The Press-Dispatch
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OPINION President Barack Obama is the ability to say things that are demonstrably false, and make them sound not only plausible but in- spiring. That talent was displayed just this week One of the highly developed talents of when he was asked whether he thought the Supreme Court would uphold ObamaCare as constitutional or strike it down as uncon- stitutional. He replied: "I'm confident that the Su- preme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of over- turning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Con- gress." But how unprecedented would it actually be if the Supreme Court declared a law un- A whispering campaign from President Theo- dore Roosevelt's famous saying "Speak softly and carry a big stick." Presi- dent Barack Obama's pol- icy apparently is to whis- per slyly and compromise our security. What else are we to We've come a long way By Ed Feulner conclude of his notorious open-mic moment with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev? Why would he think it's okay to send a message to President- elect Vladimir Putin that "all these issues, but par- ticularly missile defense . . . can be solved" if Putin will "give me space" until after the U.S. presidential election? In short, hang on, Rus- left two allies twisting in the wind. Both Poland and Czech Republic had ignored Russian threats and agreed to host mis- sile-defense sites that would have helped pro- tect U.S. territory and our European allies. Presi- dent Obama cancelled both sites shortly after taking office. But this, and New START, appar- ently aren't enough for the Kremlin. Hence the president's whispered hint that more is coming. Are these concessions On missile defense, we Wednesday, April 11, 2012 The Press-Dispatch Observations by Thomas Sowell Political word games constitutional if it was passed by "a strong ma- jority of a democratical- ly elected Congress"? The Supreme Court has been doing precise- ly that for 209 years! Nor is it likely that Barack Obama has C-2 never heard of it. He has a degree from the Harvard law school and taught constitu- tional law at the University of Chicago law school. In what must be one of the most fa- mous Supreme Court cases in history— Marbury v. Madison in 1803—Chief Jus- tice John Marshall established the princi- ple that the Supreme Court can declare acts of Congress null and void if these acts vio- Continued on page 3 Please pass the shrimp The no-spin zone—by Bill O'Reilly ministration, the federal agency that manages real estate for the govern- ment. Somehow Johnson managed to bye to Martha Johnson. This week, she was forced to re- sign as chief of the General Services Ad- Say good- cob Lew, says Obama "was outraged by the excessive spending." Oh, yeah? Has he seen the federal budget lately? This all ties in together. Federal bu- sia. I can't tell the elec- torate that I'm willing to weaken our defenses. Once those dopes have sent me back to the White House for another term, I'll have a free hand to give you what you want. As if we haven't already given away too much. Un- der the 2010 New START treaty, a strategic nucle- ar arms-control pact with Russia, the U.S. agreed to reduce its missile-de- fense capabilities, along with the number of stra- tegic nuclear missiles and bombers. Russia, howev- er, may build more such "delivery vehicles," since it reported fewer of these (521) than the treaty al- lows (700). New Start was really about degrad- ing America's strategic superiority. being made to an ally, someone who has dem- onstrated a willingness to work with the Unit- ed States to make the world a safer place? On the contrary. Putin has been openly disdainful of American foreign pol- icy in many of the world's trouble spots, from Syria to Asia to Latin America. And what does he get? Re- spect. Rewards. A genu- ine ally such as Britain, meanwhile, is treated poorly. The administra- tion has gone out of its way to assure Britain that it's nothing special, and even sided with some of its adversaries in mat- ters such as the dispute over the Falkland Islands. Think about the mes- spend an incredible $820,000 for a con- ference outside of Las Vegas. Among the expenditures she okayed: $31,000 for a "networking reception," $146,000 for catered food and drinks, as well as $130,000 in expenses to "scout" the conference's hotel location. Apparent- ly, Johnson's advance team had to trav- el to Vegas six times to get a handle on where best to discuss GSA business. Somebody had to do it. In her resignation letter, Johnson ac- knowledged "a significant misstep." Thanks. President Obama's chief of staff, Ja- reaucrats know that tax dollars roll in no matter what. It's the law. If you don't want to wind up in the peniten- tiary like Wesley Snipes, you pay what the feds tell you to pay. And Johnson gets a taste. After all, what's the big deal? The Obama administration is the biggest spending outfit in the history of the country. Why shouldn't federal em- ployees eat shrimp at $4 a piece at a cocktail party? If the rich guys would only pay their fair share in taxes, they could swallow even more shellfish. I love the shrimp deal. A quick And just in case the federal employees were hungry the next morning, break- fast was $44 per person. Egg McMuf- fins, anyone? In case you haven't noticed, Obama is fighting hard against cutting federal spending. He is now calling Congress- man Paul Ryan's austere budget pro- posal "Darwinism." Obama contends that if the feds don't continue to fund the money train, some folks will be de- nied the American Dream. Like eating $4 shrimp. But my dreams have turned to night- check with ShopRite confirms that one shrimp in that grocery chain sells for 30 cents. Peeled. But at the GSA bash, the shrimp was on a platter, so there's that. By the way, the cheese display at that party cost $19 per person, and the sushi station was another $7,000. mares with folks working for the fed- eral government purloining my wal- let and running wild in Vegas. This causes me to toss and turn because I have worked very hard for the mon- ey they are wasting. Yet the president still tells me that I am not paying my fair share. So, how about this trade-off, Mr. President? I'll stop whining about tax- es if you order all future federal "con- ferences" to be held at a ShopRite. Fair? fixated as of late on Sanford, Florida, where on February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black male, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a 27-year old Hispanic neighborhood watch warden. It is doubtful that the pub- The nation's conscious is sage this sends to the world: that it's better to be America's enemy than to be its friend. That bel- ligerence pays off. That cooperation is a fool's game. Continued on page 3 lic knows enough about the Martin shooting to make an impartial judgment. None- theless, the Mainstream Me- dia has hopped on the band- wagon to milk this situation for all it is worth. The MSM implies that there was a rush to judgment by the white es- tablishment to conclude that this was a justifiable shoot- ing of a black male. More evidence on racism is that the prosecutor has re- fused at this point to arrest Points to ponder—by Rev. Ford Bond Summer of Hate? Zimmerman citing a lack of clear evidence that his ac- tions were with malice. However, the fires of retri- other "typical" white shoot- ing of a black. Pure racism! The issue remains. Why bution have been stoked by extremists, and this could be a repeat summer of 1967. The New Black Panthers are demanding vigilante justice; Zimmerman is to be arrest- ed, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to prison. The New Black Panther Par- ty has offered a bounty on Zimmerman dead or alive. Al Sharpton is calling on his supporters to intensify their demands (whatever that means). Race relations are deteri- orating. The black commu- nity from the President on down is demanding justice, which prejudices the case against Zimmerman and paints this situation as an- Why not junk the Nobel peace prize? A woman's perspective—by Mona Charen was awarded to Barack Obama, many, myself included, felt that the Norwe- gian committee had so embarrassed itself as to devalue the prize perma- nently. A Dallas service station sign, at the time, captured the sentiment pre- cisely: "Free Nobel Peace Prize with Oil Change." Jay Nordlinger's masterful new When the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize dissents from the skepti- cal view of the 2009 prize or many others. But in his careful review of ev- ery prize and every recip- ient since 1901, he builds a case that the capacity of the prize to do good out- weighs its mischief. The mischief, without book "Peace, They Say" has changed my mind. Not that Nordlinger doubt, is infuriating. Nor- dlinger is pungent about the politicized prizes. The Norwegian Nobel commit- tee, he notes, has used the prize re- peatedly over the past decade to signal its contempt for one man—George W. Bush. In fact, as Nordlinger writes, the award to Obama "could be construed as the fifth anti-Bush Nobel." The first, in 2001, while New York of the line the current administration has taken. It's a kick in the leg to all who follow the same line as the Unit- ed States." Nordlinger's review of Jim- my Carter's post-presidential antics is only for those with strong stomachs. I had forgotten, for example, Carter's gushings about North Korea and the "reverence with which they look upon their leader." In 2005, the Nobel laureate was Mo- hamed ElBaradei and the Inter- national Atomic Energy Agen- cy. Why ElBaradei? He was known for whitewashing Iraq's pursuit of weapons of mass de- struction, for condemning Isra- el and the United States every day before his morning coffee, and for denying and excusing Iran's push for nuclear weap- ons. Fear of Iranian nukes, he said, had been "hyped." Next, the Nobel Peace Prize went to Al Gore and the U.N. (there it is again) Intergovernmental Panel on Cli- mate Change. And finally, to President Obama, who had only been in office a matter of weeks before being so hon- ored. The prize seemed to say: "Thank you for not being Bush." So how can you resist the urge to was still smoldering after the al-Qa- ida attacks, had gone to the United Nations and Kofi Annan. (The peace prize has been granted to the U.N. re- peatedly.) The message seemed to be: "the U.N. must have supremacy in any fight against Islamic terrorism." The second anti-Bush prize went to Jimmy Carter in 2002. Leaving no doubt, the chairman of