Proud Democrat Talking Points - My Letter to the Editor

The Chairman of the Democrat National Committee listed eight points on which Democrats can run for office, saying, “We have more accomplishments to run on than any party in a long time."  Here they are, with counterpoints

1)        (1)  We’ve gone from recession to recovery.
               a) Most analysts state that the Stimulus money has not done anything to create jobs, and businesses are afraid to expand their operations.

                                                b)  88% of Americans think the economy is worse than ever

      2) We’ve made more progress in the war on terror in the last eight months than was made in the preceding eight years.
              a) Newsweek Magazine gave credit to President George W. Bush for the possible                      "Victory at Last" in Iraq

              b) They have totally failed to prevent and then have mismanaged the Underwear Bomber, the Ft. Hood Shooter & the Times Square Bomber

       3)  We’ve strengthened our relationships with our allies around the world.
             a) The Israeli-American relationship is tense; our President has literally bowed before Middle Eastern heads of state while dismissing Netanyahu without proper protocol; and Ahmadinejad has said "One more time I warn the leaders of arrogant powers and the supporters of Zionist regime to not make a new mistake in the Middle East.” 

             b)   A senior State Department protocol official has said, “There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.”

             c) Obama sided with Marxists in Honduras, backing deposed president Manuel Zelaya who attempted to rewrite their constitution.

              d) Afghanistan’s Karzai threatened to join the Taliban

              e) Syria: “ Obama has failed in peace efforts and lost influence in Middle East”.

.

       4) Two million people or more have jobs today who wouldn’t have without the bold action taken by this president and Democrats in Congress.

             a)  45.9% of unemployed have been out of work six months or longer, and total 6.7 million in April, a new high.

            b) Sixty thousand of these are temporary Census jobs, while  the true unemployment figure, counting those who have just quit looking or are underemployed, has risen to 17%/

            c)  95% of new jobs are in government – as in taxpayer-paid….. 

       5) We have the first Latina and only the third woman ever on the Supreme Court
            a) And what, I ask, happened to the rule of law, without respect to color, race, upbringing or ethnicity?

       6)  We’re using science and fact in policymaking instead of ideology and politics

           a) Is he talking about basing Cap and Trade laws on scientists who were found to be creating fraudulent global warming statistics?  Or is he referencing Partial Birth Abortion?

      7)  We have the most transparent administration in modern history, with tough ethics standards, and we are wringing the influence of special interests out of the policymaking process. 

          a) He signed a healthcare bill full of pay-offs, without airing the debate or allowing us, or Congress, to read it prior to passage.

          b) He didn’t hold a press conference for 11 months.

          c) He is hiding from us what positions his Administration offered to bribe Sestak of Pennsylvania and   Romanoff of Colorado to refrain from running for office, a possible impeachable offense.

       

     8)  We have gone from a healthcare crisis to reform.

          a)  Reform is not necessarily good. Media is finally publishing the true particulars: much higher costs, more doctors retiring and hospitals having to close their doors, resulting in de facto rationing. Twenty states have filed lawsuits against the bill’s demands on state residents.

 
These are almost laughable points of pride, and are discussion points to happily debate this fall! 

Electoral College; the Case Against Progressive Big Government; Certifications of Live Birth; How You'll Lose Your Current Health Insurance

National Review writes this: You won’t hear about it in the mainstream media, but the Electoral College is on the verge of being eliminated. One important legislative vote could occur Thursday. Two others could occur in the upcoming days and weeks. A California-based group, National Popular Vote, is lobbying hard for a dangerous piece of anti-Electoral College legislation. My NRO article on the mechanics of the legislation is here. Five states have already approved NPV, but now three additional states are dangerously close to joining them: Delaware, Massachusetts, and New York. 
The American presidential-election system is a unique blend of federalism and democracy, combining purely democratic state-level elections with a national election among the states. The practical effect of this system is that a candidate can’t win unless he appeals to a wide variety of voters around the nation. NPV’s plan tries to keep the democratic portions of the election, even as it strips the system of its federalist aspects. It fails, instead managing to lose both       .http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmMyMDI4OTA0NDA3NTI2Y2Q0M2ZmMGZkMmM3MWNhMzk=
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From the Washington Examiner: It's not just millions of gallons of black gold spilling into the Gulf of Mexico that are being lost. Also disappearing into watery despair are the last shreds of credibility for progressive Big Government.
It's Day 65 of the Deepwater Horizon spill and the only hope of stopping the flow of thick, gooey crude remains the relief well being drilled by the private sector.
None of the ass-kicking political speeches by President Obama, bureaucratic edicts by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar or EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, or hypocritical posturing for the cameras in Congress has plugged the hole to stop the flow of suffocating oil headed to the beaches.
We see this week a remarkable confluence of events signaling the eventual end of Big Government: The bureaucrats and politicians can spend trillions but they can't plug the Gulf oil spill, agree on a budget in Congress or end the Great Recession's foreclosures and unemployment.

