Wednesday opinions, thoughts, and news

ObamaCareTax

• Is Obamacare too much work for the Obama administration?
• Wal-Mart Employees to Pay More for Health-Care Plans

Media

• Column: Katrina on the Hudson

The Constitution, Bill of Rights

• Re-elected, Obama takes aim at religious liberty
• Teachers Face Investigations for Anti-Obama Messages

Politics

• Scott Walker for Speaker of the House
• Yep: Eric Holder to stay on as Obama’s attorney general
• Obama, Progressives Renew Wary Embrace
• Reid short on votes for filibuster reform?
• BESIDES FEWER HANDOUTS, THAT IS: The real reason Romney lost?
• Earth to GOP: Get a Grip
• Poll: Blame GOP for cliff diving
• Republicans Pan Potential Kerry, Rice Nominations
• Bobby Jindal: The GOP Can't Stay Stuck On Stupid
• RE: Bobby Jindal And The Conservative Movement's Line In The Sand

Elections

• The myth of 141% turnout in St. Lucie County, Florida
• Your daily jolt: An invitation to Allen West from the Ga. GOP

Taxes, EPA

• Think tank to sue Treasury to make carbon tax proposal emails public

 Socialism, Communism

• Obama To Unleash Racial-Preferences Juggernaut
• CBS's Nancy Giles: Whites Oppose Abortion 'To Build Up the Race'

Looking Ahead

• Time to cut a deal on immigration
• MUST READ: We Have Lost
• The Edge of the Abyss
• The new dark age: Across Europe, free speech and democracy face their biggest threat since the Thirties
• Defining conservatism up

Foreign Policy

• Feinstein: I’ll subpoena CIA about Petraeus trip to Libya after Benghazi attack
• WE KEEP ALL OF THE SCANDALS STRAIGHT SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO: Today's U.S. Foreign Policy Update
• Germany Turns Its Back on the World?

It's the Economy

• Analyst: Stock Market Will Lose Another 20%, Even Assuming No Fiscal Cliff and No Greek Collapse
• NBCUniversal Announces 500 Layoffs
• Unions drive America dangerously close to the Twinkie cliff

The mask is coming off (UPDATED)

From Zero Hedge:

On Germany's Desire To See America "On Its Knees", And Its "Infantile Crush On Obama"

When you strip all the politically correct rhetoric, and the carefully sculpted facade is taken off for the night, this is what remains. Via Germany's most popular financial newspaper Spiegel:

"There is hardly an issue about which Germans as so united as they are by their desire to see America on its knees. It unites both the left and the right. Wherever they look, they see decay, a lack of culture and ignorance. "A perverse mixture of irresponsibility, greed, and religious zealotry". 
...............

With a bit of luck, the specter across the Atlantic might even take care of itself. It can't be ruled out.

Read the rest for context.  Some thoughts on the article(s) are available below the fold. 

UPDATE:  From The Dissident Frogman,  "Only one man can kill the Republic, and it isn't Barrack Obama."

Monday thoughts, news, and opinions

Liberal mindset, Socialism, Communism

• Progressives Launch Revenge on Applebee's as Company Downsizes in Response to ObamaCare
• Denmark seriously rethinking the world’s first “fat tax”
• Legislators take a break from destroying California to endorse “Meatless Monday”
• Planned Parenthood Head Urges GOP to Dump Pro-Life Base
• Your Liberal Friends May Not Be So Liberal
• GOOD NEWS: Employers in Merry Old England Happily Enforce Sharia Law

 Politics

• Boehner Tells House G.O.P. to Fall in Line.
• The Case of the Missing White Voters
• How many tea-party supporters voted for Obama?
• About Those "Massive Vote Fraud" Allegations
• Florida officials order partial recount in tight House race between Rep. West and Democratic challenger Murphy
• Hispanic Voters Deserting Republicans
• Lesson to Future Republican Hopefuls: Ignore the Tea Party at Your Peril
• Partisanship Needed Now More Than Ever
• How Occupy Wall Street Won Tuesday's Election
• “Why Hispanics Don’t Vote for Republicans”
• 333,000 Votes in 4 Swing States Would Have Given Romney the Presidency
• Why I Despair: The central problem is that America, knowing Obama, gave him a second term.
• CONGRATULATIONS, DEMOCRATS: An Open Letter
• DO REPUBLICANS REALLY NEED TO "MODERNIZE THE MESSAGE"? In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville predicted the 2012 elections

