The Right Lane update 7.29.13

The pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, freedom and individual liberty

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." --George Washington

To subscribe, see note below

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Former Ambassador: Benghazi “Stand Down” Order Came from Obama

Ann Wagner, a former US ambassador and current congresswoman from Missouri, was interviewed about what the protocol would be for a “stand down” order in the event of a consulate being under attack, and she answered what many have suspected already: that’s an order that would come from Obama himself. This is one of the reasons that the Obama administration has essentially refused to provide details about where Obama was at or what he was doing during the attack. This is because we know exactly what he was doing — ignoring the cries for help for political reasons. Being wrong about policy is one thing. But ignoring the screams of those who work for you because you’d rather them die than accept that your foreign policy is creating more terrorists is a level of treason rare, even for the most despotic tyrants.

~~~~~~

CBO: Public Debt Will Hit 73 Percent of GDP

Many Democrats pointed to the Congressional Budget Office's revised deficit figures as proof that the national debt is not as large of a threat as previously feared. But a closer look at America's debt reveals a much different — and alarming — reality. In mid-May, the CBO said the federal deficit in fiscal 2013, which ends in September, will be $642 billion, down from the $1 trillion-plus of the previous four years.

"We don't have an immediate crisis in terms of debt," President Obama said in an interview with ABC News. "In fact for the next 10 years it's going to be in a sustainable place."  But "after years of bipartisan overspending, public debt today — that's the money that the federal government owes to domestic and foreign investors — is almost 90 percent higher than at the onset of the financial crisis in 2008," according to Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. "It climbed by $1 trillion between December 2011 and December 2012 alone to its current level of $12.03 trillion."

Public debt is now 75 percent of GDP, the highest level since 1950 — and that doesn't include debt the government owes to Social Security and other accounts. But the worst is yet to come. The CBO projects that the public debt is scheduled to grow to $19 trillion by 2023, or 73.6 percent of projected GDP — up from 36 percent as recently as the end of 2007. But if Congress reverses the spending cuts forced through sequestration, the public debt will rise to 83 percent of GDP, the CBO projects. By 2023, the federal government is expected to spend $823 billion a year on interest payments, up from $223 billion today. Interest payments plus entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will account for 75 percent of the federal budget, and other programs will "gradually be squeezed out," de Rugy writes for Reason magazine. She concludes: "Congress should circumvent these scenarios by acting now to cut spending and reduce future entitlement obligations. No level of taxes can address the phenomenal fiscal imbalance that our country is facing now and into the future. "History will not judge the debt-denialists kindly."

~~~~~~~~

DOJ Finally Goes Insane: Uses Federal Power To Force School To Allow Girl To Use Boys’ Restroom by Mark Horne

The DOJ has forced a school district to allow a girl to use the boys restroom because the girl calls herself a boy. “The student was born a girl but “has identified as a boy from a young age,” according to the Department of Justice, which reached a settlement with the public school district in Arcadia, an affluent LA suburb. Under the deal, the district must not only change the student’s restroom privileges and make similar accommodations on overnight trips.  It also must institute a host of measures to ensure transgender students are treated as whatever gender they consider themselves to be.”

This is the “T” in the “GLBT” we hear about. The girl is allegedly “transgender.”

So what if a girl identifies herself as a boy? I’m pasty white. So are my children. If one of them “identifies as an African American from a young age” does that mean he is “transracial” and can sue any college that doesn’t give him minority preferences? Are all colleges required to affirm his “transracial identity” and treat him as an African American? How is transgender any different? It isn’t! Every single Liberal adult reading these words knows that he or she is lying, transparently and stupidly lying, to go along with this pretense. A girl is a girl is a girl. She should use a girl’s restroom. That’s just biology. That’s just humanity.  You don’t get to choose what you are. You don’t get to bully other people to conform to your fantasy reality (and any parents who encourage their child to expect this, hate their child).

Also, being bullied because you are perceived as different in some way is no excuse at all for inventing "transgender" rules. Nothing justifies this obvious piece of fiction and fantasy being enforced by the courts. No science. No civil rights law. Nothing.  It is just stupidity at the point of a gun. The DoJ had zero authority for this tyrannical and perverse move in the 1964 Civil Rights Act. They just did it anyway. If any African American wants to see the Civil Rights Act preserved he should be outraged by this appeal to it to justify fantasy coercion. It makes it into a joke. It makes Martin Luther King into a dirty joke. It makes a mockery of human life.