the commit- tee explained that the Carter award "should be interpreted as a criticism Poland, and for the defeat of commu- nism. "The Nobel prize blew a strong wind into our sail. Without that prize, it would have been very difficult to con- tinue struggling." The Nobel Committee honored a German prisoner of conscience in 1936, Carl von Ossietsky, when mak- ing such an award was not without risk. The Swedes were vexed with the Nor- wegians for an act they regarded as needlessly provocative towards Nazi Germany. The Germans were so an- gry that they forbade Germans from accepting any future Nobel prizes, in- cluding those for science and litera- ture. It was a response that would be copied by other totalitarian states. The Soviets created the Lenin Prize to com- pete with the Nobel, and the Chinese initiated the Confucius Prize after Liu Xiaobo was honored. "Peace, They Say" introduces a fas- dismiss the whole enterprise as the squawks of leftist harpies? A few names suggest the answer: Andrei Sakharov, Liu Xiaobo, Lech Walesa, Norman Borlaug, Aung San Suu Kyi. And there were others. The Nobel Peace Prize has the capacity to make an instant worldwide celebrity. No oth- er recognition carries so much pres- tige—and that prestige can make a ma- terial difference. Lech Walesa said the prize changed everything for him, for cinating gallery of heroes, fools and dreamers. Every prize includes a sto- ry. Some are uplifting, some are gall- ing, and others are poignant. Henry Kissinger, whose shared prize with Le Duc Tho was among the most con- troversial in the history of the honor, told Elie Wiesel on the occasion of the latter's 1986 prize: "I was not proud of my Nobel, but I am of yours." Nordlinger is an engaging and wise tour guide, offering reflections along the way on the nature of peace and its maintenance, the folly of moral equiva- lence, and the pitfalls of disarmament. No one is better versed in the zeitgeist that produced so many groan-inducing prizes—and yet Nordlinger makes a persuasive case that, on balance, the Nobel Peace Prize is a worthwhile in- stitution. do we need a discussion or dialog on race relations? Are not both sides peace loving and want to coexist? Why can't "white folk" come to the table and talk about the issue? President Obama and At- torney General Eric Hold- er called upon all Americans three years ago to bring race into the forefront of discussion. But President Obama remarked that if he had a son that he would look like the Trayvon Martin. Martin's picture circulat- ed by the MSM shows him wearing a "hood- ie," a type of apparel gangs' use and is common apparel for armed robberies. But can whites get heard? held at the Washington Hil- ton Hotel or in the Rose Gar- den over a couple of beers. It is being held in the local coffee shops, break rooms, and taverns. What you may have missed is that the Me- dia has reported how whites are reacting; they are buy- ing more ammo. The question not being asked nor answered is this. "Why do whites and blacks mis- trust one anoth- er?" The fact is that segregation is long dead, and affirmative ac- tion was to have brought the black community up from its inferior position caused by discrimina- tion. But just the Any attempt to suggest Black people need to take responsibility for their ac- tions (as a group) usually re- sults in cries of racism from the New Blank Panthers, Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, the NAACP, and the race baiter Al Sharpton. How can you discuss race re- lations when any attempt by whites to air their grievanc- es is shouted down? Whites become crackers, bigots, segregationists, Ku Klux Klaners, and the like. The nation is having a discussion about race re- lations, but it is not being MR. AND MRS. FRANK HEURING, PUBLISHERS ANDREW G. HEURING, EDITOR JOHN B. HEURING, ADVERTISING MANAGER The Press- Dispatch Wednesday, April 11, 2012 Entered at the Post Office in Petersburg, Indiana for trans- mission through the mails as Periodical Mail, Postage paid at Petersburg, Indiana. Published weekly. will please give old address as well as new one along with phone number. We cannot guarantee prompt change unless this is done. Postmaster: send changes to Post Office Box 68, Petersburg, Indiana 47567-0068. P.O. BOX 68, PETERSBURG, INDIANA 47567 E-mail—news@pressdispatch.net (604-340) Phone 354-8500 • FAX—354-2014 Pike and Surrounding Cos. ......$ 10.00 $15.00 $25.00 $45.00 Elsewhere in Indiana ................ 14.00 Outside Indiana ............................18.00 19.00 28.00 27.00 43.00 SUBSCRIPTION RATES 3 mos. 6 mos. 1 year 2 years 49.00 75.00 Change of Address—Subscribers changing addresses opposite has happened. America is even more seg- regated than it was 50 years ago. It has not been accom- plished by law, but by in- come and residence. Why? In a rare moment of clari- ty, Jesse Jackson mentioned what the real issue at hand is black on black crime. Whites feel it is disingen- uous for the MSM to paint any shooting of a black by a white as a sign of racism; while at the same time not reporting black on white crime and more reprehen- sively, black on black crime. Sadly, it is the Jesse Jack- sons and Al Sharptons of the world that hamper the Black community in its attempt to address its problems of fam- Continued on page 3