{"id":5692,"date":"2012-04-11T22:55:21","date_gmt":"2012-04-12T02:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=5692"},"modified":"2012-04-11T22:56:04","modified_gmt":"2012-04-12T02:56:04","slug":"the-daily-gouge-thursday-april-12th-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=5692","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Gouge, Thursday, April 12th, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>It&#8217;s Thursday, April 12th, 2012&#8230;.and here&#8217;s The Gouge!<\/strong><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\">Zimmerman Charged with 2nd-degree Murder<\/span><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Cx4MqOOEMec\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Positive energy&#8221;? &#8220;Continue to pray&#8230;.for our prosecution team&#8221;?\u00a0 Seriously, is this a prosecution or a prayer meeting?!?\u00a0 And if the latter, where are the prayers for the accused and HIS family?\u00a0 As for Ms. Corey&#8217;s appearance, demeanor and less-than-breathless oratorical skills, is there any doubt she&#8217;s using her 15 minutes of fame to grease the skids for run at higher political office?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Meanwhile, <em>FOX News<\/em>&#8216; Andrew Napolitano explains the significance of the 2nd-degree murder charge:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S0iYMAM5iWQ\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Here&#8217;s the juice: it&#8217;s obvious from her appearance and extended remarks Corey, like the Reverends, is interested not in justice, but publicity.\u00a0 And her public pandering notwithstanding, the moment Corey charged Zimmerman, her entire team&#8217;s only goal became not justice, but convicting George Zimmerman of the crime with which he&#8217;s been charged.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>As for our observations regarding Corey&#8217;s personal motives, they have nothing to do with the charges; only the way in which she conducted the media circus she used to level them.\u00a0 Zimmerman&#8217;s guilt or innocence will now be determined by a jury of his peers, and we&#8217;re bound to abide by their decision.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>For some reason, should the jury return a &#8220;not guilty&#8221; verdict, we doubt the Reverends and the &#8220;Black Community&#8221; will exhibit the same restraint. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>And since we&#8217;re on the subject of potential mob violence&#8230;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h1 id=\"article-title\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Union workers in Detroit talk of Wisconsin-like battle over potential loss of bargin rights<\/span><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Detroit lawmakers have agreed to use financial advisers to straighten out the city&#8217;s finances, which has unionized workers vowing protests like those in Wisconsin should their bargaining rights be eliminated in the solutions. <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>&#8220;Get ready,\u201d a union member told Fox News Channel. \u201cThis is going to be a huge battle. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>This&#8217;ll be just like Wisconsin<\/em><\/span>.&#8221;<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Detroit didn&#8217;t have much choice in signing the April 4 consent decree, considering it was unable to pay its bills and on the brink of bankruptcy. <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">&#8220;Right now our deficit is at $193 million,\u201d Detroit Councilman James Tate said. \u201c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>We have a long-term debt of over $12 billion<\/em><\/span>.&#8221;<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8230;.When the auto industry had to cut jobs, many people left the city. Unemployment was up and revenue was down. <strong>What was once a population of two million is now down to roughly 700,000. <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">But &#8220;t<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>he city is still operating as if it has two million, and it can&#8217;t afford that<\/em><\/span>,&#8221; one state staff member said.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Gee&#8230;.what are the unionistas gonna do, burn the city down?\u00a0 Sorry fellas, but 51 years of Dimocratic government&#8230;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/images4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5716\" title=\"images\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/images4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"278\" height=\"182\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/images21.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5717\" title=\"images2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/images21.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/images31.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5718\" title=\"images3\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/images31.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"272\" height=\"185\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8230;.beat you to it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Next up, it&#8217;s the Saul Alinsky Memorial &#8220;If You Can&#8217;t Argue The Facts, Destroy The Messenger&#8221; segment, courtesy of the <em>WSJ<\/em>&#8216;s Dan Henninger<em><\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"> Demolishing Paul Ryan<\/span><\/h1>\n<h2 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">The Left launches on warning against any challenge to its ideological fortress.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OGnE83A1Z4U\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>With the presidential battle begun, the Obama campaign has revived the Cold War nuclear strategy of launch on warning. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">At any suggestion that a conservative idea might be threatening its ideological fortress, the American left now launches ICBMs of rhetorical destruction.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">So it was after the Supreme Court&#8217;s hearings on the Obama Affordable Care Act, which put in jeopardy the federal command to buy health insurance. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">After the president green-flagged the assault, the Supreme Court&#8217;s &#8220;legitimacy&#8221; was in play.<\/span> The Roberts Court, wrote one blogger, is &#8220;on trial.