U.S. PLANS STEALTH SURVEY on access to doctors. The plans died almost within hours of becoming public, of course, but the plans themselves tell you one important fact about big government liberals: they don't trust the American people.

THE SHUTTLE ERA HAS ENDED. Does anyone care?

Some do. It may be the destination that captures the imagination, but it's the voyage that creates the progress.

MORE: Dream Chaser project hits milestones.

BACKING DOWN? Speaker John Boehner:

Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes. I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase.

Now is not the time to back away, Mr. Speaker. If we must risk default in order to get spending under control, then we must do it. Tax changes must wait for a later day.

"WITH THEIR HANDS in my pants, my physical health, my home, and even my toilet, I have never felt so uncomfortably close to my government."

No argument from me.

THE FIVE best sentences ever written:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealth out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them; and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Illustrated.

RAY STEVENS on the Obama Budget Plan.

MORE, PLEASE.



In Orleans, Cape Cod, MA, shoppers stocking up for the 4th of July got a surprise shot of patriotism to start their weekend! This flash mob was organized by the SpiritOfAmericaBand to wish everyone a happy 4th of July!

The video is here.

OBAMA: Have we evolved as a nation past the need for a competent president?

Obama ... was a community organizer — a made up job with less accountability than the guy who rips your movie ticket at the theater — and a mediocre legislator who just voted “yes,” “no,” and “present” on things. There was absolutely nothing in his resume that would lead a reasonable person to believe he would have any competency as a president. In that light, he can hardly be considered a disappointment.

Read the rest.

IS MEDICARE A GOOD DEAL? Uh, no.

THE OVEREMPLOYED and the mal-employed. Don't click on the last link in the article unless you have a very strong stomach (and I'd suggest not flying US Airways into or out of Phoenix).

WE DON'T ESTIMATE SPEECHES:


Elmendorf’s harsh tone may be due to a perceived White House end run around Washington’s official score keeper. If Obama is allowed to get away with his current un-scored budget claims, why should any White House submit a real budget to CBO in the future?

THE SUPREME COURT SAID NO, but trial lawyers won't give up on Wal-Mart lawsuits. Of course not; there's too much money to be made if they can find a compliant judge.

It's a pity Wal-Mart can't - or won't - sue the trial lawyers association for attempted intimidation.

MY PREFERENCE is for Joe Biden to seek a new Presidential running mate for 2012.

OBAMA THANKS TROOPS at White House party:

The president and his family -- wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia --greeted more than 1,200 guests from a White House balcony Monday evening.

Reminds me of the Wizard of Id.

MORE INDEPENDENCE DAY THOUGHTS. Follow the link.

A BRIEF HISTORY of the U.S. Federal Government and Innovation: From Independence to World War I (1787 – 1917). Key takeaways:

[T]he government can be most effective when it intervenes in areas where innovation is needed but the risk for any individual entrepreneur to invest in the research and development would be too great.

[U]nder proper conditions the results of this government investment can benefit society well beyond its original narrow goals.

Modern examples abound. The best is likely geosynchronous communications satellites, first proposed by Arthur C. Clarke in 1945. Earth observation satellites are a close second, and I suspect GPS and manned spaceflight will soon be fully commercialized now that the risk has been reduced and the economic benefits are established (being established for manned space).

A FOUNDING FATHERS' INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION.

THE FOLLY of soaking the rich. Read the comments too.

AN INDEPENDENCE DAY MESSAGE from Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli:

Dear Friends and Fellow Virginians,

235 Years ago our nation's founders issued a declaration of independence - formally severing the bonds between the thirteen American colonies and Great Britain.

So strong were our founders' convictions that they pledged their lives, fortunes and scared honor toward the shared goal of forming a nation premised on the ideals of life, liberty and property.

Independence Day gives us an especially good reason to remember these ideals upon which our nation was founded - and what makes the United States so great today.

For many in our country - the fight to preserve liberty seems like an antiquated concept. Over two centuries have passed, and yet the struggle to achieve the same ideals still continues today.

We are a great nation - but it is not by default that we remain that way. We must always be fighting for liberty and freedom - so that we remain free from tyranny.

We have troops on the ground fighting in multiple conflicts around the globe. These brave men and women fight to secure our freedoms and spread democracy around the globe. They keep us from harms way - May God bless all they do for our country.

So, as we celebrate this, our 235th year as an independent and free nation, let us do so keeping in mind all we still must do in defense of liberty.

Remember the words from a truly inspirational leader in the defense of liberty, President Ronald Reagan:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. -- Ronald Reagan

Sincerely,
Ken Cuccinelli, II
Attorney General of Virginia

Thank you for the reminder.

THEY TOLD ME if we elected Barack Obama, Independence Day would look like this.