Again, there are girls and there are boys, there are women and there are men. And, in this case, yes, they are just born that way. A boy or girl can no more “identify” as the opposite sex than he or she can identify as a bird or a planet.

I should be horrified by how evil all this is, but I can’t get past the stupidity part. Is some Liberal going to write in the comments (as usually happens when I address homosexual issues) that my ranting just shows how irrational belief in God is? Right. Because if I were an atheist it would suddenly make complete sense to say that girls can be boys by saying so and vice versa. Just get rid of the superstitions of the past and suddenly we will all see that a boy is really a girl “inside” and needs to use the girl’s restroom. God is a delusion and that girl is really a boy.

Give me a break.

Christians watch the Department of Justice and, if we ever had any doubts that modern liberal unbelievers are just stupid people trying desperately to make themselves more stupid, those doubts all scatter in the face of this monstrosity. And you expect us to accept your expertise on the definition of marriage? Maybe after your hallucinations go away. Why would anyone think that the leaders of this kind of society have any brains when they do and say such stupid things? The Western World is run by idiots. Raving, stupid, morons.

~~~~~~

NBC Is Developing a Hillary Clinton Miniseries By Josef Adalian

NBC is giving Hillary Clinton the miniseries treatment, tapping Diane Lane (Man of Steel) to play the former senator and first lady in a four-hour project in development at the network. Peacock chief Bob Greenblatt announced the project Saturday morning at the network's portion of the TV Critics Association press tour as part of an ambitious miniseries slate the network hopes will give it a much-needed ratings boost. Oscar-nominated writer Courtney Hunt (Frozen River) is writing the project, which NBC said will examine "Clinton’s life as a wife, mother, politician and cabinet member from 1998 to the present. The script will begin with Clinton living in the White House as her husband is serving the second of his two terms as president." There's no word yet on when the project will air, though Greenblatt indicated it run before a possible Clinton announcement about running for president. Given TV's relatively speedy turnaround time with projects, it's also possible the network is looking to get out in front of director James Ponsoldt's Rodham, a feature biopic of Clinton which has yet to cast its lead.  

Wow! Wouldn't any Presidential hopeful give anything to have this free Promo for their presidential run!

~~~~~~

MUSLIMS SECOND LARGEST GROUP OF ILLEGAL ALIENS IN NYC

The US is home to more than 11 million undocumented workers, and there are an estimated 2 million migrants working in New York. They are taxi drivers, domestic workers, restaurant, retail and construction staff. They are paid far less than the city’s minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and they are often mistreated by their employers.  Their lives may undergo major changes if the US House of Representatives approves an immigration bill, passed by the Senate last month, which offers a 13-year path to citizenship for undocumented migrants, but also reinforces border security and enables businesses to check workers’ social security numbers, under the E-verify program.

The program would make “every single undocumented person one click away from being notified or deported”, according to Monami Maulik, executive director of Desis Rising Up and Moving (Drum), an organization of low-wage south Asian immigrants in Jackson Heights, Queens, which has 2,000 members. “Our members … and many others in immigrant communities are really disappointed with this legislation. It’s turning out to be more and more repressive, harsher measures,” she said. “So we are following it very closely.”  After Latinos, she added, south Asians are among the second-largest undocumented population in New York.

~~~~~~

Planned Parenthood and Others Could Have Access to Citizens' Information Through Obamacare's Federal Data Hub

As the Obama administration frantically tries to enlist the help of organizations to promote the Affordable Care Act, Planned Parenthood could be one of several groups with access to citizens’ sensitive information in the Federal Data Hub. According to The Illinois Typepad Review, if the organization is granted funding through the Department of Health and Human Services’ $54 million in navigator grants, the nonprofit will have access to Obamacare’s Federal Data Hub. The database contains citizens’ information collected from the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice, and includes Social Security numbers. Though these navigators have yet to be named, Planned Parenthood is likely to be one. Navigators would assist Americans with enrollment in Obamacare’s exchanges and inform them about the subsidized insurance, according to HHS. Officials from organizations receiving navigator grants are required to take an online course about how the law works. Planned Parenthood has already signed on to promote the healthcare law and some affiliates will apply for HHS’ navigator grants, the news outlet stated last month. The deadline to apply for the funding was June 7, but the agency has yet to announce all the organizations receiving the awards.

