Crosspost

Steny Hoyer: ‘America Is Not Broke’
By Edwin Mora | May 24, 2011 | 3:48 PM EDT

Although the annual federal budget deficit is expected to hit $1.65 trillion this year and the national debt is already at $14.34 trillion, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said today he disagrees with House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) assessment that America is broke.

“America is not broke,” Hoyer said at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C.. “America has extraordinary resources and we can use those resources, both intellectual and financial, to get us to a place where we are again a fiscally sound nation, a fiscally balanced nation, and future generations are not at risk.”

Rand Was Wrong, Hollywood Was Right, so Let’s Spread the Wealth Around
By Ezra Dulis | May 23, 2011 | 5:36 PM EDT

So with the news that Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 is underperforming and leaving theaters rather than expanding, it’s unclear whether producer John Aglialoro will be able to produce the planned sequels for the adaptation of Ayn Rand’s most famous and controversial work. Name recognition from one of the bestselling books of the past century, still a chart-topper due its appeal to libertarians and limited-government advocates, wasn’t a strong enough draw to earn back even half of its $20 million production budget so far, and this raises a lot of questions for those who rooted for the film. What does this mean for conservatives and fans of Rand?

Obviously, it means everything we’ve ever believed is absolutely wrong.

Gallup: 61 Percent Say All or Most Abortions Should Be Illegal
By Terence P. Jeffrey | May 23, 2011 | 5:30 PM EDT

Sixty-one percent of American adults—including some who describe themselves as “pro-choice”—told Gallup in a survey conducted May 5-8 that abortion should be illegal in all or most circumstances.

The Gallup survey, published today, asked 1,018 American adults whether they considered themselves “pro-choice” or “pro-life” on abortion. It also asked: “Do you think abortions should be legal under any circumstances, legal only under certain circumstances, or illegal in all circumstances?”

Dems Pounce on Pawlenty – Hours Before His Formal Announcement
By Susan Jones | May 23, 2011 | 4:53 PM EDT

With 17 months to go until the 2012 presidential election, the party in power has signaled its intention to go negative early and often.

Even before former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty formally announced his intention to run for president on the Republican ticket, the Democratic National Committee responded with a video entitled, “Why.”

‘Too Big to Fail’ Surprisingly Fair and Entertaining
By Tim Ross | May 23, 2011 | 11:01 AM EDT

I’ve written several articles skewering HBO for producing political projects destined to air immediately prior to the 2012 election, where the vast majority of the cast and crew are passionate Barack Obama supporters, and where the content is aimed at the Democrat’s two favorite Republican villains: Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney. So, when I sat down to watch HBO’s Too Big to Fail, I prepared myself for the worst. What I didn’t expect was the big surprise awaiting me.


Too Big to Fail, which premieres on HBO on May 23, 2011, features a star studded cast recounting the events that led to the financial crisis and bailouts by the U.S. government in 2008. It is a mini-series packed into a 98-minute made-for-television movie where several essential characters are quickly introduced and where finance and economics are casually discussed. It may help if one has a baseline of knowledge about the crisis before watching the movie. If one doesn’t know who Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Timothy Geithner are or what Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, and AIG are, it may prove slightly difficult to follow.

Although the Director, Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile), was limited to telling a very long and complicated story in a very short amount of time, he was able to skillfully pull it off. Perhaps this is because the screenwriter, Peter Gould (Breaking Bad), deftly adapted Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 2009 prize winning New York Times Bestseller, Too Big to Fail.

Rabbi: 'The President of the United States is Asking for Ethnic Cleansing'
By Fred Lucas | May 20, 2011 | 3:28 PM EDT

President Barack Obama has made an unprecedented demand on Israel, Jewish leaders said Thursday, after the president called for Israel to redraw its borders to where they were in 1967 before the Six Day War. One rabbi said Obama was, in essence, asking for "ethnic cleansing" of thousands of Jewish families.

Saudi Activist Deplores Obama's Silence on 'Tyrannical' Regime
By Patrick Goodenough | May 20, 2011 | 11:50 AM EDT

In his major policy speech Thursday on the protests sweeping the Middle East, President Obama did not refer once to Saudi Arabia, arguably the Arab world’s least democratic state.

He also made no reference to Lebanon, where political maneuvering by the Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah saw the U.S.-backed prime minister, Saad Hariri, ousted earlier this year and a Hezbollah-backed candidate named to replace him.

No Decline in Polar Bear Population
By Terence P. Jeffrey | May 19, 2011 | 5:36 PM EDT

The Polar Bear Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the organization of scientists that has attempted to monitor the global polar bear population since the 1960s, has issued a report indicating that there was no change in the overall global polar bear population in the most recent four-year period studied.

'Transparent' Obama Administration Holds More 'Listen Only' Events
By Eric Scheiner | May 19, 2011 | 4:30 PM EDT

President Barack Obama has often lauded his administration as being the "most transparent" but the administration continues to hold a string of "listen only" media events where reporters are not allowed to ask questions.

On Wednesday, first lady Michelle Obama held a "listen only" media call on the “Joining Forces” national initiative to support military families. This latest conference call where reporters can not ask questions, is part of a string of media events with the first lady where reporters can only "listen in" or attend if invited by the White House press office.

Border Patrol Chief: Canadian Border Bigger Terror Threat Than Mexican Border
By Edwin Mora | May 18, 2011 | 1:11 PM EDT

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has apprehended more suspected terrorists on the nation’s northern border than along its southern counterpart, CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin said Tuesday.

“In terms of the terrorist threat, it’s commonly accepted that the more significant threat” comes from the U.S.-Canada border, Bersin told a hearing of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security.

Obama Administration to Honor ‘Green’ Schools That Teach ‘Environmental Literacy’
By Penny Starr | May 17, 2011 | 1:22 PM EDT

Next year on Earth Day, the Obama administration plans to announce which U.S. schools have been selected as “Green Ribbon Schools,” a designation that will “honor” schools for “creating healthy and sustainable learning environments” and for “teaching environmental literacy.”

The Green Ribbon Schools program was announced in late April, but details on how schools will be picked or what the honor entails have not been released.

'Oppressed' Iran to Hold International Peace Conference
By Patrick Goodenough | May 13, 2011 | 4:12 PM EDT

Iran this weekend hosts an international conference on combating terrorism and promoting peace, but organizers left no doubt that their vision of “peace” is not quite universal.

At an event in Tehran Wednesday to promote the “International Conference on Global Alliance against Terrorism for a Just Peace,” the organizers released 195 caged pigeons. The birds, they said, were intended to be a symbolic representation of the world’s countries, “except Israel.”