The Mid-Week 'Report;' 05/24/2012

What The National Pamphleteers Don't Report:
[Note:  At times I find too many IMPORTANT news articles to include in just one Sunday blog entry.  So, when warranted, I'll do a 'mid-week' report as well.]
‘Family Guy’ Cartoon Bashes Tea Party In Episode Using Anti-Semitism & Neo-Nazis

by Billy Hallowell,
theblaze.com
May 14, 2012
    On Sunday evening, the animated Fox television show, “Family Guy,” took aim at a familiar Hollywood target: conservatives and, in particular, the Tea Party. The episode, Newsbusters’ Noel Sheppard claims, “depicted the conservative movement as a bunch of racist anarchists destined to destroy America.”
Sheppard provides a recap of the episode:
The premise of the episode was that after City Hall in his town threatened to shut down his illegal business, main character Peter is thinking of joining the Tea Party because he was fed up with government.
He attended a Tea Party rally filled with exclusively white people mispronouncing words such as “taco” and “tortilla.”
Worse still, the movement was depicted as anarchists looking for absolutely no government as opposed to the real Tea Party which advocates fiscally responsible government living within its means.
Regardless, Peter liked what he heard, and proceeded to join.
Not surprisingly, with all government services eliminated, the town began to totally fall apart.
Of course, the episode goes on to depict all of the absurd societal problems that would allegedly result from a lack of government [....]
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/family-guy-cartoon-bashes-tea-party-in-episode-using-anti-semitism-neo-nazis/

3 Warning Signs Of An Imminent Dividend Cut

by 'Dividends4Life,'
seekingalpha.com
May 15, 2012
    One important lesson we learned from the 2008-2009 financial crisis was that it didn't matter how long a company had increased its dividend, tough economic times could push it to cut its dividend. In most cases the companies' investors were not surprised because they saw the early warning signs that indicated a dividend cut was imminent. Here are three signs that a company is heading toward a dividend cut:
I. Change In Business Conditions
An abrupt or permanent shift in a company's business model as a result of business conditions could lead to a dividend cut. During the financial crisis, virtually all businesses experienced an adverse change in business conditions. However, the pertinent question is to what degree? Consider these two examples: [....]
http://seekingalpha.com/article/589561-3-warning-signs-of-an-imminent-dividend-cut?source=email_investing_income&ifp=0

America's Best Days

64% Prefer a Government With Fewer Services and Lower Taxes
by Scott Rasmussen,
rasmussenreports.com
May 20, 2012
    Most voters continue to prefer a more hands-off government in return for lower taxes.  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 64% of Likely U.S. Voters prefer a government with fewer services and lower taxes over one with more services and higher taxes. That's unchanged from last month and consistent with findings in regular surveys since late 2006. Just 25% prefer a government with more services. Eleven percent (11%) are [....]
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/america_s_best_days

Australia's Strategy
by George Friedman,
STRATfor.com
May 22, 2012
    Australia is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, ranked in the top 10 in gross domestic product per capita. It is one of the most isolated major countries in the world; it occupies an entire united continent, is difficult to invade and rarely is threatened. Normally, we would not expect a relatively well-off and isolated country to have been involved in many wars. This has not been the case for Australia and, more interesting, it has persistently not been the case, even under a variety of governments. Ideology does not explain the phenomenon in this instance.
    Since 1900, Australia has engaged in several wars and other military or security interventions (including the Boer War, World War I, World War II and the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq) lasting about 40 years total. Put another way, Australia has been at war for more than one-third of the time since the Commonwealth of Australia was established in 1901. In only one of these wars, World War II, was its national security directly threatened, and even then a great deal of its fighting was done in places such as Greece and North Africa rather than in direct defense of Australia. This leaves us to wonder why a country as wealthy and seemingly secure as Australia would have participated in so many conflicts.
Importance of Sea-Lanes
    To understand Australia, we must begin by noting that its isolation does not necessarily make it secure. Exports, particularly of primary commodities, have been essential to Australia. From wool exported to Britain in 1901 to iron ore exported to China today, Australia has had to export commodities to finance the import of industrial products and services in excess of what its population could produce for itself. Without this trade, Australia could [....]
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/australias-strategy?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120522&utm_term=gweekly&utm_content=readmore&elq=a8d1c9fe3c734e57a6c0223eaa5d2cad.

Court strikes down NLRB rule to speed up union elections
by Kevin Bogardus
thehill.com
May 14, 2012
    A federal judge ruled Monday that a contentious union election rule proposed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is “invalid.”  In an 18-page memorandum opinion, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg struck the regulation down, saying the labor board only had two members when it voted on the final rule in December 2011. Boasberg said the agency needed at least three members to have a quorum for action on the rule.
“According to Woody Allen, 80 percent of life is just showing up. When it comes to satisfying a quorum requirement, though, showing up is even more important than that. Indeed, it is the only thing that matters — even when the quorum is constituted electronically. In this case, because no quorum ever existed for the pivotal vote in question, the Court must hold that the challenged rule is invalid,” Boasberg wrote.
    The NLRB rule would speed up union elections and has been criticized by Republican lawmakers and business groups.  Two NLRB members — Chairman Mark Pearce and then-Member Craig Becker, both Democrats — participated in adopting the rule. The labor board’s third member at the time, Republican Brian Hayes, did not participate. 
“Two members of the Board participated in the decision to adopt the final rule, and two is simply not enough. Member Hayes cannot [....]
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/227327-federal-court-strikes-down-nlrbs-union-election-rule?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Heritage%2BHotsheet

