Obama's Lazy Mind At Work

"Danes have punched above their weight in international affairs."

"I've said this before, but I want to repeat: Norway punches above its weight."

"We have no stronger ally than the Netherlands. They consistently punch above their weight."

"Ireland punches above its weight. It's a small country."

"The Philippines is not the largest of countries . . . It punches above its weight."

See the video here.

h/t The Weekly Standard

George Orwell on Adolf Hitler

"[T]he situation in Germany, with its seven million unemployed, was obviously favourable for demagogues. But Hitler could not have succeeded against his many rivals if it had not been for the attraction of his own personality, which one can feel even in the clumsy writing of Mein Kampf, and which is no doubt overwhelming when one hears his speeches. I should like to put it on record that I have never been able to dislike Hitler. ...

"I have reflected that I would certainly kill him if I could get within reach of him, but that I could feel no personal animosity. The fact is that there is something deeply appealing about him. ...

"Also he has grasped the falsity of the hedonistic attitude to life. Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all 'progressive' thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. ...

"Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don’t only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades. However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life. The same is probably true of Stalin’s militarized version of Socialism. All three of the great dictators have enhanced their power by imposing intolerable burdens on their peoples. Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people 'I offer you a good time,' Hitler has said to them 'I offer you struggle, danger and death,' and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet."

-- from George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf, 1940 (reproduced in full here)

Hutaree Defense Maintains FBI Plant Incited Escalation to Bomb-Making

The Detroit Free Press reports here:

The defense argues it was the FBI agent who introduced "violent explosives" to the group in an effort to incite greater criminal activity.

"Your agent moved the ball down the field," [defense attorney] Swor said in court Thursday.

Romney's ObamaCare Op-Ed in USA Today is Intellectually Incoherent

The op-ed may be viewed in it's entirety here.

Two streams of thought collide throughout: federalism vs. strong federal interventionism.

"I favor giving each of the 50 states the resources and the responsibility to craft the health care solutions that suit their citizens best. ... Also, individuals are currently prohibited from purchasing health insurance across states lines, which reduces competition and makes many plans subject to expensive state benefit requirements. The federal government can open up these restricted markets. States could still regulate their insurance industries, but consumers across the U.S. would benefit from lower costs and greater choice."

Federal mandates to the states and federal interference with "expensive state benefit requirements" are not the federalism Romney spends much of the op-ed touting:

"I've opposed a one-size-fits-all health care plan for the entire nation. What we need is a free market, federalist approach to making quality, affordable health insurance available to every American. Each state should be allowed to pursue its own solution in this regard, instead of being dictated to by Washington. ... It is the genius of federalism that it encourages experimentation, with each state pursuing what works best for them. ObamaCare's disregard for this core aspect of U.S. tradition is one of its most egregious failings."

If some states decide that they want to require benefits in insurance plans which are more costly, the federal principle demands that they be allowed to do so.

Likewise with Romney's proposal to have the feds cap "non-economic damages" and encourage "specialized health care courts" in the states. These too are examples of a muscular, activist federal government steering the states in a predetermined direction.

Which is it, governor? Federalism, or federal meddling masquerading as leadership?

Santorum Self-Destructs By Urging Real Liberal Obama Over Also Liberal Romney

Oops!

The reasoning makes sense, and is also correct, but that's not how you win in politics, let alone preserve your position for a future run.

Talk about a tin ear.

The LA Times has the story here:

"If you're going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk with what may be the Etch-A-Sketch candidate of the future."

I think that spells the end for one Rick Santorum.

Star Witness Against Hutaree Cut Corners in Prior Case

Another case of the feds trying to get by on the cheap by using amateurs, as reported here:

Haug acknowledged he was suspended without pay for five days for signing another agent's name on an evidence package in 1996 in Newark, N.J. He had been with the FBI less than a year. It had nothing to do with the Michigan militia investigation.

"You know chain-of-custody issues can jeopardize a prosecution," said attorney James Thomas, who earlier said it was proof of Haug "cutting corners."

