Tuesday, May 25, 2010

[Ed.16]          In this edition → → → → →


Crying over spilled oil
36 days into BP’s Gulf of Mexico spill, fingers are being pointed left and right

GULF OF MEXICO—Florida Governor Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency weeks ago and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal just completed a tour of Plaquemines Parish with its president…..
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National Intelligence Direct to resign
Repeated failures to foil terror plots cited as why Dennis Blair will step aside

WASHINGTON, DC—The Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, will officially resign his post on Friday, May 28th in the wake of three high profile intelligence failures …..
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Obama’s approval rating slips to 44 percent
Rasmussen Reports has a new poll showing 55 percent disapprove of Obama’s job performance

WASHINGTON, DC—Rasmussen Reports daily tracking has President Obama’s job approval charting at 44 percent, with 55 percent disapproving. According to the polling firm, “Overall, 44%…..
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Home foreclosures break record in Q1 2010
Foreclosure rates have risen 5% since Q4 2009

WASHINGTON, DC—Mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure actions rose from 4.58 percent to 4.63 percent from the end of last year to March, 2010. The five percent rise translates to one in…..
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Grim milestone reached in Afghanistan
US troop deaths reach 1,000 since the war began in 2001

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN—The United States incurred 1,000 US troop deaths when a suicide car bomber rammed into a NATO convey. Commander of U.S. and NATO forces, Gen. Stanley…..
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No talent required: fame from infamy
Lindsay Lohan’s name stays in the news because she makes the news

LOS ANGELES, CA—Lindsay Lohan posted $100,000 after a California judge issued a warrant for her arrest after missing a May 20th court hearing. Lohan claims her passport had been stolen…..
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Crying over spilled oil
36 days into BP’s Gulf of Mexico spill, fingers are being pointed left and right


GULF OF MEXICO—Florida Governor Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency weeks ago and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal just completed a tour of Plaquemines Parish with its president, Billy Nungesser. Yet that is about the extent of help BP seems to be getting from politicians. Mr. Jindal has been steadily criticizing the Obama administration for not acting to curb the Gulf oil spill that is threatening Louisiana’s shores.

The public has been clamoring for action, but the so-called fixes have done nothing to stop the spill. What is most curious is the fact the Obama administration’s handling of the disaster which is to say, its non-handling.

I think myself to be a bit correct in my earlier assertion that the administration doesn’t want its fingerprints on this and is perhaps leveraging a political “we told you so” against future drilling. On May 4th, I wrote, “…it would seem quite plausible the Obama administration’s delayed response and laissez faire approach may be another calculated strategy to allow the federal government a path into the oil industry…”

This point I maintain as it now seems more likely. However what many fail to understand (myself included) is the political fallout that’s already beginning. The longer the Obama administration waits to take over, the more damage it will do to the president.


-- Owen E. Richason IV
Chief Editor, Killswitch Politick

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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

[Ed.15]          In this edition → → → → →


Crist loses his lead; primaries seen as a foreteller of November
Polls aren’t favorable for rhinos, spendthrift republicans, or liberals

WASHINGTON, DC—Appearing of FOX News, Charles Krauthammer said about Tuesday's primary elections, "I think what is more likely is that it's basically anti-big government, anti-Obama, anti…..
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AZ immigration law makes its beauty pageant debut
Miss Oklahoma is asked about her stance on immigration enforcement

LAS VEGAS, NV—Judge Oscar Nunez from television’s The Office (one of the funniest shows on TV) asked Morgan Woolard, Miss Oklahoma 2010 what she thought of the controversy…..
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Haliburton awarded a no-bid contract by the Obama administration
KBR, a former subsidiary gets a deal for 20,000 times the maximum no-bid ceiling

WASHINGTON, DC—Bloomberg News reported that KBR, a former subsidiary of Haliburton, has been awarded a no-bind contract worth at least $500 million. The engineering and construction…..
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Federal deficit soars in April
The federal deficit expanded over two times as much as estimated