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>On current course, House GOP Budget Chairman Paul Ryan himself may exhaust their entire thermonuclear arsenal before November.<\/strong><\/span> Once again, the Campaigner in Chief threw the switch himself, calling the Ryan House budget &#8220;social Darwinism,&#8221; &#8220;a Trojan horse&#8221; and &#8220;antithetical to our entire history.&#8221; Rev. Samuel Rodriquez of the Hispanic Evangelical Association said the poor would be &#8220;budget-war collateral damage.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>On Tuesday, Mr. Ryan pushed back.<\/strong><\/span> <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, he said that in fact the Catholic Church&#8217;s &#8220;social magisterium&#8221; had informed his House budget. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>One goal of that teaching, he said, is to prevent the poor from staying poor<\/em>.<\/span> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Nor, he added, should individuals become lifelong dependents of their government<\/em><\/span>. <span style=\"color: #008000;\">(As G. Trevor, Lord High King of All Vietors observed earlier today, the Dims mantra seems to be, &#8220;Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, you can take all his fish and give them to those who don&#8217;t want to be bothered having to fish!&#8221;)<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Just as the left thought the regulating reach of the Commerce Clause was beyond serious challenge, it long ago decided that none dare question the moral case for public spending.<\/strong><\/span> <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><em>That social Darwinism speech Barack Obama is giving now in defense of federal programs isn&#8217;t merely a public-policy statement<\/em>. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>It&#8217;s a Democratic encyclical<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> <em>Paul Ryan&#8217;s ideas are worse than wrong<\/em>. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>They are heresy<\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Within the hour of the Ryan CBN interview, the blogospheric left went ballistic. &#8220;Ryan is shilling for the Catholic Church,&#8221; said Democrats for Progress, folding in another recently identified group of ObamaCare heretics. And: &#8220;Mr. Ryan has drunk the libertarian Kool-Aid.&#8221; A pro-spending religious coalition, the Faithful Budget Campaign, emailed, &#8220;The differences in what the organized religious community is calling a Faithful Budget and what Rep. Ryan refers to could not be more stark.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>What Mr. Ryan actually said is worth quoting, because it should revive the debate over the proper relationship between individual citizens, including the poor, and the national government:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">&#8220;<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><em>A person&#8217;s faith is central to how they conduct themselves in public and in private. <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">So to me, using my Catholic faith, we call it the social magisterium, which is how do you apply the doctrine of your teaching into your everyday life as a lay person?<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\"><em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>To me, the principle of subsidiarity . . . meaning government closest to the people governs best . . . where we, through our civic organizations, through our churches, through our charities, through all of our different groups where we interact with people as a community, that&#8217;s how we advance the common good. <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">By not having big government crowd out civic society, but by having enough space in our communities so that we can interact with each other, and take care of people who are down and out in our communities<\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><em>Those principles are very, very important, and the preferential option for the poor, which is one of the primary tenants of Catholic social teaching, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">means don&#8217;t keep people poor, don&#8217;t make people dependent on government so that they stay stuck at their station in life<\/span>. <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Help people get out of poverty out onto a life of independence<\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Subsidiarity\u2014an awful but important word\u2014attempts to discover where the limits lie in the demands a state can make on its people. <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Identifying that limit was at the center of the Supreme Court&#8217;s mandate arguments.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">The first major use of subsidiarity as a basis for public policy was in Pope Leo XIII&#8217;s famous 1891 encyclical &#8220;Rerum Novarum&#8221; (though the word itself doesn&#8217;t appear). Leo was seeking a way to protect the dignity of human beings caught during those years in the tension between unfettered capitalism and unfettered government. &#8220;The State,&#8221; he wrote, &#8220;must not absorb the individual or the family.&#8221; Arguments over where the balance sits have raged since.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>The American left thinks this debate is settled<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> <span style=\"color: #008000;\">(You know&#8230;.like the &#8220;science&#8221; of anthropogenic global warming; more on that later!)<\/span> So, for example, any hint of Supreme Court dissent from settled doctrine justifies questions about its &#8220;legitimacy.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Paul Ryan insists the debate isn&#8217;t over and that its locus is the federal budget, which isn&#8217;t just numbers. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>The budget is the national government&#8217;s formal justification for the scale of the demands it makes now and unto eternity on the nation&#8217;s citizens.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>This is the debate Barack Obama hopes mockery and rhetorical carpet-bombing can kill before the fall campaign<\/em><\/span>. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">It&#8217;s only a guess, but I&#8217;m betting his opponent is looking forward to forcing the president to come up with a better argument for establishing a government in the U.S. that is subordinate to no one.