Policia de Catalunya

Obama's Summer of Bummers -- Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard. Four self-inflicted wounds.
Going Mad in Herds -- Maureen Dowd, NYT. She's lost all patience.
Repeal of Obamacare Can't Come Fast Enough -- J.C. Watts, Las Vegas Review-Journal. A substantive indictment.
Does Barack Obama Want to be Re-elected in 2012? -- UK Telegraph. Scathing. And I do mean scathing.
A "Move-it" Movement -- Michael Goodwin, NY Post. Mosque divide reveals more.
Crime (Sex) and Punishment (Stoning) -- Robert Worth, NYT. Arguing, weakly, that barbaric practices are just Islamic politics. Still, a must-read for folks like Colin Powell, who say "so what if ___________ (insert name of politician) is Muslim?"

Labels: 2012, Barack Obama, Barbaric Practices, Debacles, Islam, Muslim, Obamacare, Re-Election, Stoning

Margaret Chan, Director-General for the World Health Organization, praised communist North Korea's national health care system, declaring it "the envy" of most developing nations.
But Amnesty International? Not so much. WHO claims Amnesty's scathing assessment of the country's health care system is, umm, "not up to the U.N. agency's scientific approach to evaluating health care."
I guess you have to be a scientist to observe:
* doctors "sometimes performing amputations without anesthesia and working by candlelight in hospitals lacking essential medicine, heat and power."
* patients who said, "they or a family member had given doctors cigarettes, alcohol or money to receive medical care" and that without bribes, they'd get no health care at all.
Photo Credit: Eric Lafforgue
And there's "no lack of doctors" over in North Korea, either, said Chan. True enough, I suppose, if you don't mind a two-hour walk to the hospital to get your surgery.
Meanwhile, in the highly developed U.K.,
Photo credit: Defence Images
"Women in labour have been forced to wait while epidural equipment was borrowed from other hospitals, while other patients have been denied chest drains and radiology supplies, according to doctors at South London Healthcare Trust.Minutes of a meeting between medical staff and the trust's chief executive say "cash flow" problems at the trust which has a �50 million deficit, mean vital equipment is regularly not ordered.
A separate letter sent to managers of the trust, one of the largest in the country, says consultants have been misled into carrying out operations when it was not safe to go ahead because of bed shortages."So reports the UK Daily Telegraph.
Ah. Socialized medicine.
Anything we can do, government does better.

Labels: Health Care, North Korea, Obamacare, Socialized Medicine, UK

Last night, the NAACP condemned and denounced the Tea Party's racism. The resolution was motivated mainly by the Congressional Black Caucus's claims that one or more Tea Party folks called John Lewis and others the "N" word and spit upon them, when caucus members showed up at a Tea Party rally back in March of this year.
From what I've seen, the video clips of this Tea Party rally show no evidence that any such thing occurred. And there were an awful lot of videos taken that day that would presumably have captured this reprehensible conduct.
Which is not to say the claims aren't true. Indeed, Andrew Breitbart offered to donate $10,000.00 to the United Negro College Fund if anyone had any evidence that anyone said the "N" word. And, if they don't have it on video, that's fine, too. He'll donate the same $10,000.00 if anyone who heard the "N" word being hurled will take and pass a polygraph.
So far, no one has come forward.
Hillary Clinton's supporters have a documentary out called "We Will Not be Silenced." It's about alleged voting fraud in the 2008 presidential primaries. I'm starting to feel silenced, too. That if I dare to disagree with anything Obama says or does, the NAACP or Hollywood or someone will brand me racist.
Remember back in 2009, when high-profile actress Janeane Garafalo claimed that any person who opposed Obama was a racist?
Now that her hopes for Obama have turned to disappointment, maybe she'll be more tolerant of dissenting views. ("I have to say I was surprised how disappointing the Obama administration has turned out to be. That did take me by surprise," she said in June of 2010).
Umm, Janeane, you kind of sound like the people who weren't "the ones we've been waiting for," . . . (you know -- the racist rednecks who didn't vote for him).
But maybe Janeane has come around. Perhaps Ms. Garafalo now realizes that non-racist people can have principled disagreements with Obama's love for Keynesian economic policies (e.g., "borrow and spend and tax our way out of a recession") and "income equality for all." Truth be told, this Keynesian stuff strikes a lot of people -- even liberal people -- as just plain dumb.
So, umm, would it be okay, NAACP, if I, uh, vehemently disagreed with Obama's economic policies? No? Okay. Could it be meekly, then?
A prominent leader in the Dallas Tea Party movement, an African American woman named Katrina Pierson, says the NAACP has gone too far with its charges of racism. She makes an impassioned and persuasive case against the NAACP, and she does not mince words.