De Pasquale’s Dozen with Joe the Plumber

by Lisa De Pasquale,
townhall.com
May 21, 2012
    During the 2008 election, then-Senator Barack Obama made a campaign stop in Ohio. While shaking hands and talking to residents, one man stepped forward and asked him about his tax policy for small businesses. Sen. Obama’s response included the telling phrase "when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody."  Not only did the question remind Americans of the Left’s philosophy and goals, but it shed light on what Democrats and the media would do to private citizens who disagree with their mission to elect Obama. Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher was among the first to feel the wrath of the campaign and Obama-friendly media. They dug into his background, work history and personal life. The director of Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services ordered one of her employees to use state computers to research Wurzelbacher. Additionally, a former contractor for the Association of the Ohio Chiefs of Police was also found to be looking up confidential information on Wurzelbacher. A law barring this invasion of privacy using state resources was later passed and signed by the Ohio governor.
    As the 2012 election heats up, the Obama campaign is using the same playbook [....]
http://townhall.com/columnists/lisadepasquale/2012/05/21/de_pasquales_dozen_with_joe_the_plumber/page/full/

FEULNER: Budget plan that adds up

Senate’s Lee offers proposal that would save the American Dream
by Ed Feulner,
The Washington Times
May 14, 2012
    It has been more than three years (1,112 days, to be precise) since the U.S. Senate last passed a budget. The last time Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid fulfilled his legal responsibility, Conan O'Brien was still on NBC, Tea Parties hadn’t come together, and the iPad hadn’t yet been introduced.
There is no excuse for this. The Senate needs only 51 votes to pass a budget. Democrats have had well over that for President Obama’s entire term, yet they refuse to even offer a plan.  The Senate must pass a budget if we are going to halt Washington’s disastrous habit of overspending, overborrowing and overtaxing our fragile economy. While liberals sit on the sidelines [....]
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/14/budget-plan-that-adds-up/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Heritage%2BHotsheet

Part One: The Fiction and Non-Fiction of Obama

by Tiffany Gabbay,
theblaze.com
May 12, 2012
    It could be argued that if then-presidential candidate John McCain had truly assailed his rival Barack Obama over his exhaustive collection of dubious dealings and less-than-scrupulous friends (think: Davis, Khalidi, Pflager, Wright, Ayers, Rezko, Said, etc.), he just might have taken the election. Instead, McCain chose to “keep above the fray” — although few are clear as to why bringing up substantive and valid concerns over the first-term senator’s past constituted otherwise to the Maverick-camp. Now, President Obama is three years into his first term as president, and his campaign for reelection has officially kicked off with a record-setting $15 million celebrity-fundraiser hosted by devotee George Clooney.
    If the president’s true history continues to be replaced by the alternate narrative he has constructed for himself; if his fact, rather than fiction-based life is swept under the carpet again, he will likely retake the Oval Office.  With this in mind, [....]
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/part-one-the-fiction-and-non-fiction-of-obama/

Part Two: The Fiction and Non-Fiction of Obama

by Tiffany Gabbay,
theblaze.com
May 13, 2012
    In Part I of this report, we examined President Obama’s earliest role models and the influence each likely had on him as he shaped his worldview. With an anti-colonialist father, a mother who rejected Western society, a communist mentor, a domestic-terrorist benefactor, and an anti-Semitic preacher, the reasons behind Obama’s past and present actions come more sharply into focus. Below, we navigate through just some of the president’s questionable political positions. “Brave” enough to order the killing Osama bin Laden…but had a back-up memo to blame the military in case it went wrong?
    The entire Obama administration along with the American left has heaped praise on the president for his “daring” and “brave” decision to send a Navy SEAL team into an Abottobbad compound to assassinate 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. In fact, Obama has even used the accomplishment as the crux of his latest campaign ad — a move even liberal mediaite Arianna Huffington deemed despicable. Yet in April it was revealed that then-CIA Director Leon Panetta drafted a memo that included an escape clause for the president should the operation go awry [emphasis added]: “The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval [....]
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/part-two-the-fiction-and-non-fiction-of-obama/

Hawaii responds to Bennett's Obama birth records request
by Andrew Michalscheck,
azfamily.com

May 20, 2012
    PHOENIX -- The state of Hawaii has responded to Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett’s request for proof that President Barack Obama was in fact born in the Aloha State.  The Hawaii attorney general’s office has reportedly told Bennett that there are steps he needs to take [....]
http://www.azfamily.com/news/Hawaii-responds-to-Bennetts--152213005.html

Hey, Obama, Didn’t Hitler Also Want The Military To Pledge Allegiance To Him?

Staff Report,
exposeobama.com
May 12, 2012
    In August of 1934, members the Wehrmacht were required to recite a Reichswehreid,an oath of personal allegiance to Adolf Hitler. This oath ignored God and country but swore an oath to a man, Adolf Hitler. The soldiers were to fight and die on the behalf of the dear leader. Such loyalty oaths originated in ancient Rome and have been repeated throughout history and to different tyrants.
Obama
    It is a rumor that Obama wishes the members of the American military would swear an oath to him over God and the Constitution. But in his narcissist mindset,he truly believes the military serves at his whim. In an ABC interview concerning his flip-flop on Gay marriage he said “when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained,even now that ‘don’t ask,don’t tell’ is gone,”
Oh Really?
    Members of the US Armed Forces swear an oath to the Constitution and not to a man. They are required to follow the orders of the President and Officers according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice,but they act to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Even orders from the President must be lawful [....]
http://www.exposeobama.com/2012/05/12/hey-obama-didnt-hitler-also-want-the-military-to-pledge-allegiance-to-him/
Until Next Sunday....