~~~~~~

Four in Five Americans Face Near-poverty, No Work Under Obama -  While race is becoming less of an issue

Economic Recovery?  Gaining on Employment Numbers?  Lifting the poor out of poverty?  Phony scandals according to Obama.  Four out of five U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty, or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.  Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press point to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend. The findings come as President Barack Obama tries to renew his administration's emphasis on the economy, saying in recent speeches that his highest priority is to "rebuild ladders of opportunity" and reverse income inequality. Like more speaches will help?  How about action and leadership?

As nonwhites approach a numerical majority in the U.S., one question is how public programs to lift the disadvantaged should be best focused — on the affirmative action that historically has tried to eliminate the racial barriers seen as the major impediment to economic equality, or simply on improving socioeconomic status for all, regardless of race. Hardship is particularly growing among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy "poor." "I think it's going to get worse," said Irene Salyers, 52, of Buchanan County, Va., a declining coal region in Appalachia. Married and divorced three times, Salyers now helps run a fruit-and-vegetable stand with her boyfriend but it doesn't generate much income. They live mostly off government disability checks. "If you do try to go apply for a job, they're not hiring people, and they're not paying that much to even go to work," she said. Children, she said, have "nothing better to do than to get on drugs."

While racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to live in poverty, race disparities in the poverty rate have narrowed substantially since the 1970s, census data show. Economic insecurity among whites also is more pervasive than is shown in the government's poverty data, engulfing more than 76 percent of white adults by the time they turn 60, according to a new economic gauge being published next year by the Oxford University Press. The gauge defines "economic insecurity" as a year or more of periodic joblessness, reliance on government aid such as food stamps or income below 150 percent of the poverty line. Measured across all races, the risk of economic insecurity rises to 79 percent.

Marriage rates are in decline across all races, and the number of white mother-headed households living in poverty has risen to the level of black ones. "It's time that America comes to understand that many of the nation's biggest disparities, from education and life expectancy to poverty, are increasingly due to economic class position," said William Julius Wilson, a Harvard professor who specializes in race and poverty. He noted that despite continuing economic difficulties, minorities have more optimism about the future after Obama's election, while struggling whites do not. "There is the real possibility that white alienation will increase if steps are not taken to highlight and address inequality on a broad front," Wilson said.

Nationwide, the count of America's poor remains stuck at a record number: 46.2 million, or 15 percent of the population, due in part to lingering high unemployment following the recession. While poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics are nearly three times higher, by absolute numbers the predominant face of the poor is white. More than 19 million whites fall below the poverty line of $23,021 for a family of four, accounting for more than 41 percent of the nation's destitute, nearly double the number of poor blacks.

Sometimes termed "the invisible poor" by demographers, lower-income whites generally are dispersed in suburbs as well as small rural towns, where more than 60 percent of the poor are white. Concentrated in Appalachia in the East, they are numerous in the industrial Midwest and spread across America's heartland, from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma up through the Great Plains. Buchanan County, in southwest Virginia, is among the nation's most destitute based on median income, with poverty hovering at 24 percent. The county is mostly white, as are 99 percent of its poor. More than 90 percent of Buchanan County's inhabitants are working-class whites who lack a college degree. Higher education long has been seen there as nonessential to land a job because well-paying mining and related jobs were once in plentiful supply. These days many residents get by on odd jobs and government checks. Salyers' daughter, Renee Adams, 28, who grew up in the region, has two children. A jobless single mother, she relies on her live-in boyfriend's disability checks to get by. Salyers says it was tough raising her own children as it is for her daughter now, and doesn't even try to speculate what awaits her grandchildren, ages 4 and 5. Smoking a cigarette in front of the produce stand, Adams later expresses a wish that employers will look past her conviction a few years ago for distributing prescription painkillers, so she can get a job and have money to "buy the kids everything they need." "It's pretty hard," she said. "Once the bills are paid, we might have $10 to our name."