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>If you truly can tell a lot about a man by his enemies, Paul Ryan is OUR kind of guy&#8230;.though we still believe Marco Rubio&#8217;s the ONLY choice as Romney&#8217;s running mate.\u00a0 Ryan can best serve the country and Conservatism by campaigning for Mitt&#8230;.and remaining in Congress.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Meanwhile, back at the ranch with the Man Who Would Be Leader of The Gang That Still Can&#8217;t Shoot Straight, Fred Barnes suggests&#8230;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">We Still Haven&#8217;t Seen Romney&#8217;s A-Game *<\/span><\/h1>\n<h2 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\">To defeat the president, he&#8217;ll have to perform at a higher level than he did in the primaries.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">* To which we reply, WSAHHN!!! (We Sure As Hell Hope Not!!!)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">With Rick Santorum&#8217;s exit, Mitt Romney&#8217;s path to the Republican presidential nomination is clear. But his road to the White House is hazy. To defeat President Obama and capture the presidency, Mr. Romney will have to make significant changes in his campaign.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">He&#8217;s already improved his campaign in important ways. <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>For a Republican, the usual strategy has been to run as a conservative in the primaries, then move toward the center in the general election. <span style=\"color: #800080;\">Mr. Romney has done the opposite, starting in the center before gradually latching on to conservative positions on taxes, spending, entitlements, social issues and foreign policy.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">He&#8217;s better off for having become specific. Sticking to generalities, as he once did, made him look evasive and shifty. <span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">And Mr. Romney no longer relies on his business background as his chief talking point.<\/span> <span style=\"color: #800080;\">His r\u00e9sum\u00e9 alone wasn&#8217;t enough to qualify him for the presidency.<\/span> <span style=\"color: #008000;\">(Unlike B. Hussein&#8217;s, which should have DISqualified him!)<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Now there&#8217;s no turning back. He&#8217;s embraced the election as a stark choice between right (him) and left (Barack Obama). <span style=\"color: #800080;\">After winning the Wisconsin primary last week, he said the president has &#8220;<em>spent the last four years laying the foundation for a new government-centered society<\/em>. <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">I will spend the next four years rebuilding the foundation of an opportunity society led by free people and free enterprises<\/span><\/em>.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><strong>His first task is to secure the Republican Party&#8217;s conservative base.<\/strong><\/span> Mr. Romney would be foolish to think that fear of Mr. Obama&#8217;s election to a second term is sufficient to galvanize conservative support for him. It won&#8217;t be.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Mr. Romney is the favorite of conservative elected officials, but he trailed Mr. Santorum, and occasionally Newt Gingrich, among conservative voters in the primaries.<\/span> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>He desperately needs the Republican grass roots<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span> They&#8217;re as important to him as the liberal Democratic base is to Mr. Obama. They&#8217;re the ground troops in any GOP presidential campaign.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;If he loses four, five, six percent of the conservative base, that&#8217;s the election,&#8221; says former Reagan White House official Gary Bauer. &#8220;We&#8217;ll lose Virginia, Missouri and North Carolina.&#8221; Mr. Bauer, like dozens of conservative and tea party leaders, has qualms about Mr. Romney.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Some of their misgivings were eased by Mr. Romney&#8217;s adoption of strong conservative positions. After initially issuing a bland 59-point economic plan, he proposed a 20% across-the-board cut in individual income tax rates. Mr. Romney also backed both the 2013 budget and the Medicare reform plan drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee and the GOP&#8217;s leading thinker on domestic policy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><strong>There are other ways to rally conservatives.<\/strong><\/span> One is to elicit Mr. Santorum&#8217;s endorsement as soon as possible.Promising to help reduce Mr. Santorum&#8217;s campaign debt would spur this process. Another is to persuade conservatives that he will run against Mr. Obama as aggressively as he has against his Republican rivals\u2014and especially not balk at attacking the president because of his supposed likabililty, or because of fear he&#8217;ll be accused of racism.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>The Republican convention in August offers three critical opportunities to woo conservatives: the platform, the choice of a vice presidential running mate, and the acceptance speech.<\/strong><\/span> &#8220;I see those as ways to attractively present your conservative ideas,&#8221; Mr. Bauer says.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #800080;\">Mr. Romney paid more attention to conservative leaders in 2008 than he has this year.<\/span> He has repeatedly been invited by, but has neglected to meet with, a group of former officials of the Reagan and both Bush administrations, conservatives all.<\/strong><\/span> He hasn&#8217;t accepted yet, but there&#8217;s still time.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">He&#8217;s been a more effective campaigner this year than in 2008, better even than in the early stage of this year&#8217;s primary campaign. But he hasn&#8217;t quite gotten over what an ally calls the &#8220;awkward guilty capitalist stuff.&#8221; <span style=\"color: #800080;\"><strong>His first tax plan provided nothing for the rich because, he said, they were doing fine. <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">The problem is that he was playing on Mr. Obama&#8217;s ideological turf.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">One way to deal with his affluence is to joke about it. Clearly, Mr. Romney is no Will Rogers. But he&#8217;s comfortable when he talks about his family&#8217;s rags to riches story, as he did in his victory speech after the Illinois primary in March. So more of that is called for.