Said Ms. Pierson, in response to the NAACP's Tea Party "renunciation,"
"The existence of the NAACP, and others like it, are threatened by the existence of the Tea Party. The reality is that we colored people no longer require the assistance from other Negros for advancement in 2010. These groups run to the rescue of distressed brown people only when the media deems it newsworthy. Meanwhile, there are inner city black children who continue to grow up fatherless while sharing a neighborhood with stray bullets, drugs and a plethora of liquor stores on every corner.* * *
The NAACP has been completely ineffective in my lifetime, and the lack of leadership in the black community has contributed to the ability of these groups to speak on behalf of the rest of us.
* * *
They are Democrats who bow to a Democrat master today as they once did two hundred years ago. Once this is realized by the forgotten society, race in this country will be as irrelevant as those who thrive off of it."(emph. added).
Powerful stuff.
But I can't say I blame her.
After watching the video clip below, of New Black Panther Samir Shabazz, I have to ask:
Has the NAACP denounced the racism irrefutably in evidence in the New Black Panther Party?

I'm just sayin' askin'.

Labels: Denunciation, John Lewis, Katrina Pierson, Keynes, Naacp, National Black Caucus, New Black Panther Party, Obama, Obamacare, Renunciation, Samir Shabazz, Tea Party

Hooray for Henry Hudson, the federal judge who today ruled that Obamacare's individual mandate is unconstitutional.
Specifically, he said Congress's power under the Commerce Clause, while broad, is not unlimited. Congress cannot force people to buy a product in interstate commerce.
Congress can certainly regulate participants in interstate commerce. But it can't force people who do absolutely nothing into the stream of interstate commerce.
The Administration had a frightful argument to support the mandate. Here's the essence of it:
a) Every individual in the country will need health insurance at some time point in their life.
b) If every individual doesn't pay for health insurance, the health insurance market will fail. It will be unsustainable because the people who do pay for insurance will be forced to float those who don't, in the form of higher premiums.
c) Therefore, Congress can make everyone buy health insurance. The end.
Huh? That a market might fail means government intervention to force people to buy its products is, ergo, constitutional?
However much you might like the idea of health care for all and a chicken in every pot, the issue here is federal government's power over you.
Put the Administration's argument into other contexts.
Everyone in our country will need housing at some point. Some people will skip out on their rent, or mortgage, and the folks who stay and pay will ultimately pay more, to cover the landlord's or bank's losses. Therefore, Congress can make everyone rent an apartment. Or buy a house.
What about food? Transportation?
Congress's power is not plenary. Its power is limited and Obamacare goes beyond the outer limits of Congress's power under the commerce clause, said our hero Hudson.
But hold on, said Secretary Sebelius. This mandate is constitutional under the "Necessary and Proper" clause. Nope, said the Court. The "Necessary and Proper" clause isn't an independent grant of power. It just lets Congress pass laws to effectuate and implement Constitutional laws.
But wait, try this one on, Sebelius countered. The individual mandate is really a tax. And Congress can tax anything!
The judge was not buying. For one thing, about 500 million people in Congress and within the Administration said it was a penalty, not a tax. For another, it is indeed a penalty. And you can't penalize citizens for failing to comply with an unconstitutional law.
Judge Hudson did, however, decline to issue an injunction. He noted that his order granting declaratory relief to the Commonwealth of Virginia was the equivalent of an injunction because it dealt with the constitutionality of federal law. It was, he said, "sufficient to stay the hand of the Executive branch pending appeal."
To that, Robert Gibbs said, essentially, "In your eye!" Specifically, at today's press conference, he said,
I think it is safe to say that because there are several other cases in the pipeline and because of -- again, you�ve got disparate court rulings 115 miles away -- that the bill will continue to have its day in court.
I do think it is important that even this judge ruled that the bill continues to move forward in terms of its implementation.
Did not!
So it will be up the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether Congress stayed within its outer limits, or instead reconstituted another form of government: the one in England that we fled.

