Columnist.
The socialist-inspired traveling circus more commonly known as the EU debt crisis is moving from Greece to Spain. Last Friday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that a deepening recession in that country would make it impossible to meet the EU-mandated deficit reduction target of 4.4 percent of GDP for FY2012. He proposed a target of 5.8 percent instead. The latest "readjustment" is similar to the one that occurred in 2011, when Spain's target of 6 percent gave way to the reality of 8.5 percent. Ironically, Rajoy made his announcement on the same day 25 European leaders signed a fiscal pact -- aimed at strengthening budgetary discipline among its member nations.
A study by the non-partisan Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) has yielded some troubling results regarding network news coverage of the Republican candidates for president: frontrunner Mitt Romney "is getting by far the most negative press of the GOP field." The Center monitored 118 stories on the Republican primaries, covering a period from January 1st, through the January 10th primary in New Hampshire, following the evening news broadcasts of ABC, CBS, NBC, and the first half-hour of Fox's "Special Report," which is most like the network news shows in content and presentation. Negative coverage by ABC, NBC and CBS is hardly surprising. But is Fox News part of the anti-Romney club as well?
Anyone still wondering about where the train wreck of progressively-inspired moral relativism is leading Western society can stop wondering. An article written by Drs. Francesca Minerva and Alberto Giubilini published in the Journal of Medical Ethics (JME) offers us, according to JME editor Professor Julian Savulescu, a "well reasoned argument based on widely accepted premises." The title of the article? "After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?" "Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus' health," states the introductory paragraph. "By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors argue that what we call 'after-birth abortion' (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled."
The specter of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, now hangs over America's fighting forces. Included in President Obama's proposed cuts in defense spending is a call for military families and retirees to pay more for their health insurance, even as unionized civilian defense workers' benefits remain off limits to those same increases. According to U.S. officials, the proposal is reportedly creating a "major rift" within the Pentagon. Why the change? Several congressional aides contend the move is designed to move more soldiers into the state-run health exchanges created by the healthcare bill.
Late last year, a group known as the Parading Atheists of Central Pennsylvania (PACP) won a court challenge to participate in the Millersville, PA community parade. While they were awaiting that event, they participated in a Halloween parade sponsored by the city of Mechanicsburg. Their method of expressing free speech is to dress up in costumes representing "zombie gods," figures that have risen from the dead according to various religious believers. One of those figures was a "Zombie Pope." Another was a "Zombie Mohammed," who was almost immediately assaulted by a Muslim man attending the parade. What happened in court as a result of that incident was yet another assault -- on the First Amendment.
For many years, the military was the last bastion of resistance against the bankruptcy of progressive thinking. No longer. Three vivid illustrations of what those who volunteer to defend this nation must now endure, stand as a beacon to the corruption that political correctness brings wherever it is unleashed. I could not be sadder for those who put themselves in harm's way. They deserve far better.
In Maryland, Montgomery Community College has become the latest institution to offer a class on the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. "Occupy MoCo!" will be offered to students in grades nine through twelve during the summer of 2012 as part the community college's summer youth program. Four days ago, Elizabeth Homan, Montgomery's Director of Communications, told Fox News the course "does not take a stance on the Occupy movement." Perhaps not now that the college has been caught red-handed.
The United States embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan is on lockdown and violent protests are spreading throughout the nation. The impetus for the unrest was the burning of Muslim holy books at a NATO military base on Monday. The books, including Qur'ans, had been removed from a detention center library adjoining Bagram air base, 40 miles north of Kabul, because they were being used by Afghan detainees to disseminate "extremist" messages. While that fact is being left largely untold by the Obama administration and our mainstream media, Washington is now offering repeated apologies.
After 13 hours of overnight talks ending Tuesday morning at 5 a.m., euro zone finance ministers put together the latest rescue package for Greece. "We have reached a far-reaching agreement on Greece's new program and private sector involvement that would lead to a significant debt reduction for Greece...to secure Greece's future in the euro area," said Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the euro-group of finance ministers. It is a future emblazoned by one over-arching reality: the relinquishment of national sovereignty is the ultimate price that must be paid by any EU nation that cannot meet its debt obligations.
There is more than a little irony attached to the Obama administration's determination to pursue socialist, EU-style "solutions" to America's problems, even as the European Union is coming to grips with the bitter realities such socialism produces. And while Greece and its financial problems receive some media coverage in the United States, there is a much bigger story flying under the mainstream media radar: in Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron has introduced a bill seeking to partially privatize the National Health Service (NHS). Why? Because the British government is "hoping to avoid a Greek-style financial meltdown."
When President Barack Obama released his $3.8 trillion budget on Monday he reiterated a familiar theme that has become the centerpiece of his re-election strategy. "We built this budget around the idea that our country has always done best when everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same rules," he said. With all due respect to the president, everyone "playing by the same rules" is completely at odds with the prevailing ethos of the Democratic Party.