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">It&#8217;s an appealing story: His father, as he says, didn&#8217;t go to college and his grandfather &#8220;was a contractor and never quite made it but never gave up.&#8221; From their experiences Mr. Romney learned the &#8220;unique genius of the American free enterprise system.&#8221; &#8220;Later I helped start companies that began just as an idea and somehow made it through all the inevitable difficulties to create thousands of jobs,&#8221; Mr. Romney said. &#8220;Those jobs helped families buy their first homes, put kids through school, live better live, dream a little bigger.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #800080;\">A unified Republican campaign\u2014House, Senate, presidential candidate\u2014also would be an asset to Mr. Romney&#8217;s campaign.<\/span> Not another Contract for America or set of pledges but, as Mr. Ryan puts it, &#8220;everybody gets on the same page.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Mr. Ryan and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the Senate Republican liaison with the Romney campaign, are working with Mr. Romney and his aides on this. For Mr. Romney to win, they should be &#8220;talking about the same things with the same words at the same time,&#8221; Mr. Johnson says.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">On one issue\u2014immigration\u2014Mr. Romney would be wise to move away from his harsh position in the primaries. He can&#8217;t afford to lose the Hispanic vote as decisively as John McCain\u2014who won just 31% of it\u2014did in 2008. According to a Romney adviser, his private view of immigration isn&#8217;t as anti-immigrant as he often sounded. <span style=\"color: #800080;\"><strong>Emphasizing reform of the dysfunctional legal immigration system makes sense.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Mr. Ryan, who has spent considerable time with Mr. Romney, has three words of advice: &#8220;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Offense, offense, offense<\/em><\/span>.&#8221; <span style=\"color: #800080;\">If he&#8217;s not on offense, he&#8217;ll be on defense.<\/span> &#8220;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Don&#8217;t be afraid<\/em><\/span>,&#8221; Mr. Ryan says. <span style=\"color: #800080;\">&#8220;<em>Be confident. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Be on offense<\/span><\/em>.&#8221;<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>To defeat Mr. Obama on Nov. 6, Mr. Romney must perform at a higher level than he did in the primaries<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span> Presidential candidates\u2014Ronald Reagan in 1980 and Bill Clinton in 1992\u2014have done this before. <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>If Mr. Romney wants to take occupancy in the White House, he&#8217;ll have to do the same<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>With all due respect, we disagree with Fred on two points; first, based on his voting record as a U.S. Senator, Tea Partiers we know believe Rick Santorum to be about as conservative as Bush II.\u00a0 The only positions Santorum holds which are remotely Conservative are on abortion and gay marriage, neither of which has ever been the focus of the Tea Party.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Second, by referring to the issue of &#8220;immigration&#8221;, rather than &#8220;ILLEGAL immigration&#8221;, Barnes had ceded the subject to The Obamao just as certainly as he says Romney has the issue taxing &#8220;the rich&#8221;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>We can only hope Barnes is otherwise right&#8230;.and pray Romney changes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Turning to today&#8217;s Follow-Up segment, an interesting bit of truly tortured Liberal logic from Kevin Drum in <em>Mother Jones<\/em>, courtesy of Conn Carroll and the <em>Morning Examiner<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\">James O&#8217;Keefe Shows Everyone Just How Hard Voter Fraud Is<\/span><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"node-body-top\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I see that famous right-wing videographer\/editor James O&#8217;Keefe is back in the news. His latest obsession is voter fraud, and a few days ago he conducted one of his famous stunts. <span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>You see, Attorney General Eric Holder says (correctly) that actual voter fraud is all but nonexistent in America, so O&#8217;Keefe hired a white guy who looks nothing like Holder to walk into a polling place and cast a vote as Eric Holder. <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">See?<\/span> <em>It <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">is<\/span> possible to vote fraudulently<\/em>!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Alex Koppelman has more here, but he misses out on the biggest point of all: <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>O&#8217;Keefe&#8217;s video doesn&#8217;t show how easy it is to vote fraudulently. <span style=\"color: #993300;\">It shows how <em>hard<\/em> it is.<\/span><\/strong> <strong>You see, O&#8217;Keefe&#8217;s stunt double didn&#8217;t actually vote. <span style=\"color: #993300;\">Ben Shapiro, editor-at-large of Breitbart.com, explains why: &#8220;Obviously this wasn\u2019t an actual case of voter fraud\u2014O\u2019Keefe and Project Veritas didn\u2019t want to break the law.&#8221;<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/P5p70YbRiPw\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>Obviously. <span style=\"color: #993300;\"><em>And that&#8217;s the whole point<\/em>.<\/span> Nobody in his right mind deliberately casts an illegal ballot. <span style=\"color: #993300;\">You&#8217;re risking a felony rap over <em>one vote<\/em>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> Hell, O&#8217;Keefe&#8217;s guy wasn&#8217;t willing to risk it even though that was the whole point of the stunt, and even though, according to Shapiro, the odds of getting caught were &#8220;almost zero.&#8221; <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>That&#8217;s because O&#8217;Keefe&#8217;s stooge isn&#8217;t clinically insane, which is about what you&#8217;d have to be to take a chance like that for essentially no gain at all.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong>But wait! <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">How about the possibility of wide-scale fraud?