Jonathan Turley on 'dangerous' expansion of Obama's powers

America deeply divided

We're rapidly approaching a fork in the road. Obama wants us to follow him to the left. That is a path taken by most European Countries like Greece, Italy, Spain and France. In the extreme it's a sharp left similar to Cuba and North Korea. I leave China out because Capitalism is rapidly taking over there. The left turn leads us to a more powerful Government that dramatically influences every part of Society. Social Programs will grow, Unions will grow and the cost of Government will grow. Politicians will have to find a way to pay for it. If Democrats take control in November they will need to dramatically raise taxes or we will go bankrupt as a country. No need to look in the crystal ball, just look at California.

If on election day we choose to take the right turn and elect Romney, our path will look very familiar. It's the path we've been on for over 200 years so there is no need to go into detail. The Private sector and The People will take control of our country again.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Abe Lincoln used those words in 1858 to describe a country that was careening toward civil war. Now we’re a house divided again and another civil war is coming, with the 2012 election as its Gettysburg.

Call it America’s coming civil war between the Makers and the Takers.

On one side are those who create wealth, America’s private sector–the very ones targeted by President Obama’s tax hikes announced Monday.

On the other are the public employee unions; left-leaning intelligentsia who see the growth of government as index of progress; and the millions of Americans now dependent on government through a growing network of government transfer payments, from Medicaid and Social Security to college loans and corporate bailouts and handouts (think GM and Solyndra).

More of the same

After three years of a massive expansion of government, the enactment of Obamacare, hundreds of billions of dollars in failed stimulus spending, government ownership of General Motors, a Big Labor/pro-unionization onslaught, threats of even higher taxation, the promulgation of more unnecessary regulations, and a total failure to confront the entitlement challenge, the verdict is in on President Obama’s record and the soundness of his statist, progressive philosophy.

In a speech Wednesday in Osawatomie, Kansas, President Obama made his ideological stance clear: he is a tried and true progressive. Despite the total failures of his big government policies, the president still sees the federal government as the answer to all of America’s problems. True to form, President Obama delivered a speech with strong rhetoric. But the American people see through the rhetoric. They know the President’s philosophy is flawed.

Get the Lifeboats in the Potomac

Former Democratic Pollsters: Obama Should Abandon Run for Second Term

By Michael Catalini

President Obama should abandon his run for a second term and turn over the reins of the Democratic Party to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, two one-time Democratic pollsters wrote in Monday's Wall Street Journal, which appeared online Sunday.

Thrill Is Gone? Matthews Turns On Obama; ‘I Hear Stories That You Would Not Believe’ In an explosive interview on MSNBC, Chris Matthews has harsh criticism for President Obama and his team of advisers.

Paramedics called to Occupy Eugene for alleged heroin overdose

Occupy Oakland Calls For Shutdown Of ALL West Coast Ports

By Dan Gainor

Vandalism, violence, burning and shutting down the nation’s fifth busiest port weren’t enough for Occupy Oakland. On Friday, the General Assembly for the group voted unanimously for “a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire West Coast on December 12."

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California faces $2 billion in automatic spending cuts at the first of the year that will reduce funding for public schools, higher education and a range of state services, according to a nonpartisan fiscal analysis released Wednesday.

The bleak assessment by the state's Legislative Analyst's Office warns of declining tax revenue and a rocky statewide economic outlook that will lead to budget shortfalls for years to come.

It's called biting off more than you can chew and hating the taste.

Balanced Budget

The Balanced Budget Amendment failed in the House today. Two-dozen Democrats bucked their leadership and voted with Republicans, but the amendment still failed along largely partisan lines. It’s unfortunate. Some of the folks who voted no today, supported it when the amendment came up in 1995. For the life of me, I cannot understand what they have seen in the last fifteen years that gave them confidence that Congress has the will to face these problems. I truly believe that this was our best chance of saving this country. I truly believe that the stakes are that high and that, sad as it is to say, we cannot bet our children’s future on the collective courage of members of Congress.

Generations of politicians – from both parties – have avoided their responsibility to this nation. They have put short-term wants before the country’s long-term needs. The cumulative effect of this is a national debt that is now larger than our entire country’s economic output.

Both parties are responsible for it. Period. And it’s important that all Americans are honest about that. We cannot afford to postpone fixing the problem because of a desire to blame others. And that will be our choice this week when the House of Representatives votes on a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.

This is the first time Congress has considered such an amendment since it came up one vote short of passing in 1997. As you would expect, there are people in Congress today who were here in ’97. Some who supported it then are voting against it now.

It’s not because of any trickery or fine print. This Balanced Budget Amendment is what they call a “plain vanilla” version. It requires that Congress pass a balanced budget unless, in the case of a national emergency such as a war or natural disaster, three-fifths of Congress vote to temporarily waive the requirement to cover the cost of that emergency.

I’m not sure what those former supporters have seen in the last fifteen years that would give them confidence that Congress is capable of managing the taxpayers’

money responsibly. I certainly haven’t seen anything to give me that confidence.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the crux of the issue. Everyone would like to believe that Congress can be trusted to manage the country’s finances, but the facts scream otherwise. And it’s not just the facts of the last few years, or the last ten years, but rather it is the facts of the last hundred years.

Your government has been making promises to you at every turn with borrowed money and borrowed time. And after many years, we have started running out of credit and have certainly already run out of time.

Our choice today is whether we change the course of the country’s history or not. It’s a choice of whether we will guarantee our children a country they can afford to keep. And it is a choice about whether we want to control our own destiny or have it determined for us.