Just as most Americans stopped trusting Detroit to build the world's best cars, we no longer believe the grand promises that more massive, wasteful government will bring prosperity and good health for our families, security in our old age and a better life for our kids. We see the Gulf.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Big-Government-is-dying-in-the-Gulf-oil-spill-96985504.html#ixzz0rlxNVNLN

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World Net Daily reports:  Birth documents such as the "Certification of Live Birth" President Obama’s campaign posted online to rebut questions about his constitutional eligibility prove very little other than that a birth happened, according to a federal report uncovered by WND.
The review of birth-certification procedures and documentation said there are too many open doors through which fraud can enter the system to rely significantly on the document. And even an original birth certificate isn’t always sufficient, the report said, because much of the fraud committed at the time of the report was by imposters using genuine documentation.
The report predates by several years the controversy over Obama’s birth. The document, titled "Birth Certificate Fraud," was done in 2000 by Inspector General June Gibbs Brown for the Department of Health and Human Services in response to questions about the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.
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Time reports: But now that regulations about existing employer-sponsored [health insurance] plans have been issued, it's becoming clear that many of the 160 million Americans with job-based coverage will not, in fact, be able to keep what they currently have.
Republican critics of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act point to the Obama Administration's own estimates that by 2013, 39% to 69% of employer plans will be subject to new regulations and not grandfathered in, or exempted from the new rules

That partisan rhetoric may be heated, but it's not entirely off base. The truth is that employer-based plans, which many assumed would easily be categorized as grandfathered, will be subject to the full regulatory thrust of the new law if they are altered in ways that are standard practice in the industry. Plans that increase the percentage of costs patients must pay out of pocket - known as co-insurance - lose their grandfathered status. The same is true for plans that significantly decrease the percentage that employers contribute to premiums or those that significantly increase deductibles or co-payments. An employer that switches health-insurance providers also loses its grandfathered status. These kinds of changes are common year to year in the current marketplace, since employers are constantly looking for ways to limit their expenses in the face of rising costs.
It will be years before it's clear exactly how much the employer-based health-insurance system will be upended, and only then will consumers know precisely how costs will be affected. It's already apparent, however, that protecting the current system of private job-based insurance was not a mission of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, promises about keeping your plan notwithstanding.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100625/us_time/08599199920800;_ylt=AjYWoukX2JV7uZ_vu4PUPAF4l4;_ylu=X3oDMTJtNGI0N24xBGFzc2V0A3RpbWUvMjAxMDA2MjUvMDg1OTkxOTk5MjA4MDAEcG9zAzMEc2VjA3luX3BhZ2luYXRlX3N1bW1hcnlfbGlzdARzbGsDaG93b2JhbWEzOXNo

Jewish World Review; Presidential Authority; Obama Not Ready to Secure Our Borders