<\/span> Risking prison to cast a single vote might not be worth it, but maybe the reanimated corpse of ACORN would be willing to pay thousands of people to vote fraudulently \u2014 enough to seriously influence an election. <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">But that&#8217;s just a fever dream too.<\/span> Does anyone seriously think that an enterprise like that could (a) work and (b) be kept secret? <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">With thousands of participants?<\/span> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Please<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZGELO2xoyCs\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">There&#8217;s no question that in-person voter fraud is <em>possible<\/em>. No one&#8217;s ever denied it.<span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong> The question is whether anyone ever actually does it. <span style=\"color: #993300;\">And on that score, <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>there&#8217;s voluminous evidence that virtually <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">no one ever does<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span> That&#8217;s because anyone crazy enough to do it is busy yelling at passersby about the approaching end of the world, not wandering into polling places to cast ballots in the name of Eric Holder.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>POSTSCRIPT:<\/strong> It&#8217;s worth adding that notwithstanding all this, O&#8217;Keefe&#8217;s video is <em>very effective<\/em>. He may be a hack, but he&#8217;s a pretty impressive one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>&#8220;No one ever does&#8221;&#8230;.except of course Dimocrats!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>And in Automotive News&#8230;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Study: Hybrid car owners unlikely to buy another<\/span><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/citruscar.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-5720\" title=\"citruscar\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/citruscar.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/citruscar.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/citruscar-300x218.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Hybrid cars have gained praise, derision and driven technological advancement since their introduction. Sales have surged on the back of higher gas prices, inspiring many automakers to focus on turning out gas-electric vehicles.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>But the one thing hybrid cars may not be able to inspire is loyalty. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>A recent study shows that nearly two-thirds of hybrid owners decide not to purchase another hybrid vehicle when it&#8217;s time to trade in<\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">R.L. Polk, an automotive marketing research company, released a study this week showing that only 35-percent of hybrid owners purchased another gas-electric vehicle when trading in during 2011. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Repurchase rates vary across hybrid models, with the highest percentage of hybrid loyalty going to the Toyota Prius.<\/span> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Removing that car from the model shows a repurchase rate under 25-percent<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Which brings us to the <span style=\"color: #008000;\">Environmental Moment<span style=\"color: #000000;\">, courtesy today of Jeff Foutch and Thomas Lifson writing at <em>American Thinker<\/em>, and further proof as to just how the &#8220;science&#8221; of anthropogenic global warming <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>actually<\/em><\/span> &#8220;settled&#8221;:<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">NASA rocked by global warming rebellion<\/span><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/polarbearschilling.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-5703\" title=\"polarbearschilling\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/polarbearschilling-300x182.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"182\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/polarbearschilling-300x182.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/polarbearschilling.jpg 555w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Fifty top astronauts, scientists and engineers at NASA have signed a letter asking the agency to cease its global warming buffoonery.<span style=\"color: #808000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em> The global warming emperor has no clothes, and people are finally saying so out loud and in public<\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Notrickzone brings us the entire letter, noting that the signers have a combined 1000 years of professional experience. Here it is:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><p><em>March 28, 2012<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.americanthinker.com\/blog\/assets\/300px-NASA_logo_svg.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"255\" \/><\/em><em><br \/>\n<em>The Honorable Charles Bolden, Jr.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>NASA Administrator<\/em><br \/>\n<em>NASA Headquarters<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Washington, D.C. 20546-0001<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Dear Charlie,<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>We, the undersigned, respectfully request that NASA and the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) refrain from including unproven remarks in public releases and websites. We believe the claims by NASA and GISS, that man-made carbon dioxide is having a catastrophic impact on global climate change are not substantiated, especially when considering thousands of years of empirical data. <span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>With hundreds of well-known climate scientists and tens of thousands of other scientists publicly declaring their disbelief in the catastrophic forecasts, coming particularly from the GISS leadership, it is clear that the science is NOT settled.<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808000;\"><strong><em>The unbridled advocacy of CO2 being the major cause of climate change is unbecoming of NASA&#8217;s history of making an objective assessment of all available scientific data prior to making decisions or public statements.