No joke: Obama warns students ... not to blame other people for their problems

While oil spills, Obama picnics with Congress (but not on a gulf beach)
The occasion Tuesday evening was yet another party at the White House, this one for members of Congress to celebrate what host President Obama called the "incredible sacrifices" they make, working and living in Washington on their perks and $174,000 a year salaries. It was a president's annual congressional picnic and a time to kick back after passing the $787-billion Stimulus Bill that stimulated Unemployment up near 10% and the wildly unpopular Healthcare Bill that a majority...

Caroline Myss: Mother Nature Has Politically Come of Age
Continually in the backrooms of the power centers of the nations on this planet are information hubs stocked with people whose job it is to be "star gazers". These "star gazers" are not astrologers as such; rather, they have their own more sophisticated methods of doing the same thing, more or less, which is they are in the business of predictions. Their job is to anticipate trends and movements in the marketplace, in other governments, in changing weather patterns and how that might effect...

Mother Nature Has Politically Come of Age
But this Disaster does not just reveal how BP interacts with nature. I suspect that BP is no different than any other Oil company. They are, after all, in the business of sucking the Oil out of the earth at any cost -- and now cost us all it will. Anticipating the actual cost of this Disaster is virtually impossible because there is no end in sight to this leak. And now the brain trusts that got us into this Disaster have even suggested the use of Nuclear Weapons to get us out - nuke...

Obama feels the heat, changes the play
Finally, we’re starting to see him sweat.  President Barack Obama made his personal icy cool the trademark of his campaign, the tenor of his White House and the hallmark of an early run of successes at home and abroad. But as the glamour wears off and a long, frustrating summer wears on, he is being forced to improvise — stooping to respond to political foes and adjusting his tactics and demeanor for the trench warfare of a legislative agenda.  The root of the Change is...

Off to the Races!
Iowa : Setting the Stage for 2012 The Governor's Race No matter how parochial Iowa's primary campaigns are, they tend to have implications for the next presidential nomination. This year, the ultimate establishment Republican and Mitt Romney associate, former four-term Governor Terry Branstad, was the early frontrunner in the race to face highly vulnerable Democratic Incumbent Governor Chet Culver. His opponent is Mike Huckabee’s guy in Iowa, Bob Vander Plaats, so the meaning of...

Column - It’s over for Rudd
Kevin Rudd is finished. Few voters now want to hear him, and fewer still believe him. They see through Rudd now and he can never recover. It’s over. Labor itself admitted this hard truth on Monday, after the Nielsen survey showed the Rudd Government heading for a landslide defeat, with just 47 per cent support to the Coalition’s 53. Rudd himself and half a dozen of his Ministers all responded to this news with an identical and workshopped line - suggesting that however bad you...

Analysis: Frenzied primaries preview fall themes
Washington — The subplots abounded Tuesday night: Antipathy toward elected officials and the establishment. The power of Special Interests. Tests of Party purity. The Tea Party. The quixotic fight against hyper-partisanship. Each of these narratives, any one of them a powerful story line on its own, came together on the busiest Day of the Primary season, a concentrated preview of November's Midterm Elections. And all were results or effects of the single most defining trait of the U.S....

We Carried You In Our Arms on Independence Day...
by Eric Martin ...And now Andrew McCarthy would like to throw us all aside and put us all away . No, seriously.  John Holbo, bless his soul, delves into the pathology prevalent in Andrew Mcarthy's new book - like Jonah Goldberg's infamous masterpiece, but with a twist.  Call it Liberal Islamo fascim for short: A couple posts back I quoted Andrew McCarthy re: his new book, Grand Jihad : what is the nature of the "partnership" " "effective partnership" "...

Revisiting 1984
Teabaggers are guided by the words of O'Brian: "A world of victory after victory, triumph after triumph after triumph: an endless pressing, pressing, pressing upon the nerve of power. You are beginning, I can see, to realize what that world will be like. But in the end you will do more than understand it. You will accept it, welcome it, become part of it." Liberals question the logic of stressing less government and then ridiculing Obama for a tepid response to the Oil Spill. Teabaggers have no...

What must Obama do to take control of drifting agenda?
Washington — As he retreats to Camp David for a final summer getaway, President Barack Obama is mapping out a post-Labor Day plan to regain the political offensive, including a private meeting next Tuesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. After taking office with a two-thirds Approval Rating, Obama has watched it slip closer to 50 percent. Over the summer, he lost ground on the Health Care debate and other aspects of his crowded agenda, and his...

'A Living Icon of Journalism'
By James Taranto Among her many honors, Helen Thomas, who "retired" yesterday as a columnist for Hearst Newspapers, in 2000 received the Helen Thomas Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Society of Professional Journalists. As the SPJ's website explains: The Award is named after longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas, a living icon of journalism for her dogged pursuit of the truth in a career that has spanned almost 60 years. We've been calling Thomas "American journalism's...

Spending Fears Threaten Dems' Agenda
Politico: At a closed-door meeting with a small group of House Democrats late last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi heard gripes from members not happy about having to vote on a big Spending measure at a time when many voters think government growth and Deficits are out of control. Nothing new there. Pelosi's been hearing this type of message from the noisy Caucus of moderate Blue Dog Democrats for a year and a half. But this time was different: The malcontents were freshmen, many of whom...

Inglis in GOP runoff to keep US House seat in SC
GREENVILLE, S.C.— South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis is headed to a primary Runoff with a fellow Republican after finishing second in his bid for a fourth straight term. Spartanburg prosecutor Trey Gowdy won the most votes in Tuesday's primary, but couldn't get a majority. The winner of the June 22 Runoff in northern South Carolina's 4th District faces Democrat Paul Corden, who had no primary opponent. Inglis is a Real Estate lawyer seeking another two years in a seat he once gave up to honor...

