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RedState's Morning Briefing for Friday, July 10, 2009
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Morning Briefing for FRIDAY, July 10, 2009
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1. The Greatest Thing Ever Written About Ruth Bader Ginsburg
She is perhaps the most honest liberal
2. Is Rahm Emanuel Still a Genius?
The Porkulus Threatens to Ruin Obama’s Presidency. How Did He Let it Happen?
3. $18 Million to Redesign Recovery.gov
Your tax dollars at work
4. Yes, the President of the Valley Swim Club is a John G Duesler, Jr.
The guy who threw the black kids out of the swimming pool is an Obama supporter
5. Administration Misread History
It is not too late to stop the spending spree and begin to stem the tide of job losses by supporting the families and small businesses that will rebuild our economy.
6. Gerald Nye (D, VA-02) battles Gerald Nye (D, VA-02) over Cap and Trade!
No, not a typo.
7. Congressman Tom Price: The Reducing Barack Obama’s Unsustainable Deficit Act
Jobs are being lost everyday, the deficit continues to explode and the American people are angry.
1. The Greatest Thing Ever Written About Ruth Bader Ginsburg
She is perhaps the most honest liberal
Sometimes, when it comes to an issue like abortion, people slip up and say what they mean. It’s seldom a point deemed appropriate for public discussion, but on occasion someone will point out that a hugely disproportionate number of abortions are executed upon black and Hispanic children. Occasionally, a pro-life person will even go so far as to wonder whether, for many supporters of legalized abortions, this fact is a feature of the system, not a bug. Supporters of legalized abortion at this point, offended by the idea, will typically recoil in horror at the suggestion, insisting that no responsible supporter of legalized abortion feels that way. Most abortion proponents will then insist that the disproportionate numbers of minority abortions is an unintended (and surely undesirable!) consequence of this nonetheless important social policy.
Thankfully, we have people like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg around to remind us what an insidious lie this is, as she does in this weekend’s New York Times.
Said Ginsburg: “Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion.”
And it’s clear from her statement that she’s talking about races not birth defects. Even were she talking about birth defects, there is no excuse for this thinking.
2. Is Rahm Emanuel Still a Genius?
The Porkulus Threatens to Ruin Obama’s Presidency. How Did He Let it Happen?
When President Obama selected Rahm Emanuel to serve as White House Chief of Staff, most commentators hailed it as a coup. We were told that Rahm was brilliant, and that his love for brass-knuckles politics would prove invaluable in moving the president’s agenda through Congress. As a veteran of the Clinton White House, he would be sure not to repeat the mistakes Clinton made early in 1993. And because Rahm had come from the House of Representatives, and had been DCCC chair when the Democrats won a majority in the House, scores of Democrats would listen to him. Love him or hate him, all were confident that Rahm would be effective.
Is it too early to ask if something went wrong?
Just 6 months into President Obama’s term, his approval ratings are sinking. Administration officials are apparently split on how to address a faltering economy, with some wanting more ’stimulus’ spending, and others in favor of staying the course. The American people are losing faith in Obama’s ability to provide leadership to fix the economy, and polls show they’re already growing more willing to put Republicans back in charge.
But beyond that, the White House is seeing its agenda bogged down in Congress - because of the cost of Barack Obama’s first (and so far, his only) major domestic initiative.
3. $18 Million to Redesign Recovery.gov
Your tax dollars at work
Reminiscent of the no-bid, cost-plus contracts awarded in the Bush administration to defense contractors, ABC News reported last night the Obama Administration awarded a 5 year $18 million contract to Smartronix, a Maryland-based IT firm with connections to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, for the redesign of Recovery.gov.
Launched in February to track the expenditures of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Recovery.gov was to be the pinnacle of web-enabled transparency, according to President Barack Obama.
“The site is the tip of the iceberg for the effort that will go into taking spending tracking and accountability to the next level,” one administration official said of their intended level of transparency.
But now, it seem, the administration has failed to deliver on two pledges central to the Obama campaign’s rhetoric: fiscal responsibility and unrivaled transparency.
4. Yes, the President of the Valley Swim Club is a John G Duesler, Jr.
The guy who threw the black kids out of the swimming pool is an Obama supporter
So you’ve heard about the private Philly swim club that had turned away a bunch of day campers after their first (bought and paid for) visit, allegedly for being, well, minorities.
And you’ve heard the part that has gotten a bunch of people up in arms:
The explanation they got was either dishearteningly honest or poorly worded.
“There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club,” John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.
And then you perhaps heard that there’s a John G Duesler, Jr in the area who was a staunch Obama supporter.
But when you went to look him and the Valley Swim Club up, lo! The entire site has been scrubbed and taken down! There’s now no way to check to see if this is the same person as the one who turned away The Creative Steps Day Camp! Unless, of course, they forgot to clean out the PDFs from the Google cache.
Guess what?
Looks like the same John G Duesler, Jr to me. Wonder why the scrubbing?
5. Administration Misread History
It is not too late to stop the spending spree and begin to stem the tide of job losses by supporting the families and small businesses that will rebuild our economy.
Vice President Joe Biden recently told the American people that the Obama Administration misread the economy when putting together their nearly $1 trillion spending package. Clearly, this administration made many serious mistakes when putting together their so-called “stimulus” package but chief among them was a serious misreading of history.
Both President John F. Kennedy and President Ronald Reagan showed that broad tax relief for American families and small businesses was the best way to stimulate the economy and support job creation. After all, small businesses create the majority of jobs in this country, so it would seem commonsense to put our support behind them. In fact, Republican stimulus proposals included substantial relief for small businesses as well as working families, those who have lost their jobs, and retirees. We constructed a strategy with a proven track record and one that empowers the American people not government bureaucrats.
Democrats in Congress and the Administration ignored history and in doing so put on the backs of the American people a debt-creating big government borrowing and spending spree which has not been timely, targeted, or temporary. The continued decline in jobs is a symptom of the type of slow, bureaucratic driven spending this Administration put in place. In the meantime, it has saddled future generations with an unprecedented level of new debt which threatens Social Security and encourages the potential for hyperinflation and higher interest rates. This would be a recipe for future economic decline and job losses. Whether or not they misread the economy, it is quite clear that this Administration has misread history, misplaced its priorities, and misspent American tax dollars.
6. Gerald Nye (D, VA-02) battles Gerald Nye (D, VA-02) over Cap and Trade!
No, not a typo.
It’s amazing how quickly Democratic Congressmen pick up the bad habits of their older colleagues. In Gerald Nye’s (VA-02) case, shameless double-talk.
According to a Democratic site, Rep. Nye bragged about his support and opposition to the cap-and-trade bill to the same person.
7. Congressman Tom Price: The Reducing Barack Obama’s Unsustainable Deficit Act
Jobs are being lost everyday, the deficit continues to explode and the American people are angry.
It’s now been six months since President Obama moved into the White House and in that short time, we have seen all his economic policies fall flat on their face. The unemployment rate has skyrocketed to 9.5%, and the stimulus package has been defined by delays, fraud, and poor management.
Every day, I talk to Americans who are terrified about the path the country is going – the spending, the borrowing, the government intervention. That’s why we have introduced a bill that attempts to save the country from economic and fiscal disaster. It’s called the “Reducing Barack Obama’s Unsustainable Deficit Act” and it makes a much needed turn in the direction of fiscal responsibility.
On May 14th of this year, the President said, “The long-term deficit and debt that we have accumulated is unsustainable. We can’t keep on just borrowing from China, or borrowing from other countries…At some point they’re just going to get tired of buying our debt.”
While true, I think the American people are also getting tired of buying the President’s empty rhetoric.