Higher recent rates of unemployment mean the lifetime risk of experiencing economic insecurity now runs even higher: 79 percent, or 4 in 5 adults, by the time they turn 60. By race, nonwhites still have a higher risk of being economically insecure, at 90 percent. But compared with the official poverty rate, some of the biggest jumps under the newer measure are among whites, with more than 76 percent enduring periods of joblessness, life on welfare or near-poverty. By 2030, based on the current trend of widening income inequality, close to 85 percent of all working-age adults in the U.S. will experience bouts of economic insecurity.  "Poverty is no longer an issue of 'them', it's an issue of 'us'," says Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who calculated the numbers. "Only when poverty is thought of as a mainstream event, rather than a fringe experience that just affects blacks and Hispanics, can we really begin to build broader support for programs that lift people in need." The numbers come from Rank's analysis being published by the Oxford University Press. They are supplemented with interviews and figures provided to the AP by Tom Hirschl, a professor at Cornell University; John Iceland, a sociology professor at Penn State University; the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute; the Census Bureau; and the Population Reference Bureau.

Among the findings:

—For the first time since 1975, the number of white single-mother households living in poverty with children surpassed or equaled black ones in the past decade, spurred by job losses and faster rates of out-of-wedlock births among whites. White single-mother families in poverty stood at nearly 1.5 million in 2011, comparable to the number for blacks. Hispanic single-mother families in poverty trailed at 1.2 million.

—Since 2000, the poverty rate among working-class whites has grown faster than among working-class nonwhites, rising 3 percentage points to 11 percent as the recession took a bigger toll among lower-wage workers. Still, poverty among working-class nonwhites remains higher, at 23 percent.

—The share of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods — those with poverty rates of 30 percent or more — has increased to 1 in 10, putting them at higher risk of teenage pregnancy or dropping out of school. Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 17 percent of the child population in such neighborhoods, compared with 13 percent in 2000, even though the overall proportion of white children in the U.S. has been declining. The share of black children in high-poverty neighborhoods dropped from 43 percent to 37 percent, while the share of Latino children went from 38 percent to 39 percent.

—Race disparities in health and education have narrowed generally since the 1960s. While residential segregation remains high, a typical black person now lives in a non-majority black neighborhood for the first time. Previous studies have shown that wealth is a greater predictor of standardized test scores than race; the test-score gap between rich and low-income students is now nearly double the gap between blacks and whites.

Going back to the 1980s, never have whites been so pessimistic about their futures, according to the General Social Survey, a biannual survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. Just 45 percent say their family will have a good chance of improving their economic position based on the way things are in America. The divide is especially evident among those whites who self-identify as working class. Forty-nine percent say they think their children will do better than them, compared with 67 percent of nonwhites who consider themselves working class, even though the economic plight of minorities tends to be worse. Although they are a shrinking group, working-class whites — defined as those lacking a college degree — remain the biggest demographic bloc of the working-age population. In 2012, Election Day exit polls conducted for the AP and the television networks showed working-class whites made up 36 percent of the electorate, even with a notable drop in white voter turnout.

Last November, Obama won the votes of just 36 percent of those non-college whites, the worst performance of any Democratic nominee among that group since Republican Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide victory over Walter Mondale. Some Democratic analysts have urged renewed efforts to bring working-class whites into the political fold, calling them a potential "decisive swing voter group" if minority and youth turnout level off in future elections. "They don't trust big government, but it doesn't mean they want no government," says Republican pollster Ed Goeas, who agrees that working-class whites will remain an important electoral group. His research found that many of them would support anti-poverty programs if focused broadly on job training and infrastructure investment. This past week, Obama pledged anew to help manufacturers bring jobs back to America and to create jobs in the energy sectors of wind, solar and natural gas. "They feel that politicians are giving attention to other people and not them," Goeas said.

~~~~~~

Caught! Immigration bill shackles border agents Bars them from considering race or ethnicity 'to any degree' by Aaron Klein

A truckload of young Hispanic men is spotted by a U.S. Border Patrol agent rumbling down a dusty road a mile north of the Mexican border toward El Paso, Texas.  How should the agent respond?

Under the immigration-reform bill currently under consideration by Congress, Border Patrol agents or any other law-enforcement officer who stops such a vehicle to demand identification might be found in violation of the law. The legislation bars all federal law-enforcement officers, including border agents, from using race or ethnicity “to any degree” while making routine or spontaneous law-enforcement decisions, a review of the legislation has found.  The bill further calls for the Homeland Security Department to collect data on immigration enforcement activities to determine the existence of racial profiling.  The data would be utilized to issue future guidelines to officers regarding the use of race or ethnicity during routine enforcement. The bill states that “in making routine or spontaneous law enforcement decisions, such as ordinary traffic stops, Federal law enforcement officers may not use race or ethnicity to any degree, except that officers may rely on race and ethnicity if a specific suspect description exists.” The bill defines federal law-enforcement officers as any “officer, agent, or employee of the United States authorized by law or by a Government agency to engage in or supervise the prevention, detection, investigation, or prosecution of any violation of Federal law.” The definition includes U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. It is clear that immigration enforcement officials are singled out by the new directives.  The legislation refers specifically to border-security agents with another clause that states “in enforcing laws protecting the integrity of the Nation’s borders, Federal law enforcement officers may not consider race or ethnicity except to the extent permitted by the Constitution and laws of the United States.”