Congressman Pete Hoekstra visits northern Michigan to seek votes for Governor of Michigan!  He is a personable, humble man who currently sits on the Congressional Intelligence Committee.  He would make a great governor!
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 Jewish World Review opines:  It is hard to know whether this president isn't exactly the intellectual giant his supporters claim him to be, or if progressive ideology requires a certain level of willful stupidity--or outright lying--in order to maintain philosophical consistency.
Mr. Obama, whether you realize it or not, there is nothing remotely inconsistent in folks wanting the government to "do something" about a massive oil spill, even as they don't want that same government insinuating itself at an ever-increasing levels into their personal lives. 
Your comment indicates that, at least for you, government is an all or nothing affair, as in "don't expect us to clean up an oil spill, if we can't nationalize GM, health insurance or the nation's energy sector." No doubt such sophistry plays well with your fellow ideologues, but there are those of us who, despite progressives' insistence that anyone who disagrees with you/them is a moron, who can see through such nonsensical pronouncements.    http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0610/ahlert.php3
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From American Thinker:  The President has no legal authority to create the escrow fund and no authority to compel BP to contribute to the fund. Forcing BP to agree to the terms of the escrow is ultra vires (i.e., illegal), beyond the powers of his office. Rep. Barton (R, Texas) accurately described the slush fund as a "shakedown" (i.e., blackmail), a felony.  If so, Pres. Obama has committed an impeachable offense. Congress itself does not have the authority to create the escrow fund retroactively. Congress will have no voice at all except to vilify any Republican who raises questions about it. All the ACORN employees who lost their jobs when the banks stopped paying "blackmail" to ACORN may be getting better-paying new jobs processing claims.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/06/is_obamas_bp_shakedown_an_impe.html 
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Redstate reports: On June 18, 2010, Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl told the audience at a North Tempe Tea Party town hall meeting that during a private, one-on-one meeting with President Obama in the Oval Office, the President told him, regarding securing the southern border with Mexico, “The problem is, . . . if we secure the border, then you all won’t have any reason to support ‘comprehensive immigration reform.’” [Audible gasps were heard throughout the audience.] Sen. Kyl continued, “In other words, they’re holding it hostage. They don’t want to secure the border unless and until it is combined with ‘comprehensive immigration reform.’”

Sen. Kyl also said he reminded President Obama that the President and the Congress have an obligation, a duty, to secure the border.
http://www.redstate.com/coldwarrior/2010/06/20/obama-tells-kyl-in-private-oval-office-meeting-i-wont-secure-border-bc-then-republicans-will-have-no-reason-to-support-comprehensive-immigration-reform/
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NEW ORLEANS – Companies that ferry people and supplies to offshore oil rigs asked a federal judge Monday to lift a six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling projects imposed in the aftermath of the massive Gulf spill.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman heard two hours of arguments Monday and said he will decide by Wednesday whether to overturn the ban imposed by President Barack Obama's administration after the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100621/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_20100616040287  [The judge lifted the ban.]
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NBC's Brzezinski: I'm "Working With The White House" On Oil Spill Talking Points  [So much for an unbiased press.]

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Appearing on ABC’s This Week, Emanuel said there is “nothing more that’s needed” for transparency in the White House’s scheme for former President Bill Clinton to offer Pennsylvania Congressman Joe Sestak (D-Penn.) an unpaid, appointed position -- that by law he was not allowed to accept as a sitting member of Congress -- in order to somehow persuade him to withdraw from the  http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37610

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Republican lawmakers are calling on the Interior Department to stop charging what they describe as "extortion" money from the Border Patrol -- millions of under-the-radar dollars meant to cover environmental damage stemming from their everyday duties along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Department of Homeland Security, which houses the Border Patrol, last year signed a deal with Interior -- the administrator of America's parklands -- to cough up $50 million for environmental "mitigation" needed in the wake of the construction of a border fence. That was after DHS had already spent or committed millions more for expected environmental damage.  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/21/republicans-interior-stop-charging-millions-border-patrol/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he will issue a new order imposing a moratorium on deepwater drilling after a federal judge struck down the existing one. Salazar said in a statement Tuesday evening that the new order will contain additional information making clear why the six-month drilling pause was necessary in the wake of the Gulf oil spill. The judge in New Orleans who struck down the moratorium earlier in the day complained there wasn't enough justification for it.
Salazar pointed to indications of inadequate safety precautions by industry on deepwater wells. He said he would issue a new order in the coming days showing that a moratorium is needed. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/22/judge-halts-obamas-oil-drilling-ban/

 

Do You Know This? - a Discussion On the Oil Spill Crisis

First, a little history from Fox Nation:  It seems incomprehensible that the president and other members of the administration still have jobs when it is now being reported that the federal government was apprised by BP on February 13 that the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was leaking oil and natural gas into the ocean floor.

In fact, according to documents in the administration's possession, BP was fighting large cracks at the base of the well for roughly ten days in early February.

Further it seems the administration was also informed about this development, six weeks before to the rig's fatal explosion when an engineer from the University of California, Berkeley, announced to the world a near miss of an explosion on the rig by stating, "They damn near blew up the rig."

