Michelle Malikn: Battered Hedge Fund Managers’ Syndrome
My column today looks at the abusive relationship between Barack Obama and the hedge fund industry. He keeps taking their money. They keep getting publicly tongue-lashed. Looks like the cycle has ended. Last week, non-TARP lenders objected to the UAW-pandering Chrysler deal. This week, AQR Capital Management LLC hedge fund manager Cliff Asness — at considerable risk to himself and his business — issued a striking manifesto responding to the president’s self-serving demagoguery and flagrant disregard for the rule of law. more……
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Ed Morrissey: A couple of random thoughts on Sykes, NerdProm, and double standards
Comedians like Wanda Sykes are almost literally a dime a dozen. They like to make headlines by being outrageous, but otherwise have as little relevance to everyday life as Baywatch does to Shakespeare. She belongs in the same category as Janeane Garofalo, who apparently can’t gain attention any other way than to play the race card by yelling “White Power” on stage at conservatives. Neither that nor calling Rush Limbaugh the 20th hijacker is witty, funny, or incisive. It’s at the same level of intellect as babies playing with their soiled diapers, and about as meaningful. more……
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Thomas Sowell: A Dying Constitution
While Pres. Barack Obama has, in one sense, tipped his hand by saying that he wants judges with “empathy” for certain groups, he has in a more fundamental sense concealed the real goal — getting judges who will ratify an ever-expanding scope of federal-government power and an ever-declining restraint by the Constitution of the United States.
This is consistent with everything else that Obama has done in office and is consistent with his decades-long track record of alliances with people who reject the fundamentals of American society. more……
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Ruben Navarrette: Stalled On Immigration
SAN DIEGO — Democrats are in a tough spot on immigration reform. Actually, make that a number of tough spots.
For one thing, they’re caught between pandering to Latino constituents who want them to strike a deal that legalizes millions of illegal immigrants and catering to organized labor, which adamantly opposes the one element of reform Republicans say must be part of the deal: guest workers.
For another, now that Democrats control Congress and the White House, they’ve run out of excuses as to why they’re doing nothing more……
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Pam Meister: Benedict Arlen Learns That Traitors Never Prosper
While contemplating his move from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, Sen. Arlen Specter was promised not only that he would be allowed to keep his committee assignments, but that he would keep the same level of seniority as though he had been first elected as a Democrat back in 1980.
Sorry, Arlen. Only real Democrats get to be senior committee members.
Complaints by rank-and-file Democrats prompted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to go back on his word and Specter is now the most junior Democratic member of the five committees on which he serves more……
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Sen. Mitch McConnell: McConnell Says Supreme Court Justice Should Apply Laws, Not Make Them
“During the campaign, then-Senator Obama said his criteria for picking a judge were not legal brilliance or a judicious temperament, but “empathy” — empathy, that is, for particular parties or groups over others. And the president emphasized that point again last week.
“This idea of “empathy” sounds appealing at first. After all, judges — especially those on the Supreme Court — hold a lot of power. And they ought to take care to use their power wisely.
“But you can see the problem with this view if you ever find yourself in front of a court and you’re not arguing for the party or group for whom the judge is empathetic. Suppose you happen to have, objectively, a very good case under the law. What fairness can you expect if the judge was appointed based on the ability to “empathize” with the opposing party?
“And anyone who’s ever been unfairly judged understands why “empathy” should not trump the rule of law. more……
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Howie Carr: This is not your father’s welfare state
In Gov. Deval Patrick’s Massachusetts, if you’re on the dole, you may be eligible to get a free car. So much for the budget Armageddon they keep talking about at the State House.
Let the taxpayers worry about those billion-dollar deficits. If you’re on welfare, come on down!
Nice enough that the layabouts get a free car – plus the state picks up the tab for insurance, excise tax, title, registration, inspection, and approved repairs. The absolute frosting on the cake is a free AAA membership. more……
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-Cnation