The Constitution

• SCOTUS to take a fresh look at the VRA

Big Government, EPA, Corruption, It's The Economy, ObamaCareTax

• Where to put your money now that Obama has won
• The Hope-a-nomics Disaster: One Company’s Horror Story
• Right on schedule: Time to go after those awful “price gougers”
• New solution to Hurricane Sandy: More ethanol!
• More public lands to be closed to shale oil drilling
• Chicago creating great jobs… for tobacco pirates
• Former U.S. Prosecutor Negotiating Plea Deal For Jackson Jr.
• Papa John's to Cut Workers' Hours over Obamacare

Foreign Policy, Corruption

• Video: Say, why would the FBI be investigating a CIA director, anyway?
• 6 lingering questions about the exit of Gen. David Petraeus
• 'WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN TOLD': Capitol Hill probe into Benghazi attack will include questions on Petraeus, FBI

It's the Economy, Folks.

It's always the economy.

The Decline of Blue America

Democratic-controlled states throughout the country are experiencing financial difficulty and out-migration.

President Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois, for example, recently had its credit rating downgraded by Standard & Poor’s following a failed effort to reform the state’s massively underfunded pension system. The state’s credit rating is now among the worst in the country.

A new report from the State Budget Crisis Task Force led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker found that Illinois’s state budget “is not fiscally sustainable.”

Read the rest -- it's an indictment on socialism and its Keynesian economics.

Why Optimism for Obama?

From Bob Krumm, his thoughts on the optimism surrounding President Obama, and his chances for success in the elections:

• Part I: Obama optimism: why it is unfounded
• Part II: Obama optimism: why do they still believe?

Saturday opinions and news

First Amendment, Bill of Rights, The Constitution

• From Cairo to California, Obama and the Left are Destroying Our Free Speech
• Heckler’s veto: NYC subway authority bans ads that might “provoke violence”
• The Normative Power of Law and the Emotional Power of Drama

Terrorism, Foreign Policy

• PM Netanyahu's Speech at UNGA September 2012 [VIDEO]
• MUST GO VIRAL: The truth about the Obama administration and Israel
• Senator McCain: “C’mon Honey, Bring Your Mortars, We’re Going To A Spontaneous Demonstration” (Video)
• The View, the Noise, the Nuke and the Nut
• In short supply in dictatorships: “Shampoo. Soap. Vitamins. Tylenol.”
• Special Report details an up-to-date extensive time line of events from the Benghazi attack to now
• Military’s Own Report Card Gives Afghan Surge an F
• 
  

Politics, Elections (National)

• Huckabee: Benghazi could be worse than Watergate
• New poll: Romney overtakes Obama on terrorism
• Hillary Says Goodbye to 2016 Chances
• Deafening silence about the Camp Bastion attack
• Hey, Pelosi. This Is What “Astroturfing” REALLY Looks Like
• Team O to young people: Be sure to warn your grandparents about that Mitt Romney character
• Politico questions Ryan budget tweak -- though Obama took same approach
• Ryan: “This is not what a real recovery looks like”
• Fair Share: 80% Want Everyone to Pay Taxes
• In and Out of the DC Bubble

Media

• Another MSNBC Scandal? Blaze Readers at Campaign Event Claim Network Misled in Video of Rally Chant (With Audio Comparison)

Financial, It's the Economy

• "UNEXPECTED": Yet another downward revision of GDP confirms we're now in year four of the Obama Depression

Liberal mindset, socialism

• Liberals Can't Break 200-year Racism Habit
• Meet Nickelodeon’s Trash-Mouthed Misogynist Jason Biggs

Big Government

• Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion on Obama family last year, perks questioned in new book

Sunday news and opinions

Politics and elections

• Unmasking Obama: A Special Report
• Fast & Furious Guns Found in Colombia
• Polar bear bill ties Senate in knots
• Unproductive Congress skips town until November
• The Bandwagoneers
• Reid: Romney’s Tax Return ‘Galling’
• Howard Dean: Yeah, Harry Reid has some credibility issues now, huh?