On Tuesday, Barack Obama released his FY2013 budget proposal of $3.8 billion, one he characterized as a "make or break moment for the middle class." If that number sounds somewhat familiar, it might be because it's a one hundred billion dollar increase in spending over the budget he submitted to the Democratically-controlled Senate last year -- which was rejected by a vote of 97-0. Since the president couldn't get a single member of his own party to vote for his budget proposal last year, one might be tempted to conclude this budget is little more than a campaign document, highlighting the president's determination to wage class warfare as his principle re-election strategy. Moreover, it is a document replete with "rosy assumptions," if one is being charitable -- and outright lies if one is not.
Early Monday morning, after three days of intense negotiations, the Greek government approved the latest austerity measures demanded by other EU nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) by a vote of 199 to 74. In return, they get the latest bailout of $171 billion that nation needs in order to avoid default on March 20th, when a $19.1 billion payment on its debts is due -- if EU finance ministers approve the accord when they meet on Feb. 15. Greek Prime Minister, Lucas Papademos, who addressed the nation on Saturday night, had urged the Cabinet to approve the deal, warning of "social explosion, chaos" if it failed.
Once again for the Obama administration, lofty promises are giving way to hard reality. On September 22, 2010, in an informal discussion regarding the healthcare bill, the president contended that "as a consequence of the Affordable Care Act, premiums are going to be lower than they would be otherwise; health care costs overall are going to be lower than they would be otherwise. And that means, by the way, that the deficit is going to be lower than it would be otherwise." That was then. Over the weekend it was revealed that MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, the chief architect of ObamaCare, backtracked on the analysis he performed two years ago. He told officials in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Colorado the price of insurance premiums will "dramatically increase" under the reforms.
The latest attempt by the radical Left to capitalize on the neo-communist movement known as OWS is emanating from an old source. The "new" Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which derives its name, inspiration, and mission from the original SDS of the '60s, is calling for a "Day of Action" scheduled for March 1st.
The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held in Washington, D.C. at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel for three days, beginning today. It will feature a number of conservative speakers, from politicians (including three of the four presidential candidates) to columnists and conservative celebrities. Yet it may also "feature" something else as well: according to the Heritage Foundation's Lachlan Markay, the "Occupy DC" offshoot of the OWS movement is planning to disrupt the meetings. How far will they go? "Speakers will be physically assaulted, not just verbally confronted," a source told Heritage in an email.
As most Americans are probably aware, president Barack Obama's re-election chances are largely dependent on the success of the economy between now and next November. Thus, last week's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report that the unemployment rate had dropped to 8.3 percent, and total non-farm payroll employment rose by 243,000 was great news for the administration. Yet to put it as charitably as possible, the BLS has done a rather remarkable job of "massaging" the numbers. In short, any unemployment rate can be lowered when the number of people counted as unemployed is dramatically reduced.
James Cameron, director of mega-hits such as Titanic and Avatar, is moving to New Zealand. His plans were revealed late last week when New Zealand's Overseas Investment Office showed Cameron was granted permission to purchase two separate properties, totaling 2,634 acres, in a region called Wairarapa, northwest of Wellington. "I grew up working on my grandfather's farm in Canada and my wife Suzy's family own a farm in Oklahoma," said Cameron. "We want to raise our kids with the values we had when we were growing up, close to the land and with a strong work ethic." Some posit the director's departure "fits the trend of wealthy Americans pulling their money out of the country and reinvesting it to buy land in the southern hemisphere, escaping spiraling tax rates and protecting themselves against the potential for widespread social dislocation." Is such an assessment a conspiracy theory, or is there any truth to it?
On Wednesday morning, the Indiana state Senate passed right-to-work legislation, making Indiana the first Rust Belt state to take such a turn. The 28-22 vote in the Republican-controlled chamber occurred after two hours of debate in the General Assembly session. The bill was sent to Governor Mitch Daniels, who signed the legislation later that afternoon. The bill prohibits employers from entering into any agreement that would force employees to join a union or require them to pay dues, fees, assessment or any other charges to a labor organization. Indiana becomes the 23rd right-to-work state in the nation and the first to pass right-to-work legislation in ten years. "The only change will be a positive one," the governor said in a statement released today by his office. "Indiana will improve still further its recently earned reputation as one of America's best places to do business, and we will see more jobs and opportunity for our young people and for all those looking for a better life." Could a new epoch reining in the excesses of the failed union era be in the offing?
In what has become part of his general re-election strategy, president Barack Obama is touting the government bailout of automakers GM and Chrysler as a great success. "The American auto industry was on the verge of collapse. And some politicians were willing to let it just die. We said no," Obama told college students last week in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "We believe in the workers of this state." Yet much like other pronouncements of "fact" that come from this president, the devil is in the details, many of which don't remotely square with the reality. Much like the banks, the auto industry was "too big to fail," and it was "saved" in exactly the same fashion: with a multi-billion dollar bailout, courtesy of the American taxpayer.