WASHINGTON, DC—The US Treasury Department stated April’s 2010 federal deficit numbers were $82.69 billion, more than twice a projected $40 billion. What’s more this is among only…..
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Where oh where has our little Pakistani Taliban gone?
We’ve haven’t seen Faisal Shahzad since his arrest, but the administration has changed its public stance

NYC, NY—Oh where can Faisal Shahzad be? In a Wall Street Journal OpEd, authors Dana Perino and Bill Burck ask that same question. Conspicuous by its absences are any court appearances by…..
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Privacy and social networking
Privacy concerns of social website users are hard to reconcile

THE INTERNET—Privacy concerns about social networking sites are causing some users to logout for good. Facebook has seen an estimated 25 to 50 percent drop in new accounts because of…..
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Crist loses his lead; primaries seen as a foreteller of November
Polls aren’t favorable for rhinos, spendthrift republicans, or liberals

WASHINGTON, DC—Appearing of FOX News, Charles Krauthammer said about Tuesday's primary elections, "I think what is more likely is that it's basically anti-big government, anti-Obama, anti-the left wing agenda. It's not so much anti-incumbent. That's an element of it. But I think the major element of this campaign is the pressure from the right."

What do Blanche Lincoln, Arlen Specter, Charlie Crist, and Harry Reid all have in common? Certainly not party affiliation, but each did endorse Barack Obama’s agenda. The infamous hug Crist and Obama shared over the stimulus package was the catalyst for the Florida Governor’s primary woes against Marco Rubio who again leads the three way senate race over Crist and democrat candidate Kendrick Meek 39, 31, to 18 percent respectively.

What’s more is a prediction by the Director of University of Virginia’s Center for Politics Larry Sabato who sees the GOP gaining seven senate seats and twenty-seven house seats in November given the fiscal irresponsibility of the democrat majority in Washington.

Of course, there have already been three major republican victories in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts and each was predicated on opposing and defeating the Obama agenda. With the jobless rate remaining close to 10 percent and continued terrorist attack attempts, that pattern is not likely to change.


-- Owen E. Richason IV
Chief Editor, Killswitch Politick

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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

[Ed.14]       In this edition → → → → →


Kagan: "vapid and hollow charade"?
President Obama’s pick to succeed Justice Stevens

WASHINGTON, DC—President Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan to replace retiring John Paul Stevens is precisely what one would expect a liberal president to do. Kagan, though not a sitting judge…..
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UK voters say no to another term of hard Labour
Conservatives see significant gains, but are left with a hung Parliment

LONDON, UK—10 Downing Street has a new Prime Minister. May 6th elections gave candidate David Cameron and the Torries solid gains in Parliament, but just short of the needed…..
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Record turnout for primaries misreported
The mainstream media again demonstrates its bias (and activism)

ASSOCIATED PRESS—The AP ran a story about primary races in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, by the headline, “Unharnessed Anger: Incumbents Win in NC, OH, IN” you would think…..
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Latest economic forecast shows recession lingering on
A new normal for unemployment?

WASHINGTON, DC—The latest unemployment numbers show the jobless rate has crept up from 9.7 percent to 9.9 percent. While an initial reported 290,000 jobs were created in April, but that…..
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Terrorism in a post-terrorism administration meets Faisal Shahzad
The War on Terror by any other name continues

NYC, NY—Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani born naturalized American citizen attempted to bomb NYC’s Times Square on May 3, 2010 using an SUV packed with explosives. The 30 year-old had…..
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You give tasers a bad name
In a nation obsessed with pop culture and political correctness, we overlook substance

CITIZENS BANK PARK, PA—Tasers made their Major League Baseball debut during a May 3rd game when a 17 year-old male wearing a red Phillies shirt and khaki shorts ran into the…..
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Kagan: "vapid and hollow charade"?
President Obama’s pick to succeed Justice Stevens


WASHINGTON, DC—President Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan to replace retiring John Paul Stevens is precisely what one would expect a liberal president to do. Kagan, though not a sitting judge, she has a record (albeit a sparse one and certainly a reason she was choosen) to indicate what type of justice she would be—an activist when hearing cases dealing with the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities clause, perhaps a bit hostile to the Second Amendment, and certainly a proponent of protecting or expanding the scope of Roe v. Wade.

