Thursday’s broadcast of “The View,” featuring President Barack Obama, qualified as the series’ most-watched broadcast ever in Total Viewers (6.59 million), exceeding its previous peak delivery achieved the day after the 2008 Presidential Election (6.17 million, 11/05/08).

Palin/Obama, can't wait for that awesome trainwreck.

I'll sleep better knowing that.

I think there are definitely elements of a structural shift here. But once consumer demand picks up, marginal costs and revenues will be recalculated and we'll go back to a much lower full employment figure.

I think there's something to be said for the complaint that Obama has never separated from campaign mode and engaged governance mode. His disposition toward Fox is evidence of that.

And so it begins..

In the first substantive legal ruling on President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, a federal judge has rejected the Justice Department’s request to dismiss a lawsuit from Virginia’s state government challenging the reform’s requirement that individuals purchase health insurance.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson ruled that enough legal issues were in dispute in the case to allow the suit, brought by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, to go forward. At issue is whether the insurance mandate included in the reform exceeds the federal government’s authority under the Constitution — in particular, whether Congress’s ability to regulate commerce allows the federal government to penalize those who decline to buy or obtain health insurance.

The lawsuit is also based in part on a law passed in that state in March seeking to bar the federal government from imposing any mandate to purchase health insurance.

“Unquestionably, this regulation radically changes the landscape of health insurance coverage in America,” Hudson wrote in a 32-page decision filed Monday morning. “Never before has the Commerce Clause … been extended this far.”

Hudson said there was no clear legal precedent allowing the federal government to impose such a rule, even under Congress’s power to require individuals to pay taxes. However, he also conceded there was no clear precedent to the contrary.

“Neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor any circuit court of appeals has squarely addressed this issue,” Hudson wrote. “No reported case from any federal appellate court has extended the Commerce Clause or the Tax Clause to include the regulation of a person’s decision not to purchase a product, notwithstanding its effect on interstate commerce.”

The Justice Department has argued that an individual’s decision not to buy insurance inevitably affects commerce because all individuals seek health care services at some point in their lives and many who lack insurance end up burdening others who do have policies.

While the decision is a legal setback for the Obama administration, Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler stressed that the judge’s decision doesn’t foreclose the federal government’s arguments.

"Today's ruling is merely a procedural decision by the court to allow this case to move forward,” Schmaler said. “We believe there is clear and well-established legal precedent that Congress acted within its constitutional authority in passing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. We are confident that the health care reform statute is constitutional and that we will ultimately prevail.”

"No one here expected to win this one," said a White House aide, who asked not to be named.

Cuccinelli praised the ruling as a step forward in the effort to restrain federal authority over states and individuals.

“This lawsuit is not about health care, it’s about our freedom and about standing up and calling on the federal government to follow the ultimate law of the land – the Constitution,” Cuccinelli said in a statement. “The government cannot draft an unwilling citizen into commerce just so it can regulate him under the Commerce Clause.”
Full Article

The Supreme Court as it is currently composed may well affirm this.

Scalia, Thomas, and Alito most definitely.
Roberts I'm not so sure about and Kennedy could go either way. It will be interesting to see the arguments assuming this actually makes to the SC.

Roberts hates the 14th Amendment. Kennedy may be the deciding vote.

I don't have a problem with requiring the purchase of health insurance, but wouldn't be surprised it makes it to the SC. AND, like DT says the SC, as it is now, could go with the conservatives. I'm learning not to let anything surprise me.

Btw, Happy 49th BHO!!!!!!


TIS

Why do 1 in 5 Americans think President Obama is a Muslim?

By Peter Grier, Staff writer / August 19, 2010

Washington

Wow – a substantial and growing number of Americans believe President Obama is Muslim. That’s what a new Pew Research Center poll says, anyway.

A Pew Research Center poll suggests that 18 percent of Americans think Obama is a Muslim. (He's not.) The poll also offers reasons – some curious – as to why people were misinformed.

Fully 18 percent of respondents to the Pew survey picked “Muslim” when asked Obama’s religion, up from 11 percent who answered that way in March 2009.

Where are Americans getting their information about Obama’s religion? We ask that because, on this subject, a substantial and growing number of them are wrong. (Obama is Christian. We’ll say that up front, in case some of you are hazy on this point yourselves.)

Pew asked about that, as well. Of those who believe Obama to be Muslim, 60 percent said they learned that from the media. As to which media, 16 percent said TV, 6 percent said newspapers, and 3 percent said magazines.

One percent said they learned about Obama being Islamic from his book. Those people must have been skimming. No one mentioned the “Vote” blog. We don’t know whether to be proud or insulted.

Interestingly, 10 percent of those with this mistaken impression said that they learned about Obama’s religion from his own behaviors or his own words. The poll was taken prior to Obama’s statements supporting construction of a mosque near the World Trade Center site.

But remember, 82 percent of respondents here correctly knew that Obama is not a Muslim, so it is possible to make too much of this. Plus, the Pew survey report is 38 pages long, and the Muslim question takes up only a small part of it. Reading the poll through, two far more consequential points emerge:

Is Obama a religious cipher?
Asked Obama’s religion, 34 percent rightly said he was Christian, but a plurality of 43 percent said they did not know. That’s a jump of nine percent since March 2009.