~~~~~~

The Right Lane update 7.27.13

The pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, freedom and individual liberty

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." --George Washington

To subscribe, see note below

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Obamacare is "Unworkable"

The wreck is coming, and it is the American people who are going to pay the price and the U.S. governors are bracing for the train wreck heading their way.  In reality, the Obama administration doesn't have a healthcare plan, the state governors are saying. The White House has a law with thousands of pages, but the closer we get to Oct. 1, the day government-mandated health-insurance exchanges are supposed to open, the more we see that the administration doesn't have a legitimate plan to successfully implement the law.

Fifty-five working days before the launch of the Obamacare health-insurance exchanges on Oct. 1, the administration published a 600-page final rule that employers, individuals and states are expected to follow in determining eligibility for millions of Americans, the governors continued. Rather than lending clarity to a troubled project, the guidelines only further complicated it.

That the White House has treated state officials with mistrust on the Obamacare issue. Perhaps that's because they can see that the federal government is repeating mistakes of the past and know that outcomes rarely reflect what Washington has promised.

The governors also attacked President Barack Obama's poor leadership on the issue. One of the big complaints by the governors is the guidance that President Obama has demonstrated to date has been inconsistent, arbitrary and frustrating — contributing further to the grave uncertainty that surrounds this law.

The governors also cited the various problems that have arisen since the healthcare law was passed in 2010. These include estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that 7 million Americans will lose their employer-based health insurance under Obamacare, and especially, that the law would now define full-time employment as 30 hours per week, versus the current 40.  The 40 hour work week is the backbone of the American middle class.

As governors they have seen the trouble the law poses for our own state economies. The most recent evidence: The government now says that it will not verify the eligibility of individuals who apply for subsidized insurance on the healthcare exchanges.

Governors have first-hand experience with implementing public-assistance programs. they know how important it is to care for the most vulnerable citizens and to ensure that people are healthy and able to work.  They also know that a one-size-fits-all approach like Obamacare simply doesn't work.  It will only creates new problems and inequalities. That's why if you look at all 50 states, you'll see 50 unique ways of handling Medicaid.

This law was a bad idea from the start, and the American public never supported it. The Obama team, taking advantage of an unusual two-year window when Democrats controlled all branches of government, foisted upon the country a liberal hodgepodge of unworkable notions that will wreak havoc on American healthcare.

Delaying implementation of Obamacare, not just the employer mandate, is a reasonable idea. But an even better one would be a complete repeal.

The Right Lane update 7.26.13

The pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, freedom and individual liberty

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." --George Washington

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Groups Opposed to Chicago School Closures Seek U.N. Intervention, Claim Human Rights Violations  By Patrick Goodenough

Advocacy groups opposing the planned shutdown of 49 schools in Chicago are turning to the United Nations for help, urging U.N. officials to investigate and take steps to prevent human rights abuses which, they say, will result from the closures.

The move by these people demonstrate a core ideology.  I say, they do not accept nor respect U.S. sovereignty.  We have courts, various levels of government and the freedom to sue for alleged rights abuse.  More over the administration as pandered to this ideology by supporting and signing onto dubious U.N. "so called treaties" that provide evidence to such people that subscribe to this ideology.  Put this in relief to what is happening to Detroit and it leads one to wonder.

In the latest in a number of appeals by U.S. civic organizations to the world body, the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights this week submitted a letter to the U.N. human rights apparatus in Geneva, asking that it “investigate and take preventative measures to address the potential domestic and international human rights violations that may result from these school closings.”  The action comes alongside two federal lawsuits seeking injunctions to block the closure of the institutions by the nation’s third-largest public school district before the new school year begins.  Chicago Public Schools says there are currently some 500,000 available classroom seats in the district but only 400,000 students. It argues that millions of dollars saved in shutting down schools deemed to be “underutilized” can be used to improve education for students at the schools to which they will be relocated. Opponents of the move say it will disproportionately affect minority students, and worry about the risk to students’ safety as they are compelled to cross gangs’ turf boundaries to reach their new schools.  The Midwest Coalition addressed its submission – known in U.N. parlance as a “letter of allegation” – to three U.N. rights specialists: an Indian whose mandate covers the “right to education,” a Hungarian expert responsible for “minority issues,” and a Kenyan dealing with “contemporary forms of racism.”