The President opposes this amendment and I submit to you that any member of Congress, Republican or Democrat, who joins him is continuing a decades-long record of failing to lead. They are continuing the status quo. Washington, D.C. cannot be trusted to fix itself. You must fix it and that starts with demanding that your leaders balance the budget once and for all.

Sincerely,

Rich Nugent

Member of Congress

What's going on one year before the election?

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

When he campaigned for governor last year, Andrew Cuomo said, “We cannot tax our way out of the current crisis,” which was then a massive $10 billion deficit.

“New York has no future as the tax capital of the nation,” Cuomo said in January, after he was elected in a landslide on a no-new-taxes pledge.

“We simply cannot afford to keep spending at our current rate,” he said in presenting his tax-hike-free budget a few weeks later.

“You are kidding yourself if you think you can be one of the highest-taxed states in the nation, have a reputation for being anti-business and have a rosy economic future,” the governor said just last month.

Democrats on Capital Hill apparently do not agree with Cuomo.

President Obama “We’ve been a little bit lazy over the last couple of decades. We’ve kind of taken for granted — ‘Well, people would want to come here’ — and we aren’t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new businesses into America."

Dems refuse to back ObamaSen. Joe Lieberman was treated like an outcast back in 2008 when he broke from the Senate Democratic Caucus and openly opposed Barack Obama’s bid for the White House. Asked last week if he’d back Obama in 2012, the Connecticut independent said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

This time around, there may be more Liebermans.

A number of moderate Democrats like Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar and liberals like Sen. Bernie Sanders are declining to give their unqualified support for the president, saying they’re either too focused on their own races or are calling on the White House to cater to their agendas before they will offer an endorsement. Some up for reelection in red states or in swing districts fear that even showing up on stage with Obama will give their opponents an image to seize upon — much as Democrats did in 2008 when they repeatedly flashed shots of Sen. John McCain hugging President George W. Bush.

So as the president faces the dual challenges of energizing his base while wooing moderates, some Democrats in Congress are keeping their distance, with the president’s approval rating hovering in the mid-40s — and even lower in states like West Virginia, where moderate Sen. Joe Manchin is up for reelection.

Occupy Protester Defecates In Public Street Hundreds of New York City police officers began clearing Zuccotti Park. Is this the new Democrat strategy? Send college kids and Union thugs out to blame Wall Street and shit on the streets of our cities so it takes the heat off them?

Michelle Fields of the Daily Caller was on scene to report about the Occupy DC protests. After a night of violence and harassment she has announced that she has asked the Daily Caller not to assign her to any more Occupy DC events because she fears for her safety.

Biden Praised Disgraced Corzine: ‘Smartest Guy I Know In Terms Of Economy’

Insider trading in the halls of Congress: Politicians Get Rich for What You and I Would Go to Jail For

European Debt Crisis: You Haven't Seen Anything Yet Though the daily market gyrations might indicate otherwise, realization is beginning to creep in that the European debt crisis and its effect on the U.S. will not take days, weeks or months to unwind—but years. That prolonged time frame — which entails the period it will take to reduce government spending, come up with workable debt repayment plans, and, most likely, witness the contagion that will follow — means that the market tumult that the crisis has brought also won't be going away anytime soon, either. Unless the rest of the euro-zone provides Italy with significant amount of assistance over a prolonged period, we think Italy will eventually default with catastrophic consequences for the wider region. Democrats in the U.S. are desperately trying to deflect blame away from excessive spending, an extremely difficult task as the Debt Commission pushes for Tax Increases, not spending cuts. Europe is expected to experience a mild recession in 2012, and the U.S. policy looms large, as we expect another credit downgrade if the Political will to cut is not there.

Californians Cut Spending. Californians have been cutting spending, according to a new report, in stark contrast to the state government, which continues to spend more than it takes in. The latest figures show state revenues last month were $811 million below projections. Nearly a billion dollars in just one month. Fiscal year to date, state income is running $1.5 billion below projections while state expenditures are $1.7 billion above--a $3.2 billion gap. On the other hand, individual Californians appear to be doing a better job reining in spending.

Your Un-Wise Investments

Are you aware that Millions of dollars of your tax money is being invested by President Obama in Companies that are owned by his supporters? Read on in disgust.

Cost, need questioned in $433-million smallpox drug deal

A company controlled by a longtime political donor gets a no-bid contract to supply an experimental remedy for a threat that may not exist.

Questions Arise Over $433M Smallpox Drug Contract to Company Tied to Dem Donor

Scientists are questioning a $433 million government contract for a smallpox drug they say the country doesn't need, amid concerns over the way the project was secured for a firm tied to a Democratic donor. 

The Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend that U.S. officials took unusual steps to award the contract to Siga Technologies. Democratic donor Ronald Perelman has the controlling share of the company. 

Obama fundraiser took active interest in $535 Million Solyndra loan, emails show

Steven Spinner, an Energy Department advisor whose wife worked for a law firm representing Solyndra, may have done more than simply monitor the progress of the $535-million loan guarantee to the now-bankrupt company, White House emails indicate.

White House Email: 'Coming Storm' Over Solyndra 'And Other Inside DOE Deals'

New internal White House emails reveal that a scathing critique of Energy Secretary Steven Chu by a former Obama political advisor was widely circulated at the highest levels of the administration.

The Feb. 25, 2011 email that sparked the deliberations landed on West Wing desks just as the solar energy firm Solyndra was starting to show outward signs of financial trouble.

A House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee voted Thursday to subpoena White House documents related to Solyndra, the politically connected solar company and flagship of the Obama administration's green energy program that received a half-billion dollar federal loan before going bankrupt.