Some of her comments and writings have traveled across the Internet, but reveal only what one would think a leftist jurist would think—the Constitution ought to be a flexible, with-the-times, or 21st century constitution. As for her views about the nomination and senatorial hearing process, Kagan wrote, "Senators effectively have accepted the limits on inquiry." And has stated the process had become "[a] repetition of platitudes has replaced discussion of viewpoints and personal anecdotes have supplanted legal analysis."

On this point, we agree with the nominee. But as for her political disposition, we do not. Mr. Obama’s nominee ought to undergo the normal senatorial hearings and be challenged as to what she truly believes the role of the court (and more particularly judges) is in regard to interpretation or activism.

We expect Miss Kagan to be confirmed and thereby replace one liberal justice with another, and for those who have misgivings about her after supporting this president’s candidacy, we remind them elections have consequences.


-- Owen E. Richason IV
Chief Editor, Killswitch Politick

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

[Ed.13] In this edition → → → → →


Katrina v. BP oil spill: a political strategy?
The Obama administration has said a crisis is a terrible thing to waste

GULF OF MEXICO—It took a few days, but BP’s oil spill and the Obama administration’s response has been compared by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh to Bush’s Katrina. The two are hardly…..
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If left is not right, right is the only thing that’s left; right?
When republicans and democrats moved left, the country pitted right

BOSTON, MA—The wave of fiscal conservatism being called for by American citizenry and reigning in of government started may have started in 1773, but after being dormant for…..
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Nobody said the icebergs aren’t melting, keep dancing!
Pushing the green movement until blue in the face

HUNTSVILLE, AL—If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? That’s the question I used to answer a question posed by a colleague just…..
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Getting real about the national deficit?
The Fed Chair is telling Washington the Reagan model was the right model

WASHINGTON, DC—Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chairman has told a White House debt commission the United States needs to seriously begin deficit cutting which currently stands at…..
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The US at war on its southern border
While Arizona’s new immigration law sparks debate, the war has been raging for years

PHOENIX, AZ—Rancher Robert Krentz was murdered on his own property March 27th, his untimely death perhaps the catalyst for a public frothing at the federal government’s porous…..
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Conan O’Brien breaks his silence
Mr. O’Brien’s treatment underscore the unraveling of NBC

In an interview with 60 Minute’s Steve Kroft, former Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien speaks about NBC’s decision to replace him with the host he replaced, Jay Leno and moved his spot …..
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Katrina v. BP oil spill: a political strategy?
The Obama administration has said a crisis is a terrible thing to waste


GULF OF MEXICO—It took a few days, but BP’s oil spill and the Obama administration’s response has been compared by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh to Bush’s Katrina. The two are hardly analogous: Katrina was natural disaster with forewarning days in advance and there was a tremendous loss of life and property damage.

But one point Mr. Limbaugh has made is something that underlines an ever-present mentality within the administration of which, Rahm Emanuel put it best when he stated, “You never want a serious crisis go to waste.” So it would seem quite plausible the Obama administration’s delayed response and laissez faire approach may be another calculated strategy to allow the federal government a path into the oil industry—allow just enough time for BP to hang itself by its own sham damage control and inability to clean up the spill then ride in as a white knight.

This isn’t so far afield when one considers how the administration approached other crises: GM, AIG, Fannie and Freddie, and currently, Goldman Sachs. Though not extraordinarily popular, the country went along as these entities were “too large too fail” and poor economic conditions made them a crisis (as opposed to health care reform, where no crisis existed).

We wait with baited breath to see how these events play out in the coming days and wouldn’t be surprised to see the administration again champion the federal government as the answer to all ills.


-- Owen E. Richason IV
Chief Editor, Killswitch Politick

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