Labels: Aca, Barack Obama, Commerce Clause, Congress, Health Insurance Mandate, Judge Henry Hudson, Obamacare, Opinion Simplified, Outer Limits, Penalty, Plenary Power, Robert Gibbs, Tax, Unconstitutional

But don't worry, especially about Egypt.
In brighter news, the Muslim Brotherhood is largely a secular organization that eschews violence, decries Al Queda as a "perversion of Islam," and saves Sharia puppies. Those sorts of thing.
At least, according to Obama's National Intelligence Director, the confidence-inspiring James Clapper, who is apparently reflecting Obama's stance in the whole "go Brotherhood!" affair.
What's that, you say? The Muslim Brotherhood assassinated Anwar Sadat right after his peace accord with Israel?
Oh, pshaw! Get your priorities straight, people. Democracy is good. Any democracy is good. Settle down.

Labels: 000 Jobs Lost, 800, Anwar Sadat, Barack Obama, Democracy, James Clapper, Muslim Brotherhood, Obamacare

The Massachusetts Legislature just voted to change the law (again) so its governor can appoint an interim straw man to sit in Kennedy's vacated senate seat, pending a special election. Kirk, at the White House's urging, looks to be the impotent annointed one.
Oh, I know what you're thinking. "But wait! As recently as 2004, Massachusetts Democrats said, 'Oh no, Mitt Romney. We can't have you appointing an interim Republican if John Kerry is President,' and they changed the law." And you'd be right.
But we knew this turn-about was coming, didn't we? Come now. Turn-about on a turn-about on a turn-about is fair play, nay?
Moral of the day? If the law doesn't suit your purpose, change it. Moral of the minute? When the new law doesn't suit your purpose, why, change it again!
What idiot economist opined that a free-market economy flourishes, is indeed nurtured, by stare decisis? What Windy City GSB blow-hard suggested that business people make decisions based on some firmly-rooted belief that the law is stable, not subject to the whims of politics? That contracts will be honored by the courts?
Oh, pshaw. The free-market theory is so overblown. Get off your horses, ye Wild West capitalists, and think of the common good. Look out your window and see the new day that has dawned. Look to Obama the government for the guaranty assurances on your bonds.
Oh mighty O assures us that if his healthcare savings don't occur, there is no cause for concern. With respect to future spending cuts, here's exactly what Obama had to say:
"And to prove that I'm serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don't materialize."Huh? Ha! This is like the illusory promise we hear from car salesmen on TV. "If you find a better price on a car and I can't beat it, I'll give you the car for free."
See how smart Obama thinks we are? See?
"Err, Mr. Obama, could you stop pounding the Sunday talk-show-circuit like you're pounding used cars on TV? For a minute could you hear us out? We, the lowly, anti-American critics born of astro-turf? We won't take up much of your time.
"Because, Sir, as we see it, every Congress is sovereign. Every Congress can do what it wants. You, President Obama, cannot force this Congress, or any other congress in the future, to do anything. Much less could you force a future congress -- after you are out of office -- to enact any spending cuts.
"And Mr. Obama, you, of all presidents, should know this. You're one of the smartest presidents we've seen. But we're not the most stupid constituency you've ever had to lead."
Years ago, when I took contracts in law school, we learned that an agreement to agree in the future is . . . well, not just insane but completely unenforceable. Imagine, "Okay, yeah, in a year I'll agree to sell you my house at a price we'll both agree upon." Nuts! You can't have an enforceable "we'll agree to agree later" contract. Just like you can't have one with Congress.
Then again, under Obama, who can say? Black letter law is becoming passe'. On this point, Michelle Malkin, I agree with you; I'm with you all the way.

Labels: Healthcare, Illusory Contracts, Krauthammer, Malkin, Obamacare

Photo credit: Lido Vizzutti/Flathead Beacon
Asked at a town hall meeting whether he'd even read the bill, Senator Baucus, Obamacare's architect, had this to say:
"I don�t think you want me to waste my time to read every page of the health care bill. You know why? It�s statutory language," Baucus said. "We hire experts." (Umm, sir, we hired you.)
"It�s not perfect, nothing�s perfect, but I�m telling you, ma�am, it�s a good start," Baucus said. "Mark my words, several years from now you�re going to look back and say, 'eh, maybe it isn�t so bad.�"
"Don�t think so," she replied. What? It's just statutory language, but it's a "good start"? And several years from now, we'll all have an epiphany and realize it isn't quite as bad as we thought?
Alrighty then. I'll check back with you . . . in several years.

Labels: Baucus, Good Start, Obamacare, Statutory Language, Town Hall