National Review Reports: The Massachusetts legislature
seems poised to enact a plan, as evil as it is ingenious, to run an end-around on the electoral
college and the Constitution.
It would work by tying the Bay State's 12 electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote nationwide. If a number of states equivalent to at least 270 electoral votes were to pass the measure, it would effectively neuter the college.
I know that this is remedial for Cornerites, but the electoral college is one of the last vestiges of federalism we have left. It reflects the Founders' conviction that the method of choosing the Executive should reflect the will of the several states
qua states — he's called the
President of the United States, not the President
of America. The desire to protect the integrity and discreteness of the states, and to prevent the most populous states from running up the score in the vote, was the essence of the Connecticut Compromise. Do away with the college and you might as well abolish the Senate. Not that many on the Left would shed too many tears over that prospect.
In any event, there is something of a consolation prize here: unless and until enough states adopt the measure to give it teeth, Massachusetts will wind up serving as a mere rubber stamp for whoever wins the presidency by accruing enough votes in the other 49 states. Which means Massachusetts could realistically go Republican in 2012. . .
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjIwYjUxMWFjYmIyMzdiZTljNTllZmY5NjczMmU4ZmQ=
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[Time reports: Regarding the disastrous BP spill, according to many]: So far — while it's important to acknowledge that the long-term potential danger is simply unknowable for an underwater event that took place just three months ago — it does not seem to be inflicting severe environmental damage. "The impacts have been much, much less than everyone feared," says geochemist Jacqueline Michel, a federal contractor who is coordinating shoreline assessments in Louisiana.
[For instance,] Yes, we've heard horror stories about oiled dolphins — but, so far, wildlife response teams have collected only three visibly oiled carcasses
of any mammals.
Fox Business News writes: So much for transparency.
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The AP reports out of MOSCOW: - Russia has broadened the authority of the Federal Security Service, the KGB's main successor agency, giving it Soviet-style repressive powers in a move critics say could be used to stifle protests and intimidate government opponents.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a law Thursday allowing the agency, known by its initials FSB, to issue warnings or detain people suspected of preparing to commit crimes against Russia's security - which could include participating in anti-government rallies. Perpetrators face fines or up to 15 days detention. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100729/D9H8LTJO1.html
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From CNBC: The nascent US economic recovery would be halted in 2011 if Congress fails to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, analysts at Deutsche Bank said.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38467149
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The NYT reports: It is just a technical matter, the Obama administration says: We just need to make a slight change in a law to make clear that
we have the right to see the names of anyone’s e-mail correspondents and their Web browsing history without the messy complication of asking a judge for permission. It is far more than a technical change. The administration’s request, reported Thursday in The Washington Post, is an unnecessary and disappointing step backward toward more intrusive surveillance from a president who promised something very different during the 2008 campaign.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/opinion/30fri1.html?_r=2&hp
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American Thinker writes: Barack Obama seems to have a pattern of using ceremonial or stately events as opportunities to ambush and humiliate people. This behavior is unpresidential and reveals a vindictive streak that makes Richard Nixon look like Mister Rogers. [They cite the Supreme Court, doctors, financial executives, and Pete Hoekstra, Boards of Directors, among others.] This was not the first time he chose to turn a celebration into an ambush, a party into a shooting gallery.
Can we forget the lack of graciousness when Obama told John McCain during the health care summit that he convened, supposedly in the spirit of comity, that "the election is over"? [This fails to surprise those of us who actually pay attention to the arrogance, the supposed comedic remarks of this oh-so unpresidential President.] The milk of human kindness does not flow in this man's veins, but rather something bitterer -- a type of personal poison that he enjoys spraying on others.http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/07/obamas_mean_streak_1.html
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By Bob Unruh: But a little-reported move to begin demolition of the health-care system takeover already is pending in the House and has gained about three-quarters of the support it needs to repeal the law that demands citizens buy insurance or pay financial penalties.