It justified making the appeal to the trio on the basis of their mandate to “examine, monitor, and advise and publicly report on human rights situations in specific countries.” The U.S. is a party to treaties including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.  In brief, the advocacy groups argued that:

--Eighty percent of the almost 30,000 children affected by the closures are African-American, and that disabled children “will be forced to move to new schools without any guarantee that their special needs will be met.”

--The closures “place children at greater risk of violence and death,” since “[m]any Chicago neighborhoods are gang-controlled” and students will have to cross gang lines to reach their new schools.

--The movement of students from the closing schools will increase class sizes in the receiving schools, thus eroding the quality of education.

The coalition also alleged that Chicago education authorities had not taken opposition from parents, residents and teachers into account, despite direct pleas, objections aired during public hearings and street demonstrations.

“If a governmental body can simply ignore the views of the people they claim to represent, the right to participate in governmental affairs is meaningless.” The U.N. says “letters of allegation” to its rights experts usually remain confidential, as do subsequent U.N. communications with the relevant government authorities, until all the documents in a particular case are published in an annual report to the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC).  In this case however, a copy of the Mideast Coalition’s letter was posted online by Chicago community development consultant Valerie Leonard, who drew attention to it on her Twitter account on Wednesday.  Once a complaint containing “reliable and credible information” is received, the U.N. explains, the experts take up the matter with the country concerned, “in order to induce the national authority to undertake the necessary investigations.” Attempts to get comment from Chicago Public Schools were unsuccessful Thursday.

The Midwest Coalition comprises 56 organizations, legal service providers and university centers. Its submission to the U.N. was also supported by various other groups, including the Chicago Teachers Union’s human rights committee; and by individual teachers, parents and others, among whom the controversial retired University of Illinois education professor Bill Ayers stands out. This isn’t the first time the coalition has made a submission to the U.N. about issues of concern at home.

Months earlier a NAACP delegation had addressed the HRC on voter-ID and other laws. As reported at the time, its audience included representatives of countries whose citizens have long been denied a free vote, including Cuba, China and Saudi Arabia. Earlier this month Rainbow Push Coalition president Jesse Jackson called for the HRC to investigate the Trayvon Martin shooting to see “whether the U.S. is upholding its obligations under international human rights laws and treaties.”

~~~~~~

Big Majorities Oppose Obamacare, Say CBS, Fox, NBC/WSJ Polls By Michael W. Chapman

Poll results released this week by CBS News, Fox News, and NBC News/Wall Street Journal show that strong majorities of Americans disapprove of Obamacare, would repeal it if given the chance, and think the law itself is a “total bad idea.”

In the CBS News poll, 54% of Americans disapprove of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) while only 36% approve of it. CBS also found that 38% of Americans said Obamacare will personally “hurt me,” while only 13% said the health care law would “help me.” In the Fox News poll, 53% of Americans said they would vote to repeal Obamacare if given the chance.  In addition, 47% said the law would cost them money while only 11% said it would save them money in the coming year.

For the NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey, people were asked, “From what you have heard about Brack Obama’s health care plan that was passed by Congress and signed into law by the President in 2010, do you think his plan is a good idea or a bad idea?” 47% responded that the president’s health care plan was a “total bad idea” while only 34% said it was a “total good idea.” At the same time, 45% said Republicans in Congress should do everything they can to prevent the law from going into effect but 51% said Republicans should stop trying to block the law.

For the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 1,000 adults were interviewed by telephone July 17-21, and the poll had a margin of error of +/- 3.10%. For the Fox News poll, conducted with Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), July 21-23, 1,017 randomly chosen registered voters were interviewed by telephone; the margin of error was +/-  3 percentage points.