It's also now being reported that BP was asking for the administration's help on this matter long before the deadly accident and the now gushing well of tar. http://www.thefoxnation.com/obama-administration/2010/06/21/should-pres-obama-resign-over-feb-13?page=4



 I believe that few of us know the following:
1) Barack Obama, lying about what his "peer review" group advised, has closed all off-shore drilling for six months, putting about 45,000 people out of work - even though it will not make us safer.  Judge Martin Feldman said he will decide by Wednesday whether to overturn the ban.  This is an unprecedented industrywide shutdown. Never before has the government done this,"  Rosenblum said. A lawyer for the state told Feldman that the federal government did not consult Louisiana officials before imposing the moratorium, in violation of federal law.
2) This move is ill-advised, and will cost Americans 6 Billion in lost wages
3) The owners of these rigs will move them to other countries who wish to increase offshore drilling and we will lose them, their domestic oil production and their good jobs, perhaps forever
4) It was Barack Obama's ruling which caused these lost wages, but it will be BP Oil, who was unconstitutionally coerced into giving up an unending slush fund to this President's appointee for reparations, who will pay these wages.  Yes, they should pay, but a Presidential threat is not the way to go about it.
5) OH!  Barack Obama, the oil expert, has declared that any drilling below 500 feet is now deep water drilling.  This will force us to buy even more oil from our worst enemies.
6)  But wait!  Barack Obama has promised, in spite of his directly caused 6 B in lost wages to Americans, a loan for 2B to a Brazilian Oil company- Petrobras 
7)  The purpose of the loan, even though the company is awash in profits?  That would be to do more drilling, this time at a depth of not 1600 feet, but 14,000 feet.
8)  One more part of the puzzle - it is George Soros, a man who is using his money to prop up the progressive agenda and Obama, who has a major personal investment in Petrobras...  [I'd say those campaign contributions are paying off big time.]
ARE WE MAD YET???  IF NOT - JUST WHAT WILL IT TAKE?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100622/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_20100616040297
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Where's the Birth Certificate; Supoenas if We Win the House; Indian Job Creation;

  Barack Obama had a close encounter of the eligibility kind [this week] as his motorcade drove past an electronic billboard on Highway 98 here asking the question, "Where's the birth certificate?"
     The trip was part of Obama's tour of areas hit by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the billboard was courtesy of World Net Daily's 13-month continuing campaign to raise the issue of the president's constitutional eligibility for office.
     "We were able to get this billboard up in a hurry because it is electronic," explained Joseph Farah, chief executive officer of WND and the mastermind of the advertising campaign that has visited more than 50 cities in the past year. "This is the first time we believe Obama has actually had to drive by one of our boards."
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Rep. Darrell Issa, the conservative firebrand whose specialty is lobbing corruption allegations at the Obama White House, is making plans to hire dozens of subpoena-wielding investigators if Republicans win the House this fall.
At a recent speech to Pennsylvania Republicans here, he boasted about what would happen if the GOP wins 39 seats, and he gets the power to subpoena.

“That will make all the difference in the world,” he told 400 applauding party members during a dinner at the chocolate-themed Hershey Lodge. “I won’t use it to have corporate America live in fear that we’re going to subpoena everything. I will use it to get the very information that today the White House is either shredding or not producing.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38697.html#ixzz0rDhgBxzn