As of last night, the
discharge petition sponsored by
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, had collected 162 signatures of the 218 it would need to advance – even in the face of continued opposition from Obamacare promoter
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. World Net Daily
http://www.exposeobama.com/2010/07/29/good-news-obamacare-reversal-now-has-75-of-needed-votes/?utm_source=Expose+Obama&utm_campaign=d922b845ab-EO_7_29_107_29_2010&utm_medium=email
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From Politico: President Barack Obama has kept mum on the fate of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) for days -- but he tells CBS News that it's time for the embattled 80-year-old former Ways and Means Chairman to end his career "with dignity."
"I think Charlie Rangel served a very long time and served-- his constituents very well. But these-- allegations are very troubling," Obama told Harry Smith in an interview to be aired on the "Early Show." and first broadcast on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.
"And he'll-- he's somebody who's at the end of his career. Eighty years old. I'm sure that-- what he wants is to be able to-- end his career with dignity. And my hope is that-- it happens. "
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0710/Obama_Time_for_Rangel_to_end_career_with_dignity.html
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Ted NUGENT: It is us [Actually, it is WE, but who cares about learning proper English these days?]
We're the ones who allowed anti-Americans to take over America
Barack Hussein Obama did not sneak into power. An army of clueless, disconnected, ignorant Americans invited him to bring his Marxist, glaringly anti-American jihad into our lives. This president's overtly destructive, clear-and-present-danger agenda is surpassed in transparency only by his ultra-leftist public voting record and overall lifetime conduct of consorting with the enemy as a child and student of Marxism, socialist and racist community organizer, congregant of the blatant America-hating black-theology- and social-justice-spewing Rev. Jeremiah Wright and close personal friend of convicted communist terrorists like Bill Ayers, and by his unflinching appointment of an array of communist czars, including Van Jones, Cass Sunstein, Anita Dunne, et al. So let me get this straight: You claim your intentions were noble because you simply wanted to get your child a puppy but somehow didn't notice that it was foaming at the mouth, and now you're shocked that your child has rabies? I think not. That is not a mistake. It is negligence -- dangerous, life threatening and, I am convinced, downright criminal negligence.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/30/it-is-us/
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The Examiner writes: A chilling audio tape with text, circulating by e-mail, has been
reported that puts a million dollar price on conservative hero, [Arizona's] Sheriff Joe Arpaio's head. Is it a coincidence that this was reported on the same day that Arizona's immigration law, SB 1070, became effective?
http://www.examiner.com/x-35532-Dallas-Political-Buzz-Examiner~y2010m7d30-Arizona-Sheriff-Joes-head-Mexican-drug-cartel-offers-1M--price-for-Arpaio-video
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ABC New reports: The Pentagon is adding workers to a team that is working around the clock sifting through the thousands of leaked secret documents on the Afghan war to determine whether sources have been compromised, ABC News has learned. Sources also told ABC News that measures are being taken in Afghanistan to protect sources who may have been unmasked from Taliban revenge. Investigators are also reportedly widening their search for suspects amid growing evidence that suspected leaker Pfc. Bradley Manning had outside help leaking the documents.
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/pentagon-search-wikileaks-documents-protect-sources-taliban-revenge/story?id=11297565
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From Bill Kristol, no less:A failed presidency is a terrible thing to witness. A failed presidency with more than two years left to run is also dangerous for the country. So, even though it would be easy for The Weekly Standard to allow your administration to continue on its current path to perdition, thereby ensuring massive GOP gains this November and a likely victory in 2012, we offer, in a spirit of bipartisanship and patriotism, some advice. Here are three simple steps that you can take that would help right your presidential ship, reduce the scale of what now looks like a huge blowout in November, and give you a chance to govern successfully over the next couple of years.
All you have to do is . . .
1) Extend current tax rates
2) Rescind the July 2011 Afghanistan deadline.
3) Come out against the Ground Zero mosque.
Read more at http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/memo-president
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How absolutely awful if the Feds can monitor, without legal basis, emails of citizens! How bad a President we have ! And, what in the world are the folks in Mass. thinking in trying to eliminate the Electoral College approach!? Thanks for the updates,
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