Inglis in GOP runoff to keep US House seat in SC
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis is headed to a primary Runoff with a fellow Republican after finishing second in his bid for a fourth straight term. Spartanburg prosecutor Trey Gowdy won the most votes in Tuesday’s primary, but couldn’t get a majority. The winner of the June 22 Runoff in northern South Carolina’s 4th District faces Democrat Paul Corden, who had no primary opponent. Inglis is a Real Estate lawyer seeking another two years in a seat he...

Mr. Greene Goes to Washington
The story of the night is not the outcome of the Arkansas Democratic Senate Primary but the South Carolinian one. A black, unemployed Veteran , who raised no money and spent no money, had no website, no signs, no ads, and didn't even file mandatory FEC reports, is destroying Vic Rawl. Vic Rawl has a website . Vic Rawl has a political biography . He would have been an underdog against Jim DeMint, but he would have been a serious challenger. It's unclear how this all happened, but...

It Has Begun: Virginia Based Health Insurance Company Closes Its Doors, Cites ObamaCare
The firm, nHealth, appears to be the first to claim that the new law has driven it out of business. “We don’t know what the rules are going to be, and, as a start-up, our investors need certainty,” nHealth CEO and President Paul Kitchen told Politico. “The law created so much uncertainty that is beyond our control.” Last week, in a letter to the company’s 50 or so employees, Executive Vice President James Slabaugh said nHealth has stopped accepting new group...

Democrat Hypocrisy:Former President Slick Willie Clinton Calls Republican Louisiana Senator Vitter a Sinner
  Once again we are witness to former President Bill Clinton and his best attempt at calling the kettle black. Former President Slick Willie Clinton called GOP Louisiana Senator David Vitter a “sinner” in a recent Democrat fund raising letter. A what, a sinner? Is Bill Clinton allowed to pass any kind of judgement on any one who has had a sexual affair? I think not. As Jammie Wearing Fool states, Vitter’s past is certainly fair game and it is up to the Loisiana voters as...

Obama's getting really, really mad - or is he? (AP)
Washington – First he was going to make BP pay for the Gulf Oil mess. Then he declared himself in charge. Now he's trying to find out "whose ass to kick" and making clear he'd fire BP's chief if only he could. President Barack Obama is talking ever tougher as the Gulf Oil Spill crisis drags on, the public's patience wears thin and the peril to his presidency increases. With pressure building on Obama to fix the crisis, the White House said he'll be heading back to the scene, spending...

Do as I Say, Not as I Do
At a Kalamazoo Central High School Commencement speech yesterday, President Obama reminded graduates that there will be times they "screw up" no matter how hard they try, and when that happens, "it's the easiest thing in the world to start looking around for someone to blame."  "We see it every day in Washington," he continued, "with folks calling each other names and making all sorts of accusations on TV." The president might have indicated himself as an example of...

ObamaCare's Defenders to the Public: Trust Us, You Really Like This Law!
Before the Affordable Care Act passed, many of its supporters argued that, despite the law's not-so-great poll numbers, passing it would give the president a popularity boost, and the law would become more popular over time. It was a Public Policy version of the "try it, you'll like it" argument that parents use to get finnicky kids to eat weird casseroles. But it didn't seem likely at the time , and, sure enough, it turns out there was no bounce for Obama . Similarly, most polls since...

Obama tells seniors health bill will work for them (AP)
WHEATON, Md. – President Barack Obama on Tuesday sought to sell the Health overhaul law to skeptical seniors, launching a defense of his presidency's biggest accomplishment as the Election season gets under way and the Gulf Oil Spill dominates news. The questions Obama got from a crowd at a senior center in suburban Maryland, and from others listening on the phone, suggested that plenty of doubts remain even now that the rancorous Health Care debate has faded from the headlines. There's...

Chait Crony Defeated
This morning Dave Weigel reported on a Republican Primary campaign in Northern Virginia involving Matthew Berry, an Openly Gay former clerk for Clarence Thomas and FCC official under George W. Bush. It dawned on me that I knew Berry about thirty years ago when he was in my Sunday school class. I went to his house after Sunday school one day, and discovered that he was, well, too much of a nerd even for me. I remember he absolutely insisted that we immediately go to work on an extra-credit...

Glenn Beck: Have Our Leaders Abandoned Common Sense?
I know Progressives have tried to tell you otherwise, but you don't need to be a rocket scientist to lead America. A degree from Harvard or Yale is not a pre-requisite for president. There are only two essential traits all leaders need: Integrity and some good-old fashioned common sense. You need to be able to look at a problem, see what works and go with it. We seem to have completely abandoned anything remotely close to common sense. Today we're going to try and simplify things. What would...

Obama, Democrats torn between spending, deficit pressures (McClatchy Newspapers)
Washington — To spend or not to spend? That is the question that's pressing President Barack Obama . While gushing red ink as it spends billions to stimulate The Economy, the Obama White House wants to spend more to create Jobs, and it faces growing pressure from Labor Unions and liberal groups to keep the Federal spigot open to help the jobless and to save Americans' endangered Jobs. However, Obama also faces a growing number of Americans who are saying that he's making the...

Cameron Says to 'Expect Years of Pain'
It looks like Margaret Thatcher was right when she said the problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money. I’m sure David Cameron isn’t too popular at the moment in the UK for forecasting years of pain, and proposing “draconian” measures to deal with the nation’s massive Debt. But the UK has ran out of other people’s money long ago. Times Online : David Cameron has warned that The Economy is in a far worse State than...