Iran’s Foreign Ministry appears to be backing President Barack Obama’s pick of former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., as secretary of defense. Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in an interview Tuesday that he hopes the Hagel nomination will improve relations between the United States and Tehran. “We hope there will be practical changes in American foreign policy and that Washington becomes respectful of the rights of nations,” Mehmanparast said, according to Reuters.

This sure doesn’t make the chief feel any better about this particular nomination. I didn’t care for Hegel then, and I still don’t care for him.

President Obama, employing his strongest language to date on the Supreme Court review of the federal health care overhaul, cautioned the court Monday against overturning the law — while repeatedly saying he’s “confident” it will be upheld….The president, adopting what he described as the language of conservatives who fret about judicial activism, questioned how an “unelected group of people” could overturn a law approved by Congress

The Supreme Court is merely “an unelected group of people”?! Well, yes, that’s the way the Constitution sets it up, the last time I looked. Article II Section 2, and Article III section 1. Of course if one has the view that anything that limits the grandiose sweep of executive power is a mere archaism that should be ignored at will, then this WOULD be annoying. (Tough rocks, B.O. – you’re not First General Party Secretary, or Reichsfuhrer…at least not yet!)

AS for the bit about “judicial activism”…there is also a fundamental error in that also.  “Judicial activism” is extending the Constitution to say or do something that is beyond the bounds of what is Constitutionally stated as being a part of the powers granted to the government.  It is NOT, as in the present case, applying the standard of the Constitution to determine whether an act at issue is constitutionally granted.  As the prez goes on with his pseudo-reasoning he then states:

“I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress,” Obama said.

At BEST this is wildly disingenuous; at worst he’s totally immersed in some form of governmental psychosis where his view of the reality of constitutional review, established in the early days of the republic by Justice John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison 5 US 137 (1803). Laws have been overturned on average of about every 16 months or so since then…not QUITE unprecedented OR extraordinary.

…and Obama claims to have been a constitutional scholar? Really?

If he came up with today’s comment as a submission in a H.S. history or government class that I was teaching, it would earn an “F” grade, for having missed the whole main point that applies in this situation.

Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, who was a key supporter of Obama in 2008, told WOR710 today that he could not vote for President Obama’s re-election unless the president cuts ties with the controversial anti-Israel group Media Matters. He also warned that Obama’s association with Media Matters – which was raised by the Daily Caller in an investigative series this week – will lose him support in the pro-Israel community:…

He went on to state unequivocally that he could not and would not ever vote for anyone associated with Media Matters (like Obama) who did not clearly and fully repudiate said organization and its running-mates.

Dr. Dershowitz must have gotten a really good cup of reality…but then, as a strong supporter of the existence of Israel, Samuel Johnson’s observation about the prospect of immanent hanging having a tremendous effect in focusing one’s mine. In any case, welcome him to the daylight!

Obama on Solyndra: ‘People felt that it was a good bet’

In his first public comment on the solar-energy scandal, President Obama said Monday he doesn’t regret promoting the solar company Solyndra as a model before the company went bankrupt and lost $535 million in taxpayer dollars.

“Hindsight is always 20/20,” Mr. Obama told “Good Morning America” anchor George Stephanopoulos in an online interview. “It went through the regular review process and people felt that it was a good bet.”

A god bet? Apparently the administration can’t tell the difference between gambling and a business plan. Of course this itself is consistent with attribution of the acquisition of wealth to “being fortunate” rather than bing the result of the exercise of entrepreneurial skill in some way.

Vice President Joe Biden appears to temporarily lose his mind during President Obama’s jobs speech on 9-8-11. This is not an altered photo, but a well-timed freeze-frame from a video recording made by Russ Allison Loar.

“Every picture tells a story, don’t it?”

Maybe we WILL have lots more dollars if we keep the presses rolling, just like the Germans had lots more Reichsbank Marks in the twenties:

50,000,000 Mark note, Sept. 1923, which was already only small change:
1st November 1923 1 pound of bread cost 3 billion, 1 pound of meat 36 billion, 1 glass of beer: 4 billion.”

Mandatory Spending to Exceed all Federal Revenues — 50 Years Ahead of Schedule

…if national defense, interstate highways, national parks, homeland security, and all other discretionary programs somehow became absolutely free, we’d still have a budget deficit. The White House Office of Management and Budget projects that in the current fiscal year (2011), mandatory spending alone will exceed all federal receipts. So even if we didn’t spend a single cent on discretionary programs, we still wouldn’t be able to balance our budget this year — let alone pay off any of the $14 trillion in debt that we have already accumulated.

And the administration and the Congressional Democrats Donkey Congs cry about attempting to cut a measley $61B out of a trillion+ package, for a whopping 4% (or less) cut? Give me a break!

In spite of Saul Alinsky proteges being given healthy doses of Federal funds for their “Community Action Organizations”, the expected miraculous transformation of ghetto conditions failed to materialize….People didn’t hang around to enjoy and develop their ghetto neighborhoods: they beat feet out of there as soon as they possibly could escape to better areas. So much for social engineering!

It’s interesting to note some of the Chicago problems detailed by Lemann are currently being showcased in The Chicago Code, a new Fox cop show set in Chicago.

