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Tonight's Crazy Story:
California Family Wakes Up to Find Lexus in Backyard Swimming Pool
Every year at Christmas, we see commercials about people who wake up to find a Lexus (usually with a giant red bow on top) in their driveway. But this California family woke up to find a Lexus somewhere they were not expecting it.
Topic One: Iran vs. Israel
Stop giving Iran a pass: "Iranian leaders are in standing violation of the same non-proliferation treaty they and their sympathizers evoke as a basis for their supposed right to pursue nuclear technology. This in itself is a contradiction that often stands unchallenged. The NPT is not an à la carte menu and it was never intended to cover the acquisition of nuclear weapons capability under the guise of rights to nuclear technology; signatories are either fully compliant or noncompliant and, therefore, outside its bounds. The Iranian regime has placed itself outside the bounds of the NPT because of its own actions. It is nonsensical for anyone watching this scenario unfold under current circumstances to insist on Iran’s right to any nuclear program."
Is Israel close to a decision on striking Iran? "This inner sanctum at the end of a corridor between Netanyahu's private room and the office of his top military adviser, is where one of the decade's most momentous military decisions could soon be taken: to launch an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear program. Time for that decision is fast running out and the mood in Jerusalem is hardening. Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of international pressure, saying it needs the fuel for its civilian nuclear program. The West is convinced that Tehran's real objective is to build an atomic bomb - something which the Jewish state will never accept because its leaders consider a nuclear armed-Iran a threat to its very existence."
Time for a Laugh:
"Florida's board of education has decided to lower the passing grade on standardized tests after noticing a drastic drop in student passing scores. In other words, if the students don't do well enough on the tests, they don't teach them better, they just lower the bar. Why didn't we think of this before? Imagine how many more doctors we could've had right now."
-Jay Leno
Topic Two: The Student Debt Problem
Graduating in debt: "Kelsey Griffith graduates on Sunday from Ohio Northern University. To start paying off her $120,000 in student debt, she is already working two restaurant jobs and will soon give up her apartment here to live with her parents. ... Ms. Griffith, 23, wouldn’t seem a perfect financial fit for a college that costs nearly $50,000 a year. Her father, a paramedic, and mother, a preschool teacher, have modest incomes, and she has four sisters. But when she visited Ohio Northern, she was won over by faculty and admissions staff members who urge students to pursue their dreams rather than obsess on the sticker price. "As an 18-year-old, it sounded like a good fit to me, and the school really sold it," said Ms. Griffith, a marketing major. "I knew a private school would cost a lot of money. But when I graduate, I’m going to owe like $900 a month. No one told me that."
The big difference of opinion: "I didn't want any debt from college. So I chose to attend a state school relatively close to my home, thus eliminating the cost of room and board, and spent some time in junior college to make my education even less costly. Of course, those classes at the junior college were the exact same that others were taking at the university at four or five times the cost. So, with a little planning, hard work, and dedication, I managed to graduate debt-free with a bachelor's and master's degree in five and a half years. Now, the flip-side. Suppose someone -- let's call him "Barack" -- is accepted into an elite private school that costs $40,000 per year for tuition and room and board. Let's say he gets $10,000/year in scholarship money to coax him into going there. Barack then justifies in his own mind that he doesn't have time to get a job while at the school because the classes are so difficult. So, this hypothetical student graduates with his private school bachelor's degree and also $120,000 in student debt. Let's say Barack and I both graduate with similar degrees and roughly the same grade-point average and that the school we each attended is held in high esteem for our chosen area of study. Between the two of us, all other factors equal, who is the more attractive candidate for a job? Is it Barack, who has the private-school degree and zero work experience, or is it I, who worked full-time and graduated on time with the same degree as Barack?"
Debt Watch:
$15,708,753,671,767.64
(
As of Wednesday, May 16, 2012
)
Change: +$4,069,463,958
Your share as a citizen: $50,250.78
Share per household: $137,547.04
Debt since Obama inauguration: $5,085,946,086,813
Topic Three: Voting Fraud Exists
Democrats want you to close your eyes and imagine there is no vote fraud. The facts, however, tell a different story. Florida found 53,000 dead voters still listed on the voting rolls: "I have learned that Florida election officials are set to announce that the secretary of state has discovered and purged up to 53,000 dead voters from the voter rolls in Florida. How could 53,000 dead voters have sat on the polls for so long? Simple. Because Florida hadn’t been using the best available data revealing which voters have died. Florida is now using the nationwide Social Security Death Index for determining which voters should be purged because they have died. Here is the bad news. Most states aren’t using the same database that Florida is. In fact, I have heard reports that some election officials won’t even remove voters even when they are presented with a death certificate. That means that voter rolls across the nation still are filled with dead voters, even if Florida is leading the way in detecting and removing them."
