PJ Media

Obama Pulls the Plug on a Great Run in Space

The president's NASA legacy, by choice, is a loss of dominance in space for America.

How Congress Sabotages Space Exploration

We cannot afford to continue to do space business as usual as the nation becomes more and more fiscally strapped.

Hacks: The Left’s Lilliputians Try to Take Murdoch Down

All the hypocrisy in the world can't destroy his media empire. Also read Mike's latest about the BBC and the phone hacking scandal at the Tatler.

Debt Limit Comes Closer as Congress Begins to Move

Cut, Cap and Balance, versus the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. UPDATE: Also read House Republican and Democrat Want a Vote on the 'Gang' Plan, at the Tatler.

La cínica estrategia de Ortega

Daniel Ortega, en la década de los ochenta, transformó a Nicaragua en un estado cliente de la Unión Soviética, no es un verdadero aliado ni de la democracia ni del capitalismo. Pero el hecho de que tolere, aunque de mala gana, al capitalismo le sirve ahora para desmantelar la democracia.

Cries for Help from Iranian Web Activists Go Unheeded

The U.S. pledged $75 million to "democracy promotion" in Iran two years ago. What happened to the money?

Amatory Appetites and the Agony of Secrecy: A Guide for the Perplexed

PJ Advice columnist Belladonna Rogers reveals what to do, and what not to do, after seeing a friend’s husband at a romantic dinner with another woman.

Gunwalker: ATF Targets Were Actually FBI Informants

It would be comical if we weren’t talking about dead federal agents and Mexican nationals.

Sharia in Toronto: the Muslim Girls on Their Period Have to Sit in the Back

This sort of thing should send a chill down the spine of anyone who understands what it means for a country to be free or for a school to be public.

Gunwalker: Family of Slain Federal Agent Demands Answers

Remember when Cindy Sheehan and the left claimed "absolute moral authority" for the families of those killed in the line of duty? Think they'll fight for Agent Zapata's family?

Now Playing at the Lifestyle Blog

Added today: Ben Shapiro decodes TV's "Primetime Propaganda." Steve Green rounds up "The Week in Blogs." Glenn Reynolds explores "The Law Of Sacrifice." And Ed Driscoll spotlights a photoblog stuffed with a barrel full of "Unhappy Hipsters." Plus Charlie Sheen plots his return to TV.

Wanted: Sacrifices for Obama’s Reelection Campaign

President Obama and others negotiating an end to the debt limit mess are searching for ways out of a political crisis of their own making and trying desperately to kick cans full of worms and of blame down the road to avoid losses during next year’s elections. Solving the underlying problems would have taken lots of unglamorous work rather than political pandering, so comforting during a political season which has neither a beginning nor an end. Now that it’s too late to do anything definitive, the rhetoric is full blown and occasionally rancorous while substance is lacking.

In his weekly speech on July 16th, President Obama called for shared sacrifice by big corporations and the rich. He said,

Simply put, it will take a balanced approach, shared sacrifice, and a willingness to make unpopular choices on all our parts. That means spending less on domestic programs. It means spending less on defense programs. It means reforming programs like Medicare to reduce costs and strengthen the program for future generations. And it means taking on the tax code, and cutting out certain tax breaks and deductions for the wealthiest Americans.

. . . .

The truth is, you can’t solve our deficit without cutting spending. But you also can’t solve it without asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share — or without taking on loopholes that give special interests and big corporations tax breaks that middle-class Americans don’t get.

It’s pretty simple. I don’t think oil companies should keep getting special tax breaks when they’re making tens of billions in profits.

As was the case with President Obama’s address on July 15th, he failed to “name a single entitlement he is willing to cut. His sacred cows are still sacred, but yours are up for slaughter.” It may be true, as reported by CBS News, that

President Obama on Friday acknowledged for the first time that he was considering changes to the programs like raising the retirement age or applying means testing.

Additionally, an administration official tells CBS News political analyst John Dickerson that a deal based on Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s “back up plan” could include a binding commission charged with reviewing the entitlement programs.

President Obama did indeed put it “simply”; so simply that even a third grader could understand that he claims to want just good stuff and to kill the demons — even though the third grader couldn’t learn what the good stuff and demons are. Neither, most likely, does our Harvard Law School graduate and former “constitutional law professor” know.

Children too young to understand what’s happening are susceptible to demagoguery; so are too many chronological adults.

As to Social Security, President Obama spoke of raising the retirement age — to what, when, for whom and to produce what savings how and when he did not indicate. Means testing? What means that? He has yet even to touch upon the extent to which, if any, such tests may change or adapt existing means testing formulae with which the progressive Revenue Code and Treasury regulations already abound.

What “loopholes that give special interests and big corporations tax breaks that middle-class Americans don’t get”? Oil depletion allowances — obviously Harry Homeowner doesn’t get them and if he did wouldn’t have any use for them. Do the big bad corporations include Boeing Aircraft but not Government Motors? General Electric? Do the wicked special interests include domestic oil drilling, production, and refining companies but not unions, malpractice lawyers, and his other supporters? What “loopholes” are bad, which are good? Are they good or bad in terms of social fairness as perceived by President Obama or in terms of real economic impact? Demands for more good stuff and less bad may be sufficient for those who still hold him in absolute awe; they can’t be for the rest of us.

Everything has been so amorphous as to be meaningless. As Charles Krauthammer recently said on NPR,

[The President] talks a good game. “Oh, I’m prepared to do entitlements, I’m ready to do entitlements.” Not once has he ever enunciated in public — other than all these leaks which I don’t trust for half a second — one structural change in entitlements, and without that, everybody over the age of nine knows we are not going to get a handle on the debt. So let’s hear him say it in public once.

Rick Moran asks here whether the Republicans will “cave on taxes.” How does one cave on such things as unspecific as more taxes for fat cats, big corporations, and special interests? What’s to cave on? A marriage subsequently to be arranged with someone unknown?

President Obama to the contrary notwithstanding, it’s not “pretty simple” and anyone who claims that it is either does not himself understand “it” or has, at best, a very low opinion of the intelligence of his audience. There may be some specifics under discussion but if so the discussion has been behind closed doors; what little has leaked out under the transom has been no more solid than quicksand and no more reliable than Daily Kos.

Ex-Cons in San Francisco May Soon Enjoy ‘Protected Class’ Status

A proposed law would bar landlords and business owners from inquiring about the criminal past of any prospective tenant or employee.

Globaloney: The Statist Push Continues

Facts won't matter if they finally get their way.

Alternative Media Is Today’s Free Press

On their own initiative, Americans are cutting through the trivia and the propaganda.

Is Romney Our Best Choice?

The evidence suggests otherwise — but for the wrong reason.

On Making Love and Having Sex

Have we lost the sense of the mystery of life?

How McCain’s 2008 Political Shadow Is Hurting Romney Now

Did conservatives learn the wrong lesson from losing to Obama the first time?

The Indian Mujahedeen: Home-Grown Terror Group with Global Connections

A report on the jihad waged in South Asia.

Europe’s Debt Crisis Arrives in Italy

Will Italy become the next European country to need help managing its debts?

Obfuscation: Dems Push Gun Control To Hide ‘Gunwalker’ Scandal

They choose a pivotal moment in the Gunwalker investigation to announce a gun-control bill.

Contempt of Cop: What’s the Law Say About Photographing Police?

Some recent incidents of police misconduct have brought national attention to the phenomenon.

Greece’s Deal with the Devil

Has Europe sold its soul for a lifetime of the welfare state?

Poliwood: Rotten Tomatoes and the Brave New World of Online Film Criticism

In the latest Poliwood, taken from PJTV, Lionel and I interviewed Matt Atchity, the editor-in-chief of Rotten Tomatoes, easily the most influential film criticism aggregator on the web and one of the most influential film sites in general. We find out how they make their decisions and discuss the general issue of the escalating importance of online film crit. On a personal note, A Better Life (story by Roger L. Simon) is now at 80% fresh tomatoes.

More ‘Gunwalker’ Emails Suggest Gun-Control Conspiracy

Plus: Congressional investigators ask Eric Holder if there is any other evidence that Gunwalker was an anti-gun PR stunt.