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>As former NASA employees, we feel that NASA&#8217;s advocacy of an extreme position, prior to a thorough study of the possible overwhelming impact of natural climate drivers is inappropriate. We request that NASA refrain from including unproven and unsupported remarks in its future releases and websites on this subject. At risk is damage to the exemplary reputation of NASA, NASA&#8217;s current or former scientists and employees, and even the reputation of science itself.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>For additional information regarding the science behind our concern, we recommend that you contact Harrison Schmitt or Walter Cunningham, or others they can recommend to you.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Thank you for considering this request.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Sincerely,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>(Attached signatures)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>CC: Mr. John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator for Science<\/em><br \/>\n<em>CC: Ass Mr. Chris Scolese, Director, Goddard Space Flight Center<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Ref: Letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, dated 3-26-12, regarding a request for NASA to refrain from making unsubstantiated claims that human produced CO2 is having a catastrophic impact on climate change.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>1. \/s\/ Jack Barneburg, Jack &#8211; JSC, Space Shuttle Structures, Engineering Directorate, 34 years<br \/>\n2. \/s\/ Larry Bell &#8211; JSC, Mgr. Crew Systems Div., Engineering Directorate, 32 years<br \/>\n3. \/s\/ Dr. Donald Bogard &#8211; JSC, Principal Investigator, Science Directorate,\u00a0<strong>41 years<\/strong><br \/>\n4. \/s\/ Jerry C. Bostick &#8211; JSC, Principal Investigator, Science Directorate, 23 years<br \/>\n5. \/s\/ Dr. Phillip K. Chapman &#8211; JSC, Scientist &#8211; astronaut, 5 years<br \/>\n6. \/s\/ Michael F. Collins, JSC, Chief, Flight Design and Dynamics Division, MOD,\u00a0<strong>41 years<\/strong><br \/>\n7. \/s\/ Dr. Kenneth Cox &#8211; JSC, Chief Flight Dynamics Div., Engr. Directorate,\u00a0<strong>40 years<\/strong><br \/>\n8. \/s\/ Walter Cunningham &#8211; JSC, Astronaut, Apollo 7, 8 years<br \/>\n9. \/s\/ Dr. Donald M. Curry &#8211; JSC, Mgr. Shuttle Leading Edge, Thermal Protection Sys., Engr. Dir.,\u00a0<strong>44 years<\/strong><br \/>\n10. \/s\/ Leroy Day &#8211; Hdq. Deputy Director, Space Shuttle Program, 19 years<br \/>\n11. \/s\/ Dr. Henry P. Decell, Jr. &#8211; JSC, Chief, Theory &amp; Analysis Office, 5 years<br \/>\n12. \/s\/Charles F. Deiterich &#8211; JSC, Mgr., Flight Operations Integration, MOD, 30 years<br \/>\n13. \/s\/ Dr. Harold Doiron &#8211; JSC, Chairman, Shuttle Pogo Prevention Panel, 16 years<br \/>\n14. \/s\/ Charles Duke &#8211; JSC, Astronaut, Apollo 16, 10 years<br \/>\n15. \/s\/ Anita Gale<br \/>\n16. \/s\/ Grace Germany &#8211; JSC, Program Analyst, 35 years<br \/>\n17. \/s\/ Ed Gibson &#8211; JSC, Astronaut Skylab 4, 14 years<br \/>\n18. \/s\/ Richard Gordon &#8211; JSC, Astronaut, Gemini Xi, Apollo 12, 9 years<br \/>\n19. \/s\/ Gerald C. Griffin &#8211; JSC, Apollo Flight Director, and Director of Johnson Space Center, 22 years<br \/>\n20. \/s\/ Thomas M. Grubbs &#8211; JSC, Chief, Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Branch, 31 years<br \/>\n21. \/s\/ Thomas J. Harmon<br \/>\n22. \/s\/ David W. Heath &#8211; JSC, Reentry Specialist, MOD, 30 years<br \/>\n23. \/s\/ Miguel A. Hernandez, Jr. &#8211; JSC, Flight crew training and operations, 3 years<br \/>\n24. \/s\/ James R. Roundtree &#8211; JSC Branch Chief, 26 years<br \/>\n25. \/s\/ Enoch Jones &#8211; JSC, Mgr. SE&amp;I, Shuttle Program Office, 26 years<br \/>\n26. \/s\/ Dr. Joseph Kerwin &#8211; JSC, Astronaut, Skylab 2, Director of Space and Life Sciences, 22 years<br \/>\n27. \/s\/ Jack Knight &#8211; JSC, Chief, Advanced Operations and Development Division, MOD,\u00a0<strong>40 years<\/strong><br \/>\n28. \/s\/ Dr. Christopher C. Kraft &#8211; JSC, Apollo Flight Director and Director of Johnson Space Center, 24 years<br \/>\n29. \/s\/ Paul C. Kramer &#8211; JSC, Ass.t for Planning Aeroscience and Flight Mechanics Div., Egr. Dir., 34 years<br \/>\n30. \/s\/ Alex (Skip) Larsen<br \/>\n31. \/s\/ Dr. Lubert Leger &#8211; JSC, Ass&#8217;t. Chief Materials Division, Engr. Directorate, 30 years<br \/>\n32. \/s\/ Dr. Humbolt C. Mandell &#8211; JSC, Mgr. Shuttle Program Control and Advance Programs,\u00a0<strong>40 years<\/strong><br \/>\n33. \/s\/ Donald K. McCutchen &#8211; JSC, Project Engineer &#8211; Space Shuttle and ISS Program Offices, 33 years<br \/>\n34. \/s\/ Thomas L. (Tom) Moser &#8211; Hdq. Dep. Assoc. Admin. &amp; Director, Space Station Program, 28 years<br \/>\n35. \/s\/ Dr. George Mueller &#8211; Hdq., Assoc. Adm., Office of Space Flight, 6 years<br \/>\n36. \/s\/ Tom Ohesorge<br \/>\n37. \/s\/ James Peacock &#8211; JSC, Apollo and Shuttle Program Office, 21 years<br \/>\n38. \/s\/ Richard McFarland &#8211; JSC, Mgr. Motion Simulators, 28 years<br \/>\n39. \/s\/ Joseph E. Rogers &#8211; JSC, Chief, Structures and Dynamics Branch, Engr. Directorate,\u00a0<strong>40 years<\/strong><br \/>\n40. \/s\/ Bernard J. Rosenbaum &#8211; JSC, Chief Engineer, Propulsion and Power Division, Engr. Dir.,\u00a0<strong>48 years<\/strong><br \/>\n41. \/s\/ Dr. Harrison (Jack) Schmitt &#8211; JSC, Astronaut Apollo 17, 10 years<br \/>\n42. \/s\/ Gerard C. Shows &#8211; JSC, Asst. Manager, Quality Assurance, 30 years<br \/>\n43. \/s\/ Kenneth Suit &#8211; JSC, Ass&#8217;t Mgr., Systems Integration, Space Shuttle, 37 years<br \/>\n44. \/s\/ Robert F. Thompson &#8211; JSC, Program Manager, Space Shuttle,\u00a0<strong>44 years<\/strong><br \/>\n45. \/s\/ Frank Van Renesselaer &#8211; Hdq., Mgr. Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters, 15 years<br \/>\n46. \/s\/ Dr. James Visentine &#8211; JSC Materials Branch, Engineering Directorate, 30 years<br \/>\n47. \/s\/ Manfred (Dutch) von Ehrenfried &#8211; JSC, Flight Controller; Mercury, Gemini &amp; Apollo, MOD, 10 years<br \/>\n48. \/s\/ George Weisskopf &#8211; JSC, Avionics Systems Division, Engineering Dir.,\u00a0<strong>40 years<\/strong><br \/>\n49. \/s\/ Al Worden &#8211; JSC, Astronaut, Apollo 15, 9 years<br \/>\n50. \/s\/ Thomas (Tom) Wysmuller &#8211; JSC, Meteorologist, 5 years<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>The era of refusing to debate and insisting that &#8220;the science is settled&#8221; is over. <span style=\"color: #808000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Al Gore does not have the guts to debate Lord Monckton because he knows it is all a scam that has made him rich<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> <\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Nobel Peace Prize Committee which honored him will never revoke the prize it awarded him. <span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>But the game is up, the dam is broken. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><em>It may take years before the victory is acknowledged, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">but as the Bard reminds us, &#8220;The truth will out<\/span><\/em>.&#8221;<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>The &#8220;science&#8221; of anthropogenic global warming; it&#8217;s &#8220;settled&#8221; alright&#8230;.about as settled as the San Andreas Fault.\u00a0 Rumors all 50 signatories on the letter to NASA are on the payroll of Big Oil remain unconfirmed.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>On the Lighter Side&#8230;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/120411editgateRGB20120411081747.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"thingsrequiringIDs\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/thingsrequiringIDs.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"462\" height=\"350\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5704\" title=\"120411editgateRGB20120411081747\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/120411editgateRGB20120411081747.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"462\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/120411editgateRGB20120411081747.jpg 462w, https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/120411editgateRGB20120411081747-300x227.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/GM120411CLR-PanettaC20120411045145.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5705\" title=\"GM120411CLR-PanettaC20120411045145\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/GM120411CLR-PanettaC20120411045145.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"462\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/GM120411CLR-PanettaC20120411045145.jpg 462w, https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/GM120411CLR-PanettaC20120411045145-300x227.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/kn041112dAPR20120411124520.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5706\" title=\"kn041112dAPR20120411124520\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/kn041112dAPR20120411124520.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"462\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/kn041112dAPR20120411124520.jpg 462w, https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/kn041112dAPR20120411124520-300x227.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/ca041112dBP20120410104523.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5707\" title=\"cb041012dAPR20120410114543\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/cb041012dAPR20120410114543.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"462\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/cb041012dAPR20120410114543.jpg 462w, https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/cb041012dAPR20120410114543-300x227.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5693\" title=\"ca041112dBP20120410104523\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/ca041112dBP20120410104523.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"462\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/ca041112dBP20120410104523.jpg 462w, https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/ca041112dBP20120410104523-300x227.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/bg041112dAPC20120410124533.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5694\" title=\"bg041112dAPC20120410124533\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/bg041112dAPC20120410124533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"462\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/bg041112dAPC20120410124533.jpg 462w, https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/bg041112dAPC20120410124533-300x227.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/demotivational-posters-untitled6.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5695\" title=\"demotivational-posters-untitled6\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/demotivational-posters-untitled6.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"383\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/demotivational-posters-untitled6.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/demotivational-posters-untitled6-300x229.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Then there&#8217;s these two gems from our old friend Joe Flood:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/obamastealing.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5709\" title=\"obamastealing\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/obamastealing.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"462\" height=\"331\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/obamastealing.png 462w, https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/obamastealing-300x214.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/obamavacations.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5711\" title=\"obamavacations\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/obamavacations.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"462\" height=\"331\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/obamavacations.png 462w, https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/obamavacations-300x214.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Then there&#8217;s this from James Taranto&#8230;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">APples<\/span> and <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Oranges<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/apples-and-oranges1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5728\" title=\"apples-and-oranges1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/apples-and-oranges1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/apples-and-oranges1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/apples-and-oranges1.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>If you&#8217;re a Supreme Court justice&#8211;and you know who you are&#8211;there&#8217;s something the Associated Press would like you to consider before you make up your mind irrevocably about the ObamaCare cases.