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WASHINGTON: Although India has become synonymous with outsourcing, Indian companies created nearly 60,000 jobs in the US between 2004-09 through nearly 500 investment and acquisition deals worth USD 26.5 billion. This fact was highlighted in a report, "How America Benefits from Economic Engagement with India,' released by influential Congressman Jim McDermott in the presence of India's Deputy Ambassador to the US Arun Singh.
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American Spectator says: the action of the President in demanding this immense transfer of the [BP]stockholders' wealth without any legislation or court decision is extremely worrisome.
We live in a Constitutional Republic. The President's job under the Constitution is to enforce the laws made by the elected Congress. His job is not to create new laws and enforce them all by himself. His job is as magistrate under the Constitution, not as Caudillo. He is not the law. He is supposed to enforce what Congress decides.
The BP behavior is reminiscent of how, immediately after assuming office, Mr. Obama, with no Congressional authority or administrative allowance, simply made a phone call to fire the head of GM. When I called the White House press office to ask under what law or regulation Mr. Obama was acting, I was told he did not need a law. If the government put a lot of money into GM, it could call the shots at GM, I was told. But under what authority, I asked. "None needed," was the final answer.
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/06/16/the-caudillo-president
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The federal government is now telling American citizens to stay out of three southern Arizona counties. It is too dangerous because of armed smugglers from Mexico.
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu: Quite frankly I’m telling you as a sheriff that we don’t control that part of the county. My county is larger than the state of Connecticut and we need support from the federal government. It’s their job to secure the border and they haven’t done it. In fact President Obama suspended the construction of the fence.
FOX News reporter: Would you like to see some of the president’s outrage about the oil spill and some of the butt-kicking that he’s talked about doing applied there on the border as well?
Sheriff Paul Babeu: Even with that, you say one thing and then you’re out at a fundraiser in California and you don’t go to the funeral of the people who died in the explosion. You know its one thing to say something slick on television in a ten second soundbite but we need action. And, it’s shameful that we as the most powerful nation on earth can win wars and liberate countries throughout history yet we can’t even secure our own border.  [This is NORTH of Tucson!-this is totally outrageous, dangerous, and unprecedented!]
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17 Afghan Military Members AWOL in America  As Glenn Beck says, "Don’t worry, they’ve only been missing for two years. I’m sure they’re just innocent immigrants doing jobs Americans just won’t do.  According to the Fox News exclusive story, officials say that “an unspecified number of the 17 have been caught.”  Oh, well, then I’m feeling an unspecified amount better about the situation."
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Planned Parenthood Federation of America's (PPFA) audits show the organization spent just $657.1 million between 2002 and 2008 from federal government grants and programs, but the abortion behemoth's own annual reports show that it took in $2.3 billion from government grants and programs during the same time period. That's not pocket change. Why the discrepancy? 
In just two weeks, Planned Parenthood will complete its 2009-10 fiscal year. Yet it still has not released its annual report for its 2008-09 fiscal year. In light of the discrepancy revealed in this GAO report, we must ask: What is Planned Parenthood trying to keep secret? http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/18/planned-parenthoods-missing-millions/
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Around 25 former detainees from Guantanamo Bay camp returned to militancy after going through a rehabilitation program for al Qaeda members in Saudi Arabia, a Saudi security official said on Saturday. (snip)Around 11 Saudis from Guantanamo have gone to Yemen, an operating base for al Qaeda, while others have been jailed again or killed after attending the program, said Abdulrahman al-Hadlaq, Director General of the General Administration for Intellectual Security overseeing the rehabilitation.  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65I22220100619 
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South Carolina's unexpected Democratic nominee for the US Senate, mystery man Alvin Greene, says he wants to play golf with Barack Obama. But in Texas, another surprise Democratic primary winner, congressional nominee Kesha Rogers, wants to impeach the President.
So while South Carolina party officials are still unsure of what to do about Greene's success at the ballot box, Texas Democrats have no such reservations — they wasted little time in casting Rogers into exile and offering no support or recognition of her campaign to win what once was Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay's old seat.
Rogers, 33, told TIME she is a "full time political activist" in the Lyndon LaRouche Youth Movement, a recruiting arm of the LaRouche political organization that is active on many college campuses.

Unlike South Carolina's Greene, Rogers ran a high profile campaign, staking out a corner on a major intersection in the district to appear almost daily with a large sign: "Save NASA. Impeach Obama." She garnered 7,467 votes, 53% of the vote,

Meanwhile, the state party has adopted a resolution denying any party support for Rogers, citing the alleged racist and discriminatory views of the LaRouche movement — allegations that Rogers, who is African-American, firmly rejects.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1998076,00.html?xid=rss-fullnation-yahoo#ixzz0rOsMUO4k

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Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, is expected to leave his job later this year after growing tired of the "idealism" of Barack Obama's inner circle.

Washington insiders say he will quit within six to eight months in frustration at their unwillingness to "bang heads together" to get policy pushed through.

Mr Emanuel, 50, enjoys a good working relationship with Mr Obama but they are understood to have reached an understanding that differences over style mean he will serve only half the full four-year term. lhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/7837686/Rahm-Emanuel-expected-to-quit-White-House.html
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