed and not able to pay her bills. He then reached into his wallet and gave her $50 (I have heard that he only had $50 in cash in his wallet, but I can’t confirm that).

The article at the Washington Examiner quotes the outrage at MSNBC:

“As an African American woman it galls me. I don’t even like to watch it. I felt like it plays into every sort of patronizing stereotype of black people,” MSNBC contributor Joy-Ann Reid said. “‘Oh, here is this little lady let me give her 50 bucks’. . . I think it plays into that conservative meme, that you don’t need actual programs that the government puts in place to help people in need, we’ll just give them charity, I’ll just give him 50 bucks.”

“There are alot of very convenient elements to this story, as you said Joy, it really makes me cringe. We have this black woman who suddenly almost becomes this mascot for the campaign,” said MSNBC contributor Janell Ross. “She is sort of affirming all sorts of Conservative ideas about who is poor and how certain people deal with their poverty and seek out the assistance of a wealthy white man to hand you some form of aid.”

Good grief. I am sure that anyone of us, if we actually had $50 to spare, would have done the same thing. I have a footnote to add to the story, A friend of mine has a family member who worked on one of Mitt Romney’s campaigns in Massachusetts. The family member was a very young man (first year in college maybe), and it was one of Romney’s early campaigns (possibly for Governor). The young man dressed like a college student–jeans, t-shirts, etc. There was a public event coming up in a rather formal location, and Mitt Romney noticed how the young man was dressed. Without a second thought, he handed the young man his sports coat so that he would be dressed appropriately.

Giving a person in need $50 is in character for Mitt Romney. To try to make that act of generosity a racial issue is just wrong. I know that MSNBC will not apologize for their knee-jerk conclusion that this was racist, but anyone who watches MSNBC should make a mental note that their coverage is not always fair.

 
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Who Are The Extreme Environmentalists ?

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John Hinderaker at Power Line posted an article yesterday linking to an American Spectator article about the people who claim to be protecting the environment. The article points out that many of the environmental activists are part of a wealthy leisure class whose income and lifestyle will not be impacted by the policies they support.

The best quote from the article:

As the Forest Service used to say, the person who built his mountain cabin last year is an environmentalist. The person who wants to build one this year is a developer.

Further proof of this mentality can be found if you examine the ‘carbon footprint’ of some of those who believe in global warming and support restrictions on other Americans’ use of energy. Remember too that the wealthiest Americans fighting the development of American energy resources are not concerned about the rising cost of energy to the average American.

The American Spectator points out:

It is not that the average person is not concerned about the environment. Everyone weighs the balance of economic gain against a respect for nature. It is only the truly affluent, however, who can be concerned about the environment to the exclusion of everything else. Most people see the benefits of pipelines and power plants and admit they have to be built somewhere. Only in the highest echelons do we hear people say, “We don’t need to build any pipelines. We’ve already got enough energy. We can all sit around awaiting the day we live off wind and sunshine.”

In regard to the recent decision by the Obama Administration not to build the Keystone Pipeline:

The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) left the BlueGreen Alliance on Friday, citing a disagreement with the group’s members over the Keystone XL pipeline.

LIUNA, a vocal Keystone supporter, took aim at other unions for opposing the project.

“We’re repulsed by some of our supposed brothers and sisters lining up with job killers like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council to destroy the lives of working men and women,” LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan said in a statement.

I hope some of the other unions wake up and realize the impact the policies of President Obama are having on American jobs. President Obama has blocked economic growth through excessive regulation and extreme environmentalism. Our economy will not recover until the over-regulation is dealt with. Protecting the environment is crucial, but it can be done in a way that allows the production of domestic energy and the creation of new jobs.

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Why We All Need To Pay Attention Before The Next Election

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Yesterday Investors.com posted an article about a campaign ad the Obama campaign has created. The ad is total fiction, and the article explains why.

One of the claims in the ad is that the Obama Administration has decreased America’s dependence on foreign oil. The ad fails to mention that during a recession American oil consumption decreases and thus the amount of oil we import decreases. The article also fails to mention that gasoline consumption is down because the price of a gallon of gas has almost doubled under President Obama. The article includes a chart:

The article also deals with some of the other claims in the ad. President Obama claims that according to the Brookings Institution his administration has created 2.7 million clean energy jobs and is expanding rapidly. Again, that doesn’t line up with the facts. The article reports:

“Overall, today’s clean economy establishments added half a million jobs between 2003 and 2010, expanding at an annual rate of 3.4 %” — a half-million over eight years being a tiny gain. And that “this performance lagged the growth in the national economy, which grew by 4.2% annually over the period.”

We need to remember that Spain ended its government sponsored green energy program because for every job they created, two jobs were lost. We need to learn from the Spanish experience.

Overall the ad is a very nice-sounding group of lies. I am sure it is the first of many such ads. As voters, we need to learn to fact check all political ads from all candidates. Statistics can be twisted to say anything the person citing them wants them to say. Polls can be skewed according to who is polled. As voters, we really need to pay attention to what is said during the campaign and how much of what is said is actually true.

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Sometimes It’s What They Don’t Say

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Ed Morrissey at Hot Air noted in a post today that Patrick J. Cunningham, the chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, has said that he will seek Fifth Amendment protection when testifying before Congress.

Representative Darrell Issa, who is chairman of the House Oversight Committee conducting the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, made the following statement in response to Mr. Cunningham’s claim that he would plead the Fifth Amendment:

 “The assertion of the fifth amendment by a senior Justice official is a significant indictment of the Department’s integrity in Operation Fast and Furious. The former head of the ATF has previously told the committee that the Justice Department is managing its response to Operation Fast and Furious in a manner designed to protect its political appointees.  This is the first time anyone has asserted their fifth amendment right in this investigation and heightens concerns that the Justice Department’s motivation for refusing to hand over subpoenaed materials is a desire to shield responsible officials from criminal charges and other embarrassment.

“Coming a year after revelations about reckless conduct in Operation Fast and Furious were first brought to light, the assertion of the fifth amendment also raises questions about whether President Obama and Attorney General Holder have made a serious and adequate response to allegations raised by whistleblowers.  Did Attorney General Holder really not know a senior Justice Department official fears criminal prosecution or is this just another example of him hiding important facts?  The committee will continue to demand answers.”

Unfortunately, Chicago politics has come to Washington, D. C. The investigation into Fast and Furious is moving ahead–but very slowly. President Obama’s Department of Justice is a political tool being wielded by the administration. The only way to end that is to vote this administration out of office.

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