Attending a Fourth of July fireworks display or flag waving parade as a child slightly increases the likelihood that that kid will grow up to vote Republican, according to a study by a team of Harvard University researchers.  
 

"One Fourth of July without rain before age 18 increases the likelihood of identifying as a Republican at age 40 by 2 percent, the share of people voting for the Republican candidate at age 40 by 4 percent, and the share of people turning out to vote at age 40 by 0.9 percent," the study concludes. 

 
As pointless as this study is, it does serve to provide more support to the belief that Republicans love their country more than Democrats do, perhaps explaining the irresponsible and counter-productive philosophy of our Democrat president.

As a member of the political party that actively sought defeat for the United States in Iraq in order to tarnish a sitting Republican president, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) now accuses Republicans of purposefully trying to sabotage the economy in order to win back the presidency in 2012.  Never mind that the Democrats, who controlled both houses and the presidency, failed to pass a budget since 2009 and have offered no workable plan to reduce the deficit or even cut spending without including massive tax increases.  Never mind that tax increases on even the wealthiest Americans, the “spending class” who already pay the overwhelming majority of income taxes to the Treasury, have historically slowed the economy.  And never mind that the Democrats were the stewards of the U.S. economy since January, 2007,  strangely enough, a time that most economists believe the economy began its freefall descent.

There is likely a reason why so many Democrats can assert this ridiculous notion while appearing to believe it.  Aside from the fact that so many of them are skilled liars, perhaps the Democrats' version of a dream economy is being sabotaged by the Republicans.  The Democrats tend to measure their success by government dependency and the Republicans seek to decrease it wherever they can.

The notion of reducing government spending and leaving more money in the private sector as “sabotaging” the economy is completely backwards.  Schumer was the first to publically go on record with this ridiculous assertion, but many in his party and in the media echoed his sentiments in quick lockstep obedience.  Saul Alinsky would be so proud. 

On the Climate Change front, as a guest on the left-leaning, Charlie Rose Show, Peter Seligmann, CEO of Conservation International actually defended his groups Draconian measures to reverse the change in the Earth’s temperatures by stating “science is a tool of ideology” and “science is part ideology.” 

When asked by Rose about the documents that exposed the world’s leading climate change hucksters as frauds, Seligmann answered “Let’s assume that there is only a 20% chance that climate change science is right, do you take the risk of not responding to it?”

 
Of course Seligmann’s response begged for the follow up question, which Charlie Rose never asked…”Would you risk placing the entire world economy into deep depression with skyrocketing food and energy prices and worldwide famine for a 20% chance of the Earth's temperature increasing by one degree in the next 100 years?”

Appearing on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe", Mark Halperin, senior political analyst at Time and MSNBC and co-author of the 2008 election composition “Game Change," sought to characterize the president's demeanor at a press briefing the previous day by calling Obama a “Dick.”   The obligatory suspension of Halperin, followed by his “heartfelt” apology to the president ensued.  Halperin said he “deeply regretted” his remark.  Halperin was coaxed into making the remark by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.   After Halperin hesitated to use his description of Obama, they assured him there would be a seven-second delay and he should proceed. 

Mark Halperin spent much of the 2008 presidential campaign with Barack Obama, and arguably knows him better than any other reporter.  If Halperin feels the way he does about Obama, he should not have to apologize for it.  In eight plus years George W. Bush was called far worse by the Left and public apologies where hard to imagine then.

A  CBS poll released this week showed that 39% of Americans believe the American economy is in permanent decline.  This poll exposes a sense of economic gloom in the United States even worse than during the Great Depression.  There have been three major domestic economic downturns since the Industrial Revolution; the Great Depression, the Carter Misery-Index economy, and the current Great Recession.  What makes the current crisis so gloomy to the American people is the absence of a positive, charismatic leader in the White House. 

During the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt may have made some atrocious economic decisions, but he never verbally dressed down his own nation in public.  During the height of the economic misery created by Jimmy Carter’s ineptitude, a newly elected Ronald Reagan reminded the American people of their greatness and vowed to change the economic direction of our great nation.  In every public address, Reagan instilled in people a great sense of American pride.

Barack Obama was handed an economic mess by any measure, created in large part by his own party’s policies of over-regulation of every business sector except the one that needed it most – the Democrat-created Fannie and Freddie mess.   Rather than take his cue from Roosevelt and Reagan by reassuring the nation whenever he could, Obama assailed the previous administration, blamed the nation’s producers and berated the United States in front of a worldwide audience. 

This CBS poll shows us that without leadership, there is little hope.