If Americans increasingly are uncertain about the religious nature of Obama’s life, it may be because he does not mention it or make it as central a part of his political activities as did his immediate predecessors. And that could be a problem, because US voters generally like their politicians to be overtly religious.

For instance, this same Pew poll shows that 61 percent of Americans think it is important for members of Congress to have strong religious beliefs.

Is increased uncertainty about Obama’s faith a factor contributing to his overall slide in the polls? It’s possible. Though, to be fair, the Pew poll also asked respondents whether Obama himself mentioned his religious faith too much, too little, or about the right amount, and 53 percent picked “right amount.”

"The president is obviously – he's Christian. He prays every day. He communicates with his religious adviser every single day," White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton told reporters Thursday. "There's a group of pastors that he takes counsel from on a regular basis. His faith is very important to him, but it's not something that's a topic of conversation every single day."

Republicans and religion
It’s no surprise that according to Pew results 69 percent of self-identified white evangelical Protestants said they were Republicans. Large majorities of evangelicals have voted GOP for years.

But Pew also found that a plurality of mainstream Protestants, 49 percent, now say they are Republicans. (Forty-one percent said they were Democrats.) That’s a GOP gain of four percentage points since the last presidential election.

Fully 50 of non-Hispanic Catholics now say they identify with Republicans, up from 41 percent two years ago. The GOP is even making gains among Jewish voters, who have long been reliably Democratic. One-third of those who said they were Jewish also said they were Republicans, up from 20 percent in 2008.

Hussein is definitely a Muslim name. No two ways about that.

Yeah, I guess. But what alarms me is that this could actually become a campaign issue in 2012.

Now Frank, I realize you're a conservtive and all, but you're obviously a bright guy. Would you really want the man's religion to come into play in the 2012 election?

It's an issue pb, but I'm not presumptious enough to assign a positive/negative value judgement to it. And I hope the Repulicans do NOT choose make it an issue in what would be an obvious attempt to sully the man's name and heritage.

i love the fact people don't know the first amendment with freedom of speech, press, peace full protest, petition, and of course religion. i really don't care what religion he believes in as long as its not satanism.

it always pisses me off that everybody in the united states are taking shots at muslims because of a group of people that are terrorist. why does this country always have a problem with others.

What in the world is a muslim name? Oh, I know. Prior to the 6th century, noone had the name Hussein. That's just like Jesus. Prior to the emergence of christianity, noone had the name Jesus. Oh! And prior to the emergence of Judaism, noone had the name Benjamin.

From what I understand the name Hussein is a diminuitive of Husayn from old Arabic which comes from Hussan from even older Arabic. It is one of the most common Arabic names given to Muslim males in honor of Husayn ibn Ali (626-680 AD).

Because 1 in 5 Americans are total morons????

Those who accuse the President of deception regarding his Christian faith are just looking for political fodder. But there are a lot of folks who don't follow this stuff as closely as some of us who naturally presupposed he was a Muslim based on his father's Islamic heritage, probably not knowing the President had addressed the issue more than once. Personally, I had no idea that he clarified his Christian faith because the issue doesn't hold any relevance in my mind. But then again, now-days people just seem to want to argue about anything.

Try this link:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/photos/ovaloffice.asp

Lets call it what it really is. RACISM. BEcause the bigots and crazies cannot say out loud that they do not accept an African American president, they find ways to make his presidency illegitmate (he wasn't born in the U.S.) or tainted (he's a Muslim). The latter lie disregards the Constitution which says there is no religious test to hold office.

Bingo, Counselor! It's a way to point out President Obama's "blackness," as it were.

Prior to 9/11 and the phrase "Radical Islam" becoming popular, many white Americans associated Islam with the Black Power movements of the '60s and '70s: Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, The Black Panthers (not that the Panthers were exclusively, or even predominantly Muslim), et al. They used words like "militant" and "uppity" in describing them. By branding President Obama a "Muslim," they kill two birds with one stone, by connecting him to both the bad old days of the '60s riots, and the current horrors of two wars that are no closer to ending today than they were nine years ago.

Excellent analayis PB.

I get lucky sometimes, Oli .

Well, I can see how someone wouldn't think a black Muslim is going to have a natural disposition to serve the needs of white middle America. We need a president who's going to serve the needs of ALL Americans and I don't feel that's what we're getting from this President. I feel like he wants to take money away from hardworking selfmade Americans and give it those without. Slicing off a large piece of your fortune to give to the poor might not be a lot for these Ivory tower lefy elitists, but for the self made start-up hard working honest people of agriculture or manufacturing industries and small business owners of the middle class--the 'salt of the earth' people--it is a lot to give up a quarter, half, of what they have to those who can't seem to get anything for themselves.

Would you also see how someone wouldn't think a white Christian President would have a natural disposition to serve the needs of non white middle America?

There's no comeback to that one .

I think that's what they call a conundrum.

That's why I said we need a President to serve needs of ALL Americans. And I hoped Mr. Obama would be that guy, but for the reasons I stated above I don't feel he's doing that. Of course, the nature of politics is to vote your own paisano in and that may never change.

But really, I was just making the point that those who use the President's heritage as an issue are doing so for political reasons and are not necessarily inspired by racial hate as was alluded to above.

Now FN, given that our Nation is a pluralistic one in which individuals and groups compete for scarce resources, how does a President serve the needs of all Americans?