( Howard Dean actually said this: Obama campaign “not about begrudging” Mitt Romney his wealth)

 
 It's the Economy

• "Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Barack Obama loses his."

 ObamaCareTax

• Medicare Bills Rise as Records Turn Electronic

 Bill of Rights, Foreign Policy, and Terrorism (intertwined when they shouldn't be)

• Good News: Obama To Trash First Amendment in Speech to U.N.
• Obama to Condemn Christian Filmmaker Before United Nations
• Obama Chose His Side
• Obama to Release One Third of Gitmo Inmates
• Kudlow: Did White House Lie About Libya Attacks?
• A word to rioting Muslims:

Thursday news clippings

Politics and elections, forever intertwined

• The Left wing disinformation campaign to deflate your enthusiasm
• Transparency: Elitist Obama Bans Photos of Champagne Towers at Lavish Fundraiser
• Speaking to the 47%: The $105,000 champagne tower featured at Obama fundraiser hosted by Jay-Z and Beyonce
• A Magnificent Photo Gallery of Our President's Exceptionally Busy Schedule This Week
• Video: Obama now pretending he doesn’t know how much the national debt is
• On Letterman, Obama says he can’t remember the national debt
• Obama seeks advice on international crisis
• I admit it: the videotape probably ended his campaign
• Andrea Mitchell: We can't air Obama's "redistribution" audio because, um, we haven't authenticated it yet
• Hey, something new and different: CBO raises another estimate of ObamaCare costs
• Swing state polling shows dead heat, too
• “Complete” video of Romney missing 1-2 minutes of remarks on the 47%
• Paul Ryan: The point is, under Obama, govt dependency is up
• Monica's revenge: Lewinsky 'to publish secret love letters to Clinton revealing his insatiable desire for threesomes and how he trashed Hillary'
• Fact Check: Obama Had More to Do With 2008 Economic Meltdown Than Bush Ever Did
• Report Blows HUGE Hole In Obama's Fake Biography

Terrorism and foreign policy

• All-out Middle East war as good as it gets
• Libya attack was ‘terrorist’ strike, but not planned, says U.S. official
• Obama official: Yes, Benghazi was a terrorist attack and there are “indications” Al Qaeda was involved; Update: Ringleader released from Gitmo in 2007?
• Muslim Rage & The Last Gasp of Islamic Hate

Elections, State

•  Mary Ruth Edwards on KNDU
• (Michigan) Secretary of State: 4K noncitizens on voter rolls

Big Government

•  DOJ F&F probe: "Pattern of serious failures," 14 employees up for... sanctions

Liberal mindset

• Occupy Wall Street chief organizer unravels, ponders calling it quits

Bill of Rights, The Constitution

• UN chief: Free speech must be protected, unless it provokes or humiliates someone’s beliefs
• The Purpose of the Party

Tuesday afternoon news & opinions

Political

• Obama's Rumsfeld: Hillary Clinton Should Resign

Elections, national

• Bounce over: Obama’s lead in Gallup tracker down to one — among registered voters
• Mitt Romney Just Helped Create 52,000 Jobs
• Clever: Romney Now Apparently Answering Every Question About "47%" By Noting He Doesn't Believe In Redistribution of Wealth
• Awkward: Jay Carney disparaging Obama's "bitter clingers" remark in 2008

It's the Economy, Financial

• CNBC And Yahoo Finance Readers REALLY Liked Mitt Romney's Comments
• Draghi and Bernanke's Worst Nightmares Are About to Unfold

Terrorism

• U.S., Libyan officials offer vastly different version of Benghazi consulate attack that killed 4
• Egypt orders arrest of Terry Jones, U.S.-based Copts over film

Opinion

•  God Is Not Mocked
• A quick overview of the state of progressive hope and change