Evidence of irregularities in Montana: "In at least two counties in Montana, the home of a competitive U.S. Senate race that could tip the balance of power in the upper chamber, massive mail-in absentee ballot irregularities have been uncovered by Media Trackers Montana, a non-partisan investigative research organization with operations in five states across the country. In Broadwater county alone, where Sen. Jon Tester received only 35 percent of the vote in the 2006 general election, up to 600 erroneous mail-in ballots have been reported. Over a dozen Billings-area voters have complained that they received incorrect ballots. Yellowstone county officials have also reported numerous complaints from voters receiving the wrong ballot. And to top it all off, even a sample ballot available to individual voters on the Montana Secretary of State’s website is incorrect (this particular ballot allows the voter to select a state representative in two separate districts — districts 68 and 83). A majority of Montana voters are expected to vote by mail this November."
Tweet of the Day:
@indyrallen:
Bill Clinton is black, Obama is gay, George Zimmerman is white, Elizabeth Warren is native American and I'm confused. #tcot
Topic Four: Reauthorizing the Free Market
RedState contributor Daniel Horowitz on the need for reform in reauthorization bills: "Decades’ worth of government incentives to live in flood-prone regions have enticed thousands of homeowners into purchasing houses in areas that will forever necessitate more subsidies. 80 years’ worth of farm subsidies and crop insurance have created near-immutable levels of dependency in our farming communities. Decades’ worth of housing subsidies have created a reality in which 90% of all mortgages are backed by Fannie and Freddie."
"Restoring our economy to a system governed by the free market – as the Founders envisioned – will not be an easy task. We understand that we cannot eliminate all government interventions overnight. However, we must not squander the reauthorization opportunities by reflexively extending the programs with little or notional reforms. Every reauthorization of farming, housing, flood insurance, and numerous other interventionist programs must set us on a trajectory towards privatization with the ultimate intent of ending government involvement, not perpetuating it."
Later, Horowitz concludes: "Restoring the free-market from the irrepressible grip of government is no small task; nonetheless, it must be the ultimate goal of any reauthorization bill. We didn’t start these public policy problems in the first place; we certainly are not obligated to rubber-stamp the statist solutions. Let’s stop reauthorizing failure."
Food for Thought - A Quote from our Founders
"One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them."
-Thomas Jefferson
Topic Five: Obama's Strategy
Jim Geraghty analyzes Obama's strategies in his previous campaigns and analyzes why it will not work this time: "Obama is using a familiar strategy because it’s not really clear that he’s ever had to use any other one. Once he won the Democratic primary for his State Senate seat in 1996, he had the seat for life, representing Hyde Park, an ultra-liberal neighborhood. He lost a House bid in 2000 against Democrat Bobby Rush, and then his next genuinely difficult fight was the 2004 Senate primary… when revelations from sealed divorce records doomed his best-funded opponent. Many of you are thinking, ‘wait, Jim, no, you’re thinking of Jack Ryan with the Jeri Ryan divorce papers’ – but the exact same thing happened in the general election. From there, Obama had a cakewalk beating Alan Keyes. In each circumstance, just getting the Democrats to come out in their traditional numbers was sufficient to ensure victory."
"The 2008 Democratic party was indeed a tough fight, but again Obama was assembling his familiar coalition – African-Americans, Hollywood, gays, the party’s liberal wing – to overcome Hillary’s white working-class base. And then in 2008, even with the wind of Bush fatigue at his back, Obama was trailing... until Lehman collapsed, McCain insisted the debates be canceled, and then he changed his mind two days ago. In other words, 2008 was a perfect storm for Obama’s appeal to independents, centrists, Democrats who were unconvinced in the primary and frustrated Republicans. Obama has never really had to try to win over, say, the suburbs or exurbs of Columbus, Orlando, Colorado Springs, or other “in play” parts of the political map in less than ideal circumstances."
To this point I would also add that the historic turnouts of Obama's key voter groups are historic because they do not happen every four years. African-Americans will probably turn out in near record numbers again, but I find it difficult to believe that other groups will come to the polls for Obama like they did in 2008. In discussions with many people who are a part of some of these voter groups, the sentiment that I am gathering is that a large percentage of them would rather stay home than vote for Obama (voting for Romney is apparently not even an option for them.) However, if these groups fail to turn out at the same level as 2008, Obama will be at a disadvantage, and his strategy as outlined above will not help him make up his deficit.
Tomorrow in History
May 19, 1943
-
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin Roosevelt establish May 1, 1944, as the date for the Normandy invasion (D-Day). Inclement weather would cause it to be delayed over a month to June 6, 1944.
Grab Bag - Interesting and Important Stories to Conclude Your Evening:
Minorities surpass whites in births
No subsidies for this solar company
Rand Paul: how do you find middle ground with a party that has no plan
Inside JPMorgan's blunder
The 20 best jobs that don't require a degree
Occupy Chicago protests Limbaugh...in wrong city
Man promised all-you-can-eat fish is still hungry
Romney's debt visual
How Yahoo lost the internet
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