Issues
Donald Trump, master of the deal, is right. The Republicans are stupid, not only as politicians but also as political psychologists. He criticized Paul Ryan for bringing up the subject of Medicare reform that the Democrats could use to turn the elderly against the Republicans. Their video of grandma being shoved over the cliff by Republicans is a stark indication of how the Dems will fight to win four more years for Obama. As the discussions over increasing the debt limit go on, the Democrats are portraying themselves as the more flexible party in the negotiations. They are willing to cut “cherished programs” such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, provided Republicans agree to some increases in revenue. They want the Republicans to agree to raise taxes and cut spending on programs that the elderly hold sacred. A perfect recipe for Republican defeat in November 2012. Thursday’s meeting was supposed to focus on spending cuts in the two health care programs and on new revenue. And only stupid Republicans would attend such a meeting.
Congressman Ron Paul has joined the presidential race again, but with a difference: This time around, there’s no House seat to return to as a consolation prize. The Texas congressman, long known for holding the line on the U.S. Constitution, limited government, and sound economics, has announced his retirement from the House of Representatives, regardless of the outcome of his latest bid for the White House.
Perhaps it’s an early indicator of how seriously Ron Paul is taking his presidential campaign this time around that he has already released a fireball of a campaign TV ad, focusing squarely on the debt limit debate and holding fellow lawmakers in both parties accountable for the budgetary mess we’re in. Not that Ron Paul didn’t take his 2008 run seriously — he ended up astonishing Beltway insiders for his ability to raise funds and for the innovative track his campaign took. But one sensed four years ago that Ron Paul himself was a bit surprised at how his campaign took off, fueled as much by the enthusiasm and creativity of his support base as by Ron Paul’s own initiative.
Police in Midway, Georgia shut down a lemonade stand run by three girls trying to make money for a trip to a water park in Savannah because the youngsters didn't have the license and permits required for their fledgling enterprise. City ordinances require a business license, a peddler's permit, and a food permit for the vending of food or beverages, even on residential property in the small city (pop. approximately 1,100) just south of Savannah. The license and permits cost $50 a day or $180 a year, according to Coastal Source, a website of Savannah TV stations WJCL and WTGS.
So the girls shut down their stand and are doing yard work and other chores to make money.
When I hear today’s frequent calls for civility, I’m reminded of Rodney King’s plaintive appeal, “Can we…can we all get along?” After all, King was a thug but, when he made his statement, seemed wholly sincere. This means that most contemporary political figures who call for civility share one certain commonality with King.
One of those who likely was sincere was Betty Ford, who has managed to make such a call from beyond the grave. Laid to rest this week, she had instructed two statists, Cokie Roberts and Rosalynn Carter, to send a message about conservative incivility. Writes Michael Kimmitt at American Thinker, "Mrs. Ford wanted me to remind everyone of the way things used to be in Washington," said Roberts…. "I wouldn't be at all surprised if she timed her death to make sure she could convey the message of comity during this week when it seems so badly needed."
On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives failed to pass the Better Use of Light Bulbs (BULB) Act. Though the vote was 233-193, which normally would have been enough, the measure required a two-thirds majority for passage. While House Republicans may still try to adopt the measure by simple majority, most expect that it will not pass the Democrat-controlled Senate. The BULB Act would repeal Subtitle B of Title III of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which ultimately bans incandescent light bulbs.
The Kansas City Star reports:
Yesterday, California’s Governor Jerry Brown signed the controversial bill requiring all public schools in the state to include a social studies curriculum on the contributions of gays and lesbians. The bill has unsurprisingly drawn criticism from a number of groups, including SaveCalifornia.com.
Senate Bill 48, proposed by Democrat Senator Mark Leno, passed the California Senate by a vote of 23-14, then moved on to the Assembly, where it passed on a 49 to 25 vote.
According to The Blaze:
On November 2, 1889, the Dakota Territory ceased to exist, becoming the states of North and South Dakota — or so the history books tell us.
According to 82-year-old Grand Forks, North Dakota, resident John Rolczynski, however, his home state may not legally be a part of the Union at all. Rolczynski, described by Valley News Live as a “stickler for details,” discovered in 1995 that the state constitution does not require the Governor and other executive branch officials to take an oath of office to defend the U.S. Constitution. Article VI of the U.S. Constitution specifically requires “all executive … officers, both of the United States and of the several states, [to] be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution.” The discrepancy between the two constitutions, Rolczynski says, calls North Dakota’s statehood into question.
On Thursday, July 14, 2011, a young Cuban who tried to stow away inside the landing gear of a Spanish airliner died during the nine-hour flight from Havana to Madrid. It was, ironically, Lenin who invented the term “voting with their feet” during the Russian Civil War to describe people moving into areas controlled by the Communists. Collectivists have never found occasion to use that term again.
The flight of Cubans out of their horrific prison camp nation to anywhere else is a 60-year-old story. Fidel Castro inherited a nation that was among the most prosperous in the Western Hemisphere. Although there was much to dislike about Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban leader whom Castro ousted, there was also much to admire about Cuba before Castro.
The people of Great Britain have had enough of the European Union and its growing financial difficulties. In fact, according to a recent poll, if they had a choice in the matter, the British would leave the EU as soon as possible.
The ongoing financial crisis in Europe has already resulted in plans for a costly bailout for Greece — and the staggering cost of Greek socialism appears to be simply one installment of a much more costly proposition of rebuilding the economies of several member states of the European Union. Now, the bailout’s political cost is beginning to come due in Britain. A July 13 story for the Daily Mail reports that public opinion is decisively opposed to continued membership in the EU:
While dozens of Beijing’s trained propagandists posing as journalists were welcomed to the NGA summit, The New American’s Senior Editor William F. Jasper was singled out for exclusion.