The story also reports that Hutaree member Joshua Clough, who cut a deal which was important for establishing criminal intent by the Hutaree, is not going to testify against the Hutaree in this trial.

Hmm.

Romney Campaign Trots Out Wife To Say Mitt Doesn't Change Positions

Haha.

Video here.

Norwegians the Most Anti-Israeli in Europe

Spaniards are tops for saying Jews are more loyal to Israel than to Spain.

Hungarians are tops for saying Jews have too much power in the business world and in international finance. Hungarians also are tops for saying Jews talk too much about the Holocaust.

Poles are tops for saying the Jews killed Jesus Christ.

The latest survey results may be found here:

Romney Again Defends TARP, Says Bush, Not Obama, Prevented Depression

Romney's complete and utter nonsense from yesterday, quoted here:

"There was a fear that the whole economic system of America would collapse -- that all of our banks, or virtually all, would go out of business."

"In that circumstance, President Bush and Hank Paulson said we've got to do something to show we're not going to let the whole system go out of business. I think they were right. I know some people disagree with me. I think they were right to do that."

"I keep hearing the president say that he's responsible for keeping America from going into a Great Depression."

"No, no, no. That was President George W. Bush and Hank Paulson that stepped in and kept that from happening."

Never mind the stock market nose-dived after TARP was passed, millions more lost their jobs, housing went into the toilet and stayed there, and 2008-2009 were back-to-back years of GDP declines. A small depression, but a depression nonetheless.

And never mind that George W. Bush himself characterized his own actions as abandoning free market principles in order to save the free market system. As senators, both John McCain and Barack Obama voted for the measures Bush signed.

This was liberalism in action, not conservatism. And Romney the corporate raider is just fine with it, as are over 4 million Republican primary voters to date.

But over 6 million Republican primary voters to date disagree, voting for Santorum, Gingrich, and Ron Paul. Still others have voted for candidates not named Romney who have dropped out of the race.

Romney seems bound and determined to subdue the base of the Republican Party, as John McCain before him.

Therefore he will lose to Barack Obama. 

Prosecutorial Misconduct in Hutaree Case May Lead to Mistrial

Prosecutors withheld evidence about the key FBI operative's handling of an informant gone wild and now in the pokey in an unrelated case, as detailed here:

According to defense lawyers, the government’s star witness in the Hutaree case, FBI agent Stephen Haug — who spent months spying on the group while undercover — was the FBI handler for the New Jersey informant. The informant, Hal Turner, was a right-wing radio host and blogger who made threats against critics and public officials while on the FBI payroll. 

FliFliFliFliFliFlip-Flops.Great.

How the 1980s paved the way for today's politicians, we hardly knew.

At about 1:10 here:

Jonah Goldberg Wants More Federalism, Doesn't Realize It's Spelled 'Representation'

In the closest thing yet to a nationally recognized columnist calling for the founders' vision of localization of the political, Jonah Goldberg here misses an opportunity to score a blow for constitutional originalism:

What if instead the solution is to disempower the national elites who think they’ve got the answers to everything?

Federalism — the process whereby you push most political questions to the lowest democratic level possible — has been ripe on the right for years now. ...

But that may be changing. In an essay for the spring issue of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, Yale law professor Heather K. Gerken offers the case for “A New Progressive Federalism.”

Gerken’s chief concern is how to empower “minorities and dissenters.” ... [S]he makes the very compelling point that the current understanding of diversity — having minority members as tokens of inclusion — pretty much guarantees that racial minorities will always be political minorities as well. ...

A Left-Right federalist compromise would make America a happier, freer, more prosperous and interesting country. It would also dethrone those in both parties who think they know what’s best for more than 300 million Americans.

The theoretical talk is welcome, but the practical application is the rub.

That's what's missing from these discussions, and where the genius of the authors of the constitution shone brighest.

The founders long ago conceived of just such a compromise between political extremes in Article 1 of the constitution when they proposed one representative for every 30,000 of population. Today we have one for every 708,000 on average because Congress arrogated power to itself in the 1920s by limiting representation to the then-current number apportioned, or 435. If you want to know where elitism started in our politics, look there.

