On This We Agree

The New York Times paints this as some kind of move on Obama's part to clamp down on corporate donations to election campaigns, but it's nothing of the kind.  Obama has adopted our position.

Disclose.  Don't ban.

Obama Calls for Campaign Spending Disclosure
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg

Washington — President Obama, warning of a “potential corporate takeover of our elections,” called on Congress Saturday to undo the effects of a recent Supreme Court ruling by imposing strict disclosure requirements on campaign spending by companies, labor unions, trade associations and advocacy groups.

Mr. Obama has been sharply critical of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in a case known as Citizens United, which lifted bans on corporate spending to influence elections. In his remarks on Saturday, he renewed his criticism of the ruling, saying it would open the floodgates for special interests to spend huge sums to sway public sentiment, without voters’ knowledge. [link]

Not long ago that last sentence would have read "... he renewed his criticism of the ruling, saying it would open the floodgates for special interests to spend huge sums to sway public sentiment."  Now the "without voters' knowledge" has been added.

Nothing like a little revisionism, eh?

In any case, Obama's position makes perfect sense.

Welcome to our side, dude.

It's Only Tissue & Sinew

Like a bad toaster you toss in the trash, so it is with some women and their babies.

For the love of God:

Baby that survived botched abortion was rejected for cleft lip and palate
By Simon Caldwell, Telegraph of London

The 22-week infant was found breathing a day after the operation. He died one day later in intensive care at a hospital in the mother's home town of Rossano, in southern Italy.

The mother, pregnant for the first time, had opted for an abortion after prenatal scans revealed that the foetus had a cleft lip and palate, according to reports in the Italian media. The condition is treatable with surgery. [link]

Surgery is expensive.  Abortions are cheap.  The malfiormed child had to die.

Let's Call It The Al Gore Syndrome

Do as I say, not as I do, and fork over the cash that I need to maintain my lifestyle.

Obama made $5 million in 2009 and tells us we've made enough?

Someone needs to write the book:

Men are from Mars. Liberals are From the Asylum.

When Good News Is Bad News

Gross Domestic Product here in the U.S. grew by 3.2% in the first quarter of 2010.  Very respectable.

Unless you're trying to work your way out of the worst recession since The Big One.

Then it's worrisome indeed:

GDP growth drops to 3.2% in first quarter of 2010
By Ed Morrissey

In January, Barack Obama and Democrats insisted that the 5.7% annual growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2009 showed that their stimulus plan had set the American economy back on track for rapid growth and job creation. The administration needed a big number for 2010 to allay fears that unemployment would stagnate at the current high levels for the long term. Unfortunately, they didn’t get it, with the 3.2% annualized GDP rate for the first quarter of 2010 falling below analyst expectations.

The last time the US suffered this kind of recession and unemployment, in 1982, it took several quarters of annualized growth of between 7%-9% in order to generate sufficient numbers of jobs to seriously lower unemployment. The long-term trend of the American economy is growth between 2.5-3%, which makes the 2010Q1 result barely a blip above average. It indicates that the current job situation may well become the “new normal,” with high unemployment remaining in place for years to come. [link]

Now what, big guy?  Another trillion dollar stimulus?

It'll be interesting to watch the mainstream press spin the grossly high unemployment numbers come election season.  Or, as I suspect will be the case, how they'll flat-out ignore them.

Odd how attitudes shift depending on the party in power, no?

Jack The Ripper Wasn't Available

United Nations Names Iran to Commission on the Status of Women

Who Owns America?

Well, it's clear who's holding our debt obligations:

The verdict is in: China is still the top holder of U.S. government debt, the Treasury said in a report on Friday.

Friday's report also shows that China ... remained the top foreign holder with $877.5 billion. Japan in February 2010 had $768.5 billion, while the U.K. had $233.5 billion. [link]

"China Remains Biggest Holder of U.S. Debt," Wall Street Journal, April 30, 2010

ObamaCare & You

The verdict is coming in, one knife cut at a time:

{O]fficials are owning up to what most Americans already knew. ObamaCare means higher costs and lower quality; ObamaCare means rationing [jf: those Death Panels raise their ugly heads again] and higher taxes - including a Value Added Tax (VAT). It means mandating and penalties. President Obama and his liberal colleagues on the Hill jettisoned the world's best health care system for the dubious honor of having achieved "health care reform." Now, in addition to figuring out how to pay for the trillion dollar government takeover of health care, we have to untangle the budgetary gimmicks, bureaucratic mess, and disastrous financial crisis that the nation faces as a result.

"ObamaCare: An Unmitigated Disaster," Janice Shaw Crouse, American Thinker, May 1, 2010