~~~~~~

Bachmann: Do House Republicans Have the 'Guts to Fight' Obamacare? By Elizabeth Harrington

Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) said a number of “high-profile” senators are willing to shut down the government over the funding of the president’s health care law, an effort being led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). Bachmann said that while she was encouraged by a meeting with the Tea Party caucus on Tuesday evening, she fears the GOP leadership in the House does not have the “guts” to block Obamacare from being implemented.

“This is the line in the sand that we have to draw,” Bachmann said following a “Conversations with Conservatives” event on Capitol Hill Wednesday. “Republicans are the only possible salvation that we have, because Democrats have made their decision. They want socialized medicine. In other words, they want national bankruptcy, because that’s what we’ll get,” Bachmann said. And so it’s whether or not the Republicans in the House have the guts to fight, because it’s like [Winston] Churchill famously said – if you don’t fight now, it’s going to be a lot harder to fight later," Bachmann added. “And the question is: Are you going to be willing to fight when it’s hard or will you become slaves, because that’s your choice,” she said. “We are going to become economic slaves to this system we’re about to go in.”

~~~~~~

Obama celebrates Ramadan: 'Islam has contributed to the character' of US by Kyle Balluck -

In remarks before the Iftar dinner, eaten by Muslims after sunset to end the day of fasting, Obama quoted from the Koran, according to a White House pool report. "As the Koran teaches, whoever does an atom's weight of good will see its results."  "Muslim-Americans and their good works have helped to build our nation, and we've seen the results," he added. Obama, who has hosted five Iftar dinners, focused on entrepreneurship during much of his speech.

“Every day, Muslim-Americans are helping to shape the way that we think and the way that we work and the way that we do business," he said. "And that’s the spirit that we celebrate tonight — the dreamers, the creators whose ideas are pioneering new industries, creating new jobs and unleashing new opportunities for all of us.”  Obama recognized three entrepreneurs, including Shazi Visram, the founder and chief executive of Happy Family Organic Superfoods; Aunim Hossain, chief executive of Tista Games; and Iya Khalil, who co-founded GNS Healthcare, a biotech research company. “So Shazi, Aunim, Iya and so many of you who have traveled here tonight — each of you have traveled your own path, but each of you have also lived out an American story. “And of course, this isn’t just the American Dream; it’s the aspiration of people around the world. It’s the basic human desire for progress, to find dignity that comes from work, to give our children something better.”  That is except their home Islamic countries.  So no mention of Christian Americans, Jewish Americans or any others?

~~~~~~

Those Who Preach ‘Diversity’ the Loudest Expect a Collective Singularity By: the Common Constitutionalist

Former Pres. George W. Bush once stated: “The diversity of America has always been a great strength of this country. Here you can be proud of your cultural heritage, proud of your ancestry, proud of your native language, and still be a proud American.” I don’t mean to single him out for many if not most politicians have said the same thing at some time and although the quote sounds great there is always something missing from these types of declarations. We’ve heard the constant echoes of that same sentiment dribbling out of the mouths of progressives for years. It is one of the tried and true talking points of advocates that support the amnesty bill. So what is always missing? Diversity of thought. That’s what seems to be missing, and I think purposefully, from every speech regarding diversity.

America is considered the great “melting pot” of the world. Nowhere on earth is there more cultural diversity. Yet different cultures residing in the same geographic location do not automatically equate to a melting pot.

The term melting pot was once synonymous with assimilation. It wasn’t that one had to give up their original culture to assimilate. It merely meant you were American first and whatever other culture second. Yet we still have places like Little Havana, Chinatown, Little Italy, etc. where there is a predominant culture other than American. That’s just human nature, or for that matter, just nature. You’ll never see a giraffe joining an elephant herd. Thus it is with those of like cultural backgrounds. It’s perfectly natural. It does enhance the American experience but that diversity does not make us great. The freedom that comes from diversity of thought is what makes America the great melting pot; independent thinkers. However, it seems those who preach of diversity the loudest want to limit our diversity of thought. They preach diversity but expect a collective singularity.