By all rights we should have over 10,000 representatives today, a more interesting country indeed.

 

After 10 Million Votes Republicans Still Prefer Anyone But Romney 1.5 to 1

See here at Real Clear Politics for the data:

Romney is Nearly Half Way to Needed Delegates After IL Victory

The Wall Street Journal tracks the contests and totals here:

With Malia Obama in Off-Limits-For-Everyone-Else Mexico With 25 Secret Service Agents, The Whole Family Is Milking The Presidency

And Moochelle Obama protests on Letterman she's trying to preserve South Side of Chicago values in The White House.

Uh huh.

Here's a South Side value: When you want to be safe on the South Side, bring the Blackstone Rangers.

Stories here and here. And here.

She gotta new gang now.

My Plan For Middle East Peace

• Evacuate all persons from the Holy Land
• Muslims get Nevada
• Jews get Florida
• Christians get to settle anywhere in the US
• Disney becomes the concessionaire of the Holy Land
• America gets 50 percent of the take
• Disney gets 40 percent
• Nevada and Florida split the rest
• Muslims cannot visit Florida anytime, nor the Holy Land in February, April, June, September, and November
• Jews cannot visit Nevada anytime, nor the Holy Land in January, March, May, July, August, October and December

US Postal Service Worker Links Obama To Marxist Ayers Family in Glen Ellyn, IL in 1980s

Jerome Corsi breaks down the story for WND.com here, speculating that Bill Ayers' parents were responsible for financing at least some of Barack Obama's education.

Perhaps the most interesting point of the whole story is how much damage one well-placed commie can do to a country. And I don't mean Obama, but Bill Ayers' father, who was formerly president and CEO of Com Ed, the electric utility:

"[The postman Allen] Hulton recalls that he had one conversation with Tom Ayers, who was retired as CEO and chairman of Commonwealth Edison, shortly after the Ayers family moved into their home in Glen Ellyn.

'He asked me how I liked my job, and he started into what seemed to me a Marxist viewpoint on what it is like for the working man, trying to convince me that working people like me were exploited by their employers,' Hulton remembers of the conversation.

'As an American citizen, I appreciated everything I had, and I was not at war with people who had more than I had,' [Hulton] says. 'It surprised me to hear somebody who had been president of Consolidated [sic] Edison talking in these terms.'

Hulton says he got the feeling that Tom Ayers thought he knew more about the plight of the workingman than he did."

Having lived near and worked in that area between 1989 and 1997 I can say that the postman's recollections of Glen Ellyn ring true.

What are the chances that Big Sis will give Allen Hulton an award for saying something?

The Individual Mandate: An Unprecedented Assertion of Government Power

Adam J. White for The Weekly Standard here makes the case that the Supreme Court of the United States has quite a history of ruling against sweeping innovations which have no precedent, which means ObamaCare just might not pass muster:

"[T]he [Obama] administration’s latest actions encapsulate precisely the concerns embodied in the Roberts Court’s decisions regarding Sarbanes-Oxley, Guantánamo, and preelection book banning, as well as the New Deal Court’s unanimous refusal to simply acquiesce to FDR. Unprecedented powers asserted by the government threaten to give rise to stark abuses of power​—​some foreseeable, perhaps many more unforeseeable. Faced with similarly novel assertions of government power in previous cases, the Court drew a constitutional line in the sand, out of an abundance of caution. The Court’s review of the individual mandate poses no less a challenge, and merits no less a response."

We're all in deep trouble if the individual mandate survives.

Socialists Agree: Obama's Their Man

As seen here:

STERN: You like Obama?

MACPHERSON: Yeah, I’m living in London and I’m socialist. What do you expect?


Can't wait until he confiscates her $60 million net worth.

Oh wait, he can't. Obama's only President of the United States. Elle Macpherson (Eleanor Nancy Gow) is Australian.

ABC News/WaPo Poll Finds 67 Percent Opposed to ObamaCare Mandate

As usual, people want the goodies in the plan, without the compulsion which is necessary to fund it.

Story here.