All of this taken together with the current and continuing exchange of ideas and people between the administration and Chicago (most recently with B.O.’s former Chief of Staff moving into the office in Chicago City Hall formerly occupied by Mayor Daley), brings to mind an interesting set of coincidences to consider.

Overall, it ain’t a pretty picture, but the scene reinforces the recent description of the administrative status-quo:

Bachmann Stands by ‘Gangster Government’ Description

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) refused Sunday to retreat from her characterization of the Obama administration as a “gangster government.”

The House Tea Party Caucus founder said, “I don’t take back my statement on gangster government,” a phrase she used at a tea party gathering in April. “I think that there have been actions that have been taken by this government that I think are corrupt,” she said during her appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The Chief concurs.

B. Hussein Obama’s Interior Department is pursuing policies that are greatly benefiting mid-east oil suppliers, and that will conincidently and inevitably result in continuting increasees in the prices that will be paid by Americans for any and all poil-based commodities, starting with gasoline, and including all plastics, synthetic fibers, and most chemical and pharmaceutical feed stocks. But hey, it’s for your own good…and too bad if you’re too stupid to appreciate the favor. (F— you if you can’t take a joke!)

The Obama administration late Friday appealed a judge’s orders directing the Interior Department to act on several Gulf of Mexico deepwater drilling permits.

The appeal is the latest salvo in the ongoing fight over the speed with which Interior is – or isn’t – letting oil drillers get back to work after last year’s BP oil spill.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had hinted the appeal was coming at a Senate hearing Wednesday. “The judge in this particular case in my view is wrong,” Salazar said. “And we will argue the case because I don’t believe that the court has the jurisdiction to basically tell the Department of Interior what my administrative responsibilities are.”

He added, “the policy we have in mind is unmistakingly [sic] clear: We are moving forward with the development of oil and gas” production.”

BS! Total BS!

Can you say “poor situational awareness”?

“It’s 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep,” it began. “But there’s a phone in the White House and it’s ringing. Something’s happening in the world.

“Your vote will decide who answers that call. Whether it’s someone who already knows the world’s leaders, knows the military, someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world . . . Who do you want answering the phone?”

Now we know the answer: neither of the above.

Unfortunately, the current administration is proving to be as incompetent in the Middle East as was that of Jimmy “Peanut” Carter. It’s hard to decide which was worse…Carter had that ultimate example of fecklessness that was the Iran hostage crisis, but on the positive side, he DID deserve some propers for the Camp David Accords. B.O. on the other hand has not YET had a disaster on the scale of the hostages, but then too, he hasn’t accomplished anything worth while, either.

One can only hope that as the Egyptian situation settles out that the Muslim Brotherhood doesn’t get power and cancel the treaty that resulted from the Camp David meetings.

No negative result of B.O.’s foreign policy activities would be too much of a surprise at this point.

New rules would cut thousands of coal jobs

The Obama administration’s own experts estimate their proposal for protecting streams from coal mining would eliminate thousands of jobs and slash production across much of the country, according to a government document obtained by the Associated Press.

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement document says the agency’s preferred rules would impose standards for water quality and restrictions on mining methods that would affect the quality or quantity of streams near coal mines. The rules are supposed to replace George W. Bush-era regulations that set up buffer zones around streams and were aimed chiefly at mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia….

OSM’s proposal — part of a draft environmental impact statement — would affect coal mines from Louisiana to Alaska.

The office, a branch of the Interior Department, estimated that the protections would trim coal production to the point that an estimated 7,000 of the nation’s 80,600 coal-mining jobs would be lost. Production would decrease or stay flat in 22 states…

To add a bit of additional perspective, half of the US supply of electricity is coal based. Sort of hard to recharge the new Chevy Volt autos if there’s less electricity available! Regulators working at cross-purposes? According to the lib-progs isn’t government supposed to be MORE efficient at management? Never mind….if we’re rational, we already know the answer to THAT…and “it ain’t that pretty at all”…but I digress.

The National Mining Association blasted the proposal, saying OSM is vastly underestimating the economic impact.

“OSM’s preferred alternative will destroy tens of thousands of coal-related jobs across the country from Appalachia to Alaska and Illinois to Texas with no demonstrated benefit to the environment,” the trade group said. “OSM’s own analysis provides a very conservative estimate of jobs that will be eliminated, incomes that will be lost and state revenues that will be foregone at both surface and underground coal mining operations.”

OK, you know the envirowackos say that’s just the big corporations trying to defend their turf…the impact won’t REALLY be that bad, would it? But wait, the states aren’t too thrilled with D.O.I./OSM either:

They blasted the proposal as “nonsensical and difficult to follow” in a Nov. 26 letter to OSM Director Joe Pizarchik. The letter was signed by officials from Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

“Neither the environmental impact statement nor the administrative record that OSM has developed over 30-plus years of regulation … justify the sweeping changes that they’re proposing to make,” West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection official Thomas Clarke told AP on Wednesday.

As your electric rates continue to increase, due to the inexorable operation of supply (decreasing) and demand (increasing), give thanks to the administration for it’s energy and employment reduction plans.