Black Americans experience this possibly more than any other. They are expected to act, think and vote as a collective. If a black American dares to demonstrate diversity of thought or action, the collective shuns him or her. Somehow diversity of thought has been supplanted by cultural and linguistic diversity as our source of strength. It’s almost as if those who promote and extol the virtues of cultural diversity do so with a purpose. As I stated, those of like cultures will congregate to form small collectives. I wonder if those who really do believe in the grand collective vision have figured out that it is easier to sway and control a singular body, to cause them to move en masse, then to control individuals of diverse thought and opinion. Control the leader of the collective and you control the collective. Yes, it sounds nefarious but it is also potentially genius. Evil genius, but nonetheless genius. It’s the difference between herding cattle and attempting to herd cat

~~~~~~

Phony President Offers Moldy Economic Agenda - Alexander

"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm." --James Madison

On Wednesday, Barack Obama pulled some moldy pizza out of the fridge, popped it in the microwave and offered it as fresh gourmet fare. That was the essence of his over-hyped economic speech at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. But Obama's 83rd "pivot" toward jobs was virtually the same speech he gave in the same location eight years earlier, and dozens of times since. He could've saved taxpayers a bundle on Air Force One by just patching through a video replay.

A new report by Daniel Alpert at the Century Foundation lays out the sorry state of the Obama economy. (The Century Foundation is a self-described "progressive non-partisan think tank," not a bunch of "right-wing extremists.") Alpert notes a few specifics -- we'll highlight two. First, in a normal recovery, the number of involuntary part-time workers decreases as they find full-time work, but in the Obama "recovery" the opposite is true. Most of the jobs created are part-time, while full-time workers have seen their hours reduced due to ObamaCare regulations.

Second, and more important, Alpert writes, "Nearly 100 percent of the decline in the U-3 unemployment rate has been the result of there being fewer workers in the labor force as a percentage of the employable population." In other words, attrition, not jobs, accounts for the lower headline unemployment rate. Nearly 90 million Americans are not working, up by 9.5 million since Obama took office. Conversely, 15 million more Americans are on food stamps today than in January 2009, bringing the total to nearly 50 million.

So what was Obama saying again?

In the run-up to the speech, he arrogantly opined, "I've given some pretty good speeches before, and then things still get stuck here in Washington." During his first two years, Obama enjoyed overwhelming Democrat majorities in both houses of Congress, but instead of easing the government burden to allow a healthy recovery, Democrats rammed through a takeover of one-sixth of the economy (ObamaCare) and onerous regulations of another chuck (Dodd-Frank financial "reform"). These burdensome laws crush private sector efforts to create jobs. So "pretty good speeches" aside, Obama's actions during ideological hegemony in Washington belie his complaint.

"Washington hasn't just ignored this problem," he lectured. "Too often, Washington has made things worse." More than anyone else, Barack Obama is Washington. And he has definitely made things worse.

Most hypocritically, he blamed "an endless parade of distractions, political posturing and phony scandals" for causing Washington to take "its eye off the ball." His own actions, though, have been a "parade of distractions" -- from standing on the caskets of children killed by an evil psychopath in order to push for federal gun control, to exploiting a neighborhood watch incident for race bait, to making sequestration as painful as possible so as to thwart any meaningful spending cuts. As for those "phony scandals," there's nothing phony about running illegal guns to Mexico, leaving four Americans to die in Benghazi and arguably stealing the 2012 election through IRS persecution of political opponents.

Obama has only himself to blame for the worst "recovery" since FDR's Great Depression. Five years after the recession began, instead of the normal 3-4 percent growth in an expansion, we've seen the stagnation of 0.4 percent growth in the fourth quarter last year and 1.8 percent in the first of this year. That's not in spite of but thanks to years of massive government initiatives and wealth redistribution schemes contrived by Obama and his NeoCom cadres.

The president now plans an eight-week campaign (wasn't the election last year?) to rehash his economic agenda. One of his stops next week will be right here in our own Chattanooga, Tennessee. We can hardly wait. He's calling it the "Better Bargain for the Middle Class" tour, but if you want to see how his snake oil works in practice, take a look at Detroit.

"We've come a long way since I first took office," Obama bragged Wednesday. Unfortunately, he's all too correct -- we've come a long way from the free-market economic principles that made our nation the wealthiest in the world. He continued, "As a country, we're older and we're wiser." On that last count, let's hope it means voters are now wise enough to reject honey-lipped tyrants like him in the future.

~~~~~~

Trey Gowdy Absolutely Unloads On Key Obama Adviser: ‘Demagogic, Self-Serving, Political Hack’ watch here.....

Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) in a House immigration hearing Tuesday characterized one of President Barack Obama’s chief advisers as a “demagogic, self-serving, political hack.” The South Carolina congressman’s remarks were made in reference to White House adviser Dan Pfeifer

Top of Form

† † † † † † † † † † †