The News Factor, an informative online Conservative News Magazine

DIRECTOR BLUE: Is the President’s resume accurate when it comes to his career and qualifications? I can corroborate that Obama’s “teaching career” at Chicago was, to put it kindly, a sham.

I spent some time with the highest tenured faculty member at Chicago Law a few months back, and he did not have many nice things to say about “Barry.” Obama applied for a position as an adjunct and wasn’t even considered. A few weeks later the law school got a phone call from the Board of Trustees telling them to find him an office, put him on the payroll, and give him a class to teach. The Board told him he didn’t have to be a member of the faculty, but they needed to give him a temporary position. He was never a professor and was hardly an adjunct.

The other professors hated him because he was lazy, unqualified, never attended any of the faculty meetings, and it was clear that the position was nothing more than a political stepping stool. According to my professor friend, he had the lowest intellectual capacity in the building. He also doubted whether he was legitimately an editor on the Harvard Law Review, because if he was, he would be the first and only editor of an Ivy League law review to never be published while in school (publication is or was a requirement).

Obama Nation

So there was President Obama, giving his bazillionth speech on health care, droning yet again that “now is the hour when we must seize the moment,” the same moment he’s been seizing every day of the week for the past year, only this time his genius photo-op guys thought it would look good to have him surrounded by men in white coats.

Why is he doing this? Why let “health” “care” “reform” stagger on like the rotting husk in a low-grade creature feature who refuses to stay dead no matter how many stakes you pound through his chest?

Because it’s worth it. Big time. I’ve been saying in this space for two years that the governmentalization of health care is the fastest way to a permanent left-of-center political culture. It redefines the relationship between the citizen and the state in fundamental ways that make limited government all but impossible.

Health News

American Exceptionalism and a Can Do Attitude

by Robert R. Owens, Ph.D.

Robert R. Owens, Associate Professor of History at Southside Virginia Community College.

Summary:
Our current political landscape could get depressing but I believe in American Exceptionalism and a can do attitude. I believe that our history and our future have been and will be defined by our devotion to limited government and the liberty and opportunity this provides.

Researching the national political scene could become depressing in an era when Progressives dedicated to fundamentally transforming America hold almost total control of the media and the government especially when they’re working hard to turn a recession into a depression. However, the Obama drama is like watching a slow-motion train wreck, if not inspiring at least it’s entertaining. Daily we’re assaulted by a Washington elite dedicated to proving Saturday Night Live never went far enough into satire to capture the nonsensical folly of our elected leaders.

Hourly our intelligence is insulted by people telling us they want to spend more money to lower the deficit and balance the budget as the deficit climbs higher and faster than ever before, and the national debt careens past satire into the theater of the absurd. Minute by minute we’re assaulted by news such as the self admitted Communist who was purged from the White House in the middle of the night is now an American Treasure. Or that the President’s long time pastor and mentor Rev. Wright recently honored Minister Louis Farrakhan the leader of the Nation of Islam with the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Lifetime Achievement Trumpeteer award. Is that the last trumpet I hear?

Read more…

Current Events American Exceptionalism, City on a Hill, cradle-to-grave welfare state, Dr. Robert Owens, fundamentally transforming America, limited government, Progressives, Ronald Reagan

Pakistani security agents denied on Monday that an American al Qaeda spokesman wanted in the United States for treason had been arrested, saying there had been confusion over the identity of a detained suspect. Oops.

War on Terror

Legend has it that when Cortes landed in Mexico in the 1500s, he ordered his men to burn the ships that had brought them there to remove the possibility of doing anything other than going forward into the unknown. Marc Andreessen has the same advice for old media companies: “Burn the boats.” he was talking about print media such as newspapers and magazines, and his longstanding recommendation that they should shut down their print editions and embrace the Web wholeheartedly. “You gotta burn the boats,” he told me, “you gotta commit.” His point is that if traditional media companies don’t burn their own boats, somebody else will.

That’s just a little extreme … don’t you think?

The Paper

This is one of the best “lines” we have heard in decades …

“This is a representation of our success,” said the church’s spokesman, Tommy Davis, showing off the building’s cavernous atrium, still to be clad in Italian marble, at the climax of a daylong tour of the church’s Clearwater empire. “This is a result of our expansion. It’s pinch-yourself material.” NYT: Defectors Say Church of Scientology Hides Abuse.

By doing enough auditing, taking courses and studying Mr. Hubbard’s books and lectures – for which some Scientologists say they have paid as much as $1 million – Scientologists believe that they can proceed up the “bridge to total freedom” and live to their full abilities as Operating Thetans, pure spirits.

Cult of Scientology

I’m often thought about what I should say to the entire Congress, if given the opportunity to address them in a miraculous turn of events. I think it should be the message from the people … you AND me. If you have some suggestions, please offer in the comments. Try to steer clear of the usual talking points … let’s go for some meat.

New Conservatism

J. Randolph Evans Column No. 1006

Evans is a partner at McKenna Long & Aldridge and has been recognized as one of the "Best Lawyers In America" and one of Georgia's "most influential people."

The unimaginable has suddenly become very possible. Some political experts now actually predict that Republicans may regain control of the United States Senate in the 2010 election. Just fourteen months ago, such an outcome seemed impossible. After all, heading into the 2010 election cycle, Democrats held a commanding sixty (60) to forty (40) vote margin. Since the Vice President (Democrat Joe Biden) breaks any tie votes (i.e. 50/50), Republicans would have to capture eleven seats in order to gain majority “control” of the U.S. Senate.

Of course, there is the question of exactly what does “control” mean in the United States Senate. Most agree on one thing – “control” really does not mean total control of the United States Senate. Instead, there are only varying degrees of procedural advantage. In operation, no political party ever controls the Senate.

As Senate Democrats have learned the hard way, not even the mystical sixty vote threshold yields the ability to actually force legislation through the process, with votes being little more than administrative technicalities necessary for valid legislation. (Senator Zell Miller wrote an entire chapter in his book “A National Party No More” that describes in some detail the absurdities of the process.) Instead, every Senator has the ability to slow the process, and a group of Senators can slow, if not outright stall, even the most rudimentary tasks and legislation.

Read more…

Politics GOP, Republican Party, U.S. Senate

Local newspaper websites remain the most used and valued online sources of credible and trustworthy local content and advertising: 57% of consumers cite their local newspaper website as the top online source for local information, followed by online portals (54%), and local TV websites (53%), according to a new survey conducted by comScore on behalf of the Newspaper Association of America. In addition, consumers say local newspaper websites are the most trustworthy sources of online advertising, with ads that are perceived to be more current, credible, and relevant to them.

The Paper

Now a new “Climategate” scandal is emerging, this time based on documents released by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in response to several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suits filed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). The newly released emails further demonstrate the politicized nature of climate science, revealing a number of questionable practices that cast doubt on the credibility of scientific data provided by NASA. LINKNAME. Inconsistencies, inflated data and misrepresentations.

Environmental