<\/strong><\/span> <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>&#8220;A possible misunderstanding about President Barack Obama&#8217;s health care overhaul could cloud Supreme Court deliberations on its fate, leaving the impression that the law&#8217;s insurance requirement is more onerous than it actually is,&#8221; claims the AP:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><p><em>During the recent oral arguments some of the justices and the lawyers appearing before them seemed to be under the impression that the law does not allow most consumers to buy low-cost, stripped-down insurance to satisfy its controversial coverage requirement.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><em>In fact, the law provides for a cheaper &#8220;bronze&#8221; plan that is broadly similar to today&#8217;s so-called catastrophic coverage policies for individuals, several insurance experts said.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>The AP and its so-called experts are trying to confuse rather than clarify matters<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span> <strong><span style=\"color: #008000;\">(The AP abandon impartiality in the service of the Dimocratic Party&#8230;.say it ain&#8217;t SO!)<\/span><\/strong> The government&#8217;s argument is that because &#8220;everybody is going to need&#8221; health care, the mandate that individuals buy insurance does not conscript people into commerce but merely &#8220;regulates&#8221; commerce in which they were going to engage anyway. This is dubious for several reasons, but here is the objection the AP now claims to be answering:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><p><em>&#8220;If I understand the law, the policies that you&#8217;re requiring people to purchase .\u00a0.\u00a0. must contain provision for maternity and newborn care, pediatric services and substance use treatment,&#8221; said Chief Justice John Roberts. <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>&#8220;It seems to me that you cannot say that everybody is going to need .\u00a0.\u00a0. substance use treatment or pediatric services, and yet that is part of what you require them to purchase.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">And here is the AP&#8217;s rebuttal:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><p><em><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>The law&#8217;s bronze plan isn&#8217;t exactly robust coverage.<\/strong><\/span> It would require policyholders to spend thousands of dollars of their own money before insurance kicks in. That&#8217;s how catastrophic coverage works now.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><p><em>It means anyone&#8211;particularly younger, healthy people&#8211;can satisfy the health care law&#8217;s insurance requirement without paying full freight for comprehensive coverage they may not need.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><p><em>On the surface, the minimum benefits requirement does seem to mandate comprehensive coverage. But another provision of the law works in the opposite direction, and the two have to be weighed together.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><p><em>This second provision allows insurance companies to sell policies that have widely different levels of annual deductibles and copayments. A &#8220;platinum&#8221; plan would cover 90 percent of expected health care expenses, but on the bottom tier a bronze plan only covers 60 percent. Employer plans now cover about 80 percent.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Do you see the problem here? <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">The AP is confusing a difference of <em>degree<\/em> (coverage at 60% vs. 80% or 90%) with a difference of <em>kind <\/em>(coverage of catastrophic vs. inessential services).<\/span> <span style=\"color: #008000;\">(Quite purposefully in our opinion.)<\/span> <em>Bronze-plan buyers would still have to purchase coverage for all the services the chief justice mentioned, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">it&#8217;s just that the policy is cheaper because the benefits are less<\/span><\/em>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong><em>The bronze catastrophic benefits are less, too, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">so that the ObamaCare policy would be a lousy deal for someone who needs catastrophic coverage but not all the mandatory bells and whistles<\/span><\/em>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>MSM bias&#8230;.WHAT bias?!?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Finally, in the &#8220;The Expert Equivalent of Voting &#8216;Present'&#8221; segment, courtesy today of <em>Best of the Web <\/em>and <em>CNN.com<\/em>, Harvard&#8217;s Alan Dershowitz really goes out on a limb:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><\/strong>&#8220;On the basis of the evidence currently in the public record, <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>one likely outcome of the case against George Zimmerman is a mixed one:<\/strong><\/span> <span style=\"color: #808000;\"><strong>There may be sufficient evidence for a reasonable prosecutor to indict him for manslaughter, but there may also be doubt sufficient for a reasonable jury to acquit him.<\/strong><\/span> <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong><em>Any such predictions should be accepted with an abundance of caution, however, because the evidence known to the special prosecutor, but not to the public, may paint a different picture<\/em>.<\/strong><\/span> <span style=\"color: #808000;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>It may be stronger or weaker<\/em><\/span>.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Hey, no guts, no glory!\u00a0 In other words, the &#8220;expert&#8221; doesn&#8217;t know any more than any random person on the street.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Magoo<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s Thursday, April 12th, 2012&#8230;.and here&#8217;s The Gouge! Zimmerman Charged with 2nd-degree Murder &nbsp; &#8220;Positive energy&#8221;? &#8220;Continue to pray&#8230;.for our prosecution team&#8221;?\u00a0 Seriously, is this a prosecution or a prayer meeting?!?\u00a0 And if the latter, where are the prayers for the accused and HIS family?\u00a0 As for Ms. Corey&#8217;s appearance, demeanor and less-than-breathless oratorical skills, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1988,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1988"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5692"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5